DankMaterialShell
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 12 of 24 desktop environments by recommenders
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.
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.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Pairs well with Niri compositor
“I love DankMaterialShell along with Niri, it's basically exactly what I had been wanting”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “The Dank Case for Scrolling Window Managers” “it's really cool being able to arbitrarily compose the desktop shell and the compositor”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Niri 26.04 was just released (scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor)” “Niri + Dank Material Shell is a different and mostly excellent approach”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Are we stuck with the same Desktop UX forever? [video]” - Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “The Dank Case for Scrolling Window Managers”
- Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop”
Adds bar, notifications and other components
“using Niri along with DankMaterialShell for configuration and launching apps lets you quickly put together a reasonably complete desktop”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “DankLinux Repository” “I use niri with the “dank material shell” desktop shell and get status bar, notifications, clock, suspend/resume, etc.”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root” “provides most or all of the additional components you might want on top of your compositor”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Niri 26.04 was just released (scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor)” Polished and kept up to date
“it is excellent— just keeps getting better with each release.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Niri 25.11 released with alt-tab and other improvements” “It's slick, modern, efficient, and up to date.”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Make Tmux the OS” “love the setup. It feels polished now”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years” Easy to set up
“works better on NixOS out of the box, making it easier to setup while highly configurable”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Noctia: A sleek and minimal desktop shell thoughtfully crafted for Wayland” “way much easier (for me at least) to set up”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Noctia: A sleek and minimal desktop shell thoughtfully crafted for Wayland”
Other desktop environments people recommend
The four most recommended other desktop environments, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KDE Plasma | 650 | 264 | 71% | 13 | 2 yrs79 owners | Approved |
| GNOME | 340 | 464 | 42% | 12 | 5 yrs29 owners | — |
| Xfce | 183 | 48 | 79% | 12 | 10 yrs29 owners | Approved |
| COSMIC desktop | 75 | 28 | 73% | 12 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| DankMaterialShellThis page | 10 | 2 | 83% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
17 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's slick, modern, efficient, and up to date.”
“I use niri with the “dank material shell” desktop shell and get status bar, notifications, clock, suspend/resume, etc.”
“It's perfect, and better than Omarchy from what I've seen.”
“The margins/padding on stuff and the sizing is very haphazard.”
“Niri witn Dank Materials Shell, etc.”
“it's really cool being able to arbitrarily compose the desktop shell and the compositor”
“provides most or all of the additional components you might want on top of your compositor”
“love the setup. It feels polished now”
“way much easier (for me at least) to set up”
“works better on NixOS out of the box, making it easier to setup while highly configurable”
“Dank can't configure the taskbar to have a dark background while the system stays in light mode.”
“The past month switched to Niri + DMS and I'm extremely happy”
“I love DankMaterialShell along with Niri, it's basically exactly what I had been wanting”
“Niri + DankMaterialShell is an amazing desktop experience.”
“Niri + Dank Material Shell is a different and mostly excellent approach”
“using Niri along with DankMaterialShell for configuration and launching apps lets you quickly put together a reasonably complete desktop”
“it is excellent— just keeps getting better with each release.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.