# DankMaterialShell

10 Hacker News commenters recommended DankMaterialShell and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a polished, easy-to-set-up desktop shell that supplies the bar, notifications and other parts missing from Niri. Critics note theming and spacing rough edges.

## Why people recommend it

- Pairs well with Niri compositor (5 comments): "I love DankMaterialShell along with Niri, it's basically exactly what I had been wanting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46820625)) "it's really cool being able to arbitrarily compose the desktop shell and the compositor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903380)) "Niri + Dank Material Shell is a different and mostly excellent approach" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46259100))
- Adds bar, notifications and other components (3 comments): "using Niri along with DankMaterialShell for configuration and launching apps lets you quickly put together a reasonably complete desktop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177987)) "I use niri with the “dank material shell” desktop shell and get status bar, notifications, clock, suspend/resume, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516409)) "provides most or all of the additional components you might want on top of your compositor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903312))
- Polished and kept up to date (3 comments): "it is excellent— just keeps getting better with each release." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46098861)) "It's slick, modern, efficient, and up to date." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49948350)) "love the setup. It feels polished now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47539884))
- Easy to set up (2 comments): "works better on NixOS out of the box, making it easier to setup while highly configurable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46841741)) "way much easier (for me at least) to set up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46843984))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [KDE Plasma](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kde-plasma.md): 650 recommend
- [GNOME](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnome.md): 340 recommend
- [Xfce](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xfce.md): 183 recommend
- [COSMIC desktop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmic-desktop-environment.md): 75 recommend
- [Cinnamon desktop environment](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cinnamon.md): 57 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "DankMaterialShell", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dankmaterialshell/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).