The Desktop Shuffle
I’ve used quite a few desktop environments and window managers. I’ve tried e17, Enlightenment, XFCE4, Openbox, Fluxbox, Gnome and KDE, and the one I keep coming back to? KDE. I don’t have a real valid reason, other than the fact that I just like how it feels. Fluxbox / Openbox are nice and lightweight, but the configuration files and piecing things together got to me. I do have a valid reason on why I chose KDE over Gnome, however. Options. Gnome, to me, seems very dumbed-down, which is what they might be going for. I like having configuration options readily available to me, and I don’t really like to go digging in a “registry” to find an obscure setting.
Overall, though, I use KDE because I like it. It’s the environment I always come back to, and it just works for me, which is all I need in my desktop. Here’s a shot of my desktop as of right now (click for full 1440×900 size):
What you see is the standard KDEmod theme, urxvt and Pidgin in the system tray. Nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done.