I chose Debian 12 as a solid and stable base. Which of these shipped DEs is the best for this particular laptop series and Windows 10 like user experience?
GNOME 43, KDE Plasma 5.27, LXDE 11, LXQt 1.2.0, MATE 1.26, Xfce 4.18
Don’t know the exact laptop model and year, but here are some specs: IdeaPad, only HDD, DVD drive, shipped with Win 8 or 10 (I think), unbearably slow on Win 10 currently
Use case: office, web, movies (not streaming), things for non-tech-savvy users
Personally, I’m using Arch btw with KDE Plasma 6 on Wayland, so I would prefer this over other DEs, but Debian still ships version 5. Has anyone experience with performance on an old Lenovo laptop with any of the listed environments?
If they’re used to Windows, then KDE Plasma would be the better option IMO. If you feel it’s too slow on an old laptop, then you can try Cinnamon or XFCE.
Cinnamon. Whenever I try something different I always come back. Stable, reliable, similar to Windows, but without all the unnecessary improvements.
Agreed. Putting plasma on your parents PC seems like a recipe to get calls like “I’ve accidentally removed my taskbar and I don’t know how to put it back!”
A system with a billion customisation options and the ability to really mess up your UX in just a couple of clicks is a blessing for power users and a curse for 70 year old Keith whose last PC was a Vista-era Compaq.
Cinnamon gives you a simple, easy to understand Windows UX, with far less room to go wrong.