1. XFCE Desktop
XFCE is one of the most popular lightweight Linux desktop environments around. This is because it seeks to a fairly rich user experience that is appealing and easy to use with minimal resource utilization. Xfce is the default desktop environment in Xubuntu, Linux Lite, Uberstudent, Manjaro Linux and Blackbox. It is probably the least lightweight on the list but then, it gives more features and customization than almost all of the others.
2. MATE
The MATE(MATE Advanced Traditional Environment) desktop environment is a fork of GNOME 2. MATE has been popularised mainly as an alternative to Cinnamon DE on Linux Mint. It is also available on Sabayon Linux, Fedora, SnowLinux 2 Cream and most recently with Ubuntu MATE.
3. LXDE/LXQt
LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) has been designed with very low resource usage. This is particularly ideal for computers with very low hardware specifications. LXQT is the latest version of LXDE written in Qt. It is the default with Linux distributions such as Knoppix, Lubuntu, LXLE Linux, Peppermint Linux OS. It is less user-friendly than MATE and Xfce but comes with all the features you would expect from a modern desktop environment.
4. Enlightenment
Enlightenment is a very eye-candy Linux desktop environment that is also lightweight resource use. It started as a window manager but it can now hold its own as a fully featured desktop environment.
5. iceWM (128 Mb)
iceWM is not exactly a desktop environment. It is a highly configurable standalone window manager. Also, another window manager that can stand its own as a barebones desktop environment. It is designed to be small, fast and fully compliant with a lot of standards. iceWM is the default window manager/DE on Absolute Linux and Lightweight Portable Security.
Conclusion
Linux has for a long time reached and even surpassed the feature quality of Windows and MacOS when it comes to the desktop environments (Unity, GNOME 3 and KDE). But there are times these fancy DEs won’t play nice with your hardware especially for old computers (ones that came with XP). Other times, you just need something that works without getting in the way. And these lightweight Linux desktop environments have been developed with exactly this in mind. If you happen to be on the look for a lightweight Linux distro for old computers, make sure to check out this previous article which looks at some popular lightweight Linux distros. Did I leave out any lightweight distro? Kindly share in the comments and share this article with your friends.
