LXDE
Ranked 17 of 24 desktop environments by recommenders
People recommend LXDE as a lightweight Linux desktop that suits old machines and stays simpler than KDE. Some find it bland.
People recommend LXDE as a lightweight Linux desktop that suits old machines and stays simpler than KDE. Some find it bland.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Lightweight, runs well on old machines
“which are very good lightweight out of the box user friendly DEs”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Can I start using Wayland in 2026?” “Also try LXDE and LXQT if you would like a 'lighter KDE' vibe”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “XFCE Is Great” “my favourite environments for lightweight use”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years” - Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “XFCE Is Great”
Simpler than KDE
“Moved to lxde because kde got too complex and hard to deal with”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)” “Also try LXDE and LXQT if you would like a 'lighter KDE' vibe”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “XFCE Is Great”
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 |
| LXDEThis page | 8 | 1 | 89% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Now it's just bland lxde.”
“whether you really need XFCE or whether LXDE would be enough”
“my favourite environments for lightweight use”
“High framerate, vsync/tear-free and high dpi work fine.”
“The Linux desktop environment I use (LXDE) is not perfect, but it hits fewer issues than Mac OS.”
“XFCE and LXDE are saviors for old machines.”
“Also try LXDE and LXQT if you would like a 'lighter KDE' vibe”
“which are very good lightweight out of the box user friendly DEs”
“Moved to lxde because kde got too complex and hard to deal with”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.