Linux Distributions and Desktop Environments

Updated 20 December 2025

This page will never be completed. I'll be adding my thoughts about various Linux distributions and desktop environments to the article as I experience them.

I usually don't have problems installing Ubuntu-based distributions as virtual machines. Although I haven't attempted anything based on Fedora, I've had difficulties with installing some Arch-based distributions.

CachyOS

CachyOS is one of many Linux distributions based on Arch Linux, with the same rolling-release model. I installed it in a virtual machine, which hung during booting, so I installed in on a portable solid-state drive.

The first thing I noticed when I was installing it is that it doesn't create a swap file or swap partition. It relies solely on zram to handle swapping. Physical swap space, necessary only for hibernation, can be added manually. I recently changed my current distribution to use zram only, if only to see how long it can last without physical swap space.

The second thing I noticed when I was installing it as a virtual machine was the large list of desktop environments to choose from. I selected COSMIC as it was the first stable release (December 2025) from System76, for the Pop!_OS distribution (see below).

KDE Plasma

The KDE Plasma desktop environment looks nice, but it has way more configuration items than the Cinnamon desktop environment. The Debian and Ubuntu repository versions are always behind. KDE Plasma is in constant development, and up-to-date on Arch-based distributions.

I don't know if the current version is like this, but I examined earlier version 6 releases, and found out that desktop applications had italic text below them. Who thought that was a good idea? I fixed it.

Edit: /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment/contents/ui/FolderItemDelegate.qml

Comment out this line (using //):

font.italic: model.isLink

Log out and log back in to see the change.

Pop!_OS

Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu, but the COSMIC desktop environment is developed by System76. From my experience, desktop environments work best when developed by the same team that maintains the distribution. This is the case here.

That's the reason I use the Cinnamon desktop environment with Linux Mint. The Linux Mint team develops it. It takes a lot of work to get Cinnamon on other distributions to look like it does on Linux Mint.

I had no issues installing Pop!_OS in a virtual machine. COSMIC looks nice and modern and easy to use. I have no doubt that it will improve over time. Pop!_OS doesn't use Ubuntu Snaps for packaging, which is a plus in my book.