Have you ever gotten frustrated about something Windows does? Normally, if you don't like something, from the Start menu to the File Manager, you usually have to install a third-party app to accomplish the task. Which isn't ideal, because if Microsoft updates Windows with something that messes with it, or it just decides it doesn't like third-party options anymore, everything breaks again.

The good news isthat there are operating systems available that officially support customizing your desktop the way you want it, even revamping the entire look and feel with justa couple of clicks. The bad news is, as you might have guessed from the title, it's Linux. The operating system is Linux.

Well, if you haven't closed the tab already, that means you're at least a little bit interested in learning more. So, let's hop into the world of desktop environments and see what they can do that Windows could never.

A brief breakdown of desktop environments

And why even Windows fanboys can love them

Linux does things a little differently from Windows. Instead of sticking with a single look and feel, distributions can use different themes that revamp the appearance of your desktop. These are called "desktop environments," and picking your favorite one is a huge part of finding your home on Linux.

What's important to note about desktop environments is that they aren't completely different operating systems from one another. Instead, they act like a lick of paint on top of the operating system itself. The core remains, and all your files are still intact, but things look and feel different. This also means you can install multiple desktop environments and switch between them as needed, which feels like you're using a whole new computer but without losing your data.

You can grab desktop environments in one of two ways. First, you can sometimes download your OS of choice with the desktop environment bundled in. For my PC, I chose the Fedora operating system, but I specifically chose the "KDE Plasma" variant (known as a 'spin'), which comes with KDE Plasma pre-installed. Second, you can just tell your OS to download and install one. For Fedora, I can see the desktop environments I can install with the command:

sudo dnf group list --available

And I can install desktop environments with the command:

sudo dnf install @desktopenvironmentname

....but these commands will change depending on which distro you use.

Take a peek at the screenshot above; that's a desktop environment called GNOME. This is what you'll see if you download the standard version of Fedora. I'm now going to show off different desktop environments, which will look quite radically different from GNOME. However, remember that these will not be completely different operating systems; they're just new environments! The core for each one is the exact same Fedora install; it just looks different. In fact, I don't even need to restart my PC to change the environment; I can just log out and change it via a button at the bottom left of the login screen.

Fedora Cinnamon

A strong Windows feel, and perfect for beginners

Welcome to Cinnamon. See what I mean about the "looks like a different operating system" thing? Believe it or not, this is the exact same PC we saw running GNOME earlier. All I did was log out, select Cinnamon as my desktop environment, and log in again: it took all of ten seconds.

I had downloaded it before using the command:

sudo dnf install @cinnamon-desktop

...so be sure to keep that on hand if you want it yourself on a Fedora system.

Cinnamon is often suggested to newcomers coming over from Windows, and for good reason. It has all of your common, familiar Windows UI designs, so you're not thrown into the deep end. In fact, if you've ever heard anyone recommending Linux Mint as a good operating system for Windows users, it's partially because Mint comes with Cinnamon as its default desktop environment. Because desktop environments are just a lick of paint, we can slap it on this Fedora system just fine.

Fedora XFCE

Mixing things up a little

Perhaps you want to take the opportunity to check out a different look and feel for Windows? Fortunately, there are desktop environments that don't follow Microsoft's design ideas. Take XFCE, for instance; this one adds a little dock at the bottom and a bar at the top. I actually hadn't used XFCE before, but after running:

sudo dnf install @xfce-desktop-environment

...in the terminal, I got it downloaded and ready to go. Then I just had to do the login swap method I used earlier. It really is that easy to just swap out environments on the fly.

Alright, you've put up with me for this long, so it's time I rolled out my "ol' reliable" choice for Fedora.

Fedora KDE Plasma

My home away from Windows

And here we are, my personal favorite desktop environment. As you may recall from earlier, I had actually downloaded the KDE Plasma version for my first Fedora installation, so it appeared out of the box just as it is now. No additional downloads were needed; I just had to tweak it until it looked the way I wanted.

Plasma has it all for me. It has a ton of customizability, it brings in some new features (like KDE Connect, which syncs my phone's notifications to my computer), and it looks sleek. It honestly checks all the boxes that I wanted, and I highly recommend Plasma for people trying to escape Windows.

Desktop environments do what Windon't

I hope even the most stalwart Windows defender can see the value of desktop environments. Having a ton of options at your fingertips and switching between them on a whim really helped me settle on Linux as my new home. If you ever find yourself over on the open-source side, give them a go!