I have a small list of things i always do to make my WM or DE more suited to the way I work.
That is very basic.
What do other linux users do.?
I leave mine pretty vanilla. I had AI help me write a background switcher that works similarly to John’s Background Switcher. It was fun.
I only install a few apps and set up my desktop the way I want to see it.
On my desktop I always has Computer, Home, Disks and pCloud icons.
The taskbar is always on the bottom and I install a background that I like.
Move the Window control widgets to the left (like on MacOS and Ubuntu Unity)…
SET DARK MODE ON!!!
It’s usually Ubuntu with Gnome - so I install Gnome Tweaks and Gnome Extensions manager - then I install Gnome Dash2Dock extension - which converts the Ubuntu Gnome DASH (default on the left side) to a “dynamic dock” (vs a static panel like in XFCE) at the bottom… Dynamic as in the same icon will launch or task switch… *
I usualy also bump up the size of the icons in the dock - 48 or highter… usually 64 (as I’m on a 31.5" QHD monitor) which is about the default size of dock icons on MacOs too…
Sometimes I’ll install some themes (but it’s confusing, sometimes they need to go in /usr/share/themes, sometimes they work in ~/.themes, or is it ~/.config/themes ? ~/.share/themes? )… But mostly Adwaita overwrites any theming on native Adwaita styled apps - so it’s mostly pointless…
Given I use Mac as well - making Linux look and feel a bit like MacOs is high priority for me…
I don’t usually spend much time customising much else - usually add a few gnome extensions - here’s the ones I use :
* the bottom panel in default “vanilla” XFCE doesn’t show running applications - it shows them in the top panel instead - I don’t like that… And they’re wide with a tiny icon (too small to properly/easily identify and the application name next to that)
I don’t like that at all - so if I’m running XFCE - I’ll usually kill the bottom panel, and disable the task switcher at top and install Plank as my bottom dock…
I forgot that … yes I like a dark theme too.
I use my customs Sway config on all my computers. If I use ad full DE I don’t modify them. Cinnamon and KDE are ok, Gnome is awful IMO.
I always use KDE Plasme Desktop with a dark mode and most of the time i use a space picture wallpaper and i like my taskbar on the top and i always make the font size 1 size lager than default and i make the taskbar 40 height so the icons get bigger and some times i choose another set of mouse icons also dark.
My changes are minimal. I like the lmde desktop format, except the picture so that normally goes to a Greek sea scape. The menu button has the word menu alongside and then the apps I use are on the desktop and on the bar along the bottom. Very old fashioned but easy for me a man of habits
Does anyone use an unusual DE … eg Trinity, Enlightenment, Lumina ?
Why are we all so mainstream?
Well i for one use Kde because i realy like it. Cinnamon is ok to mainstream has nothing to do with it i choose what i like. And to be honest i dont think i have tried all desktops that is aviable but so far i do realy like Kde Plasma. And i agree with ihasama Gnome is awful .
Been having a blast of late, changing Icon colors and making them stand out. I use Erik Dubois Sardi-Ghost-Flexible Icon theme, which has scripts to change the colors. I went a step further this week though. Through GIMP 3.2 gave them a shadow. Firefox and System-File-Manager below in blue, there are a total of four different colored Icons I have made, primarily for MX-Linux, but work well in any Linux environment.
I make my own wallpapers for every Distro I look at in VMware, or on real hardware. Not only Icon themes I muck around with, but made my own GTK Themes too, to go along with the colored Icons.
Based on Orchis Theme, but added the Xfwm4 to them, as otherwise just the same GTK decorations through out all four different color schemes. You’ll notice that when mouse is hovered over close window button it changes to the theme color, in all of the Terminal pictures. I have Flameshot set as default screenshot tool, plus Xbanish seems to be doing it’s job in hiding my cursor.
All windows have a border round them. I use my own themes in Linux Mint, as I hate the default ones that come with Mint, as they have undershoot lines going through every theme. Below are pictures of my panel with Xfce4-docklike-plugin. Transparent panels that hide away, hate clutter on the desktop, as it takes longer to boot, if you have thumbnails having to load up on boot. So all I have is four panels that flash up, upon booting.
Starting from left to right, Firefox, Nemo, Xed (Text-Editor), Handbrake, Gcolor2, Inkscape, Audacity, Davinci Resolve 21 Studio, GIMP 3.2, OBS-Studio, Celluloid, Clipgrab, VMware, Terminal, Synaptic and finally Thunderbird.
I customize the hell outta my desktop, simply because having it this way makes me feel good, able to get work done more efficiently. I pick and choose what color I want to go for, depending on how I’m feeling. The great thing about these Icons is they are not big in storage size, neither are the GTK Themes. I have renamed the Icon Themes to Slims-Ghost-Grey, Slims-Ghost-Orange, Slims-Ghost-Blue and Slims-Ghost-Red. I won’t be releasing them, as they are for me.
As Erik Dubois has released them and he says do what you want with them. I use Kernel Liquorix 7.0 Kernel. If I was to upgrade to 22.3 I would have the latest Liquorix 7.1 Kernel, but I don’t like the fact that Linux Mint made the decision to remove proper back and forward arrows, instead they have half triangles as arrows, which to me look ugly.
In Arch Xfce it is the norm to have these half triangles too, so will be looking into changing the default symbolic-icons back to proper arrows in Kiro-Linux- Xfce, Erik Dubois project. Plus I could in Mint 22.3 too. Everything I chuck at Mint or at Linux in general, it just keeps saying yes. The versatility of Linux is amazing and why should we be stuck to the way the Dev’s want us to use Linux?
Linux is all about freedom and we the users are in charge, not anybody else. Below is a picture of my clock, Pulse, Network, Update panel. Xfce is so customizable, so back in Peppermint OS days Mark Greaves introduced me to this script to put in your clock settings and in Whiskermenu too. I will explain what each command does. I use Vibrocentric-Bold-Italic Font for this to work, first of all the picture.
Here is the script I use for the clock, that goes into clock properties, when you right click it.
<span foreground=”F7E0E1” font_desc=”vibrocentric bold italic 27”>%R </span>
foreground=“color” font_desc=“font you wanna use then the size” %R is 24hr clock.
In Whiskermenu on the appearance tab, in right click properties, you can put the above code in, but instead of %R, change it to Menu, Apps, Applications, Oh look this where I go. You can change the font size too.
Majority of you wouldn’t need this explanation, but for those that may, there you go.
The reason why I shadowed the icons, is because my eye sight is getting bad. Anyway I think that is all, sorry for the Lord of The Rings Epic Novel sized reply. 
I’d probably use elementary’s Pantheon desktop if it was easy to install on a non “elementary” DE… It’s nice, minimalist…
I’ve tried KDE a bunch of times - but always hated how much it seems like another DE from Redmont in Washington State (i.e. “microsoft”)…
Gnome is the easiest path to a MacOS “look and feel”…
My Linux DE’s in order of preference :
and yeah - I’m still not ready for Wayland… a shame really… but I paid for Synergy KVM and not about to drop it so I can use Wayland…
I use Xfce and have been for many years, using gruvbox for all my themes. The main config changes are to compositor, I use picom mainly for rounded corners. and as for xfce-panel, I don’t use a app launcher, I use the right-click menu or plank dock. My default terminal is kitty/zsh, but xfce-terminal is set to bash.
I stopped customizing years ago. When I was using KDE, especially, I practically performed surgery on my desktop environment. Even GNOME with numerous extensions, or ricing Cinnamon, even my attempts to manipulate the UI of my tiler (when I tried tiling). After years of broken software after updates, I just came to the conclusion it wasn’t worth it. Now, I use GNOME (the default version that comes with Ubuntu) that has two extensions and go minimalist.
I don’t customize all that much. Most of the time the applications I’m using are one a full-screen window and I switch between them using alt-tab, which is normal. The only thing I really changed was the icon theme – for better clarity – and turning on dark mode. Other than that, the desktop is fine as it is.
EDIT: I just added a weather widget. It tells me what I already know 
Dont be apologising, that is brilliant and exactly what the topic was looking for.
I love it, but I simpiy dont have the time for that amount of custom.
Workspaces would do that well.
Is Sway a tiling thing like i3?
Tell us X11 hangers-on what it is like.?
Your Xfce looks radically different to mine. It is very customisable.
Very interesting. Workspaces is the best way to keep track of the flow. MX works best for me with the panel on top rather than on the left; in fact, a panel at the top is my standard fix for any distro. AND TURN OFF DARK MODE!
