I feel a little unsatisfied with my previous linux distro tier list, so I've decided to put together a bigger, more up-to-date tier list representing my feelings towards not only various linux distros but also desktops, window managers, and compositors. Seeing as I didn't want each list to be cluttered, this post will include two tier lists, one for distros, and one for DEs, WMs, and compositors. I hope that you enjoy reading my unsolicited linux opinions for the dozenth time :D. To start, here's my distro tier list, updated, and with more distros than before:
S+:
Debian:I've said it before and I'll say it again: Debian is the GOAT. You cannot beat it in terms of stability, reliability, and dependability. Although I love tinkering (I wouldn't have linux as a hobby if that weren't the case), there are situations, such as with work and grad school, where I just need something that works, and won't break on me in the middle of an assignment or task, and Debian has been and likely always will be that for me. Although its packages aren't the latest-and-greatest, the ability to have a system that I can set it and forget it while getting all my real work done distraction-free is invalubale for me.
Arch:Somewhat the exact opposite of Debian, Arch is right up there as the secondary GOAT for me. If I need an up-to-date system for bleeding edge work, and I want to tinker to my heart's content, Arch is perfect for me. Although it gives you immense freedom, it does not do so to the detriment of convenience for me. Without arch install, installing arch generally doesn't take more than an hour for me, and with, it takes barely 2 minutes, and in that relatively little amount of time, I am able to make a system that fits my needs perfectly. That being said, Arch does break, and because of that, I don't rely on it for work and school, but instead use it for systems that I am willing to spend the time to fix if something goes wrong.
S:
Antix:If I need something to either be unreasonably fast, or have hardware that is old enough to remember 9/11, Antix is my go-to, specifically with IceWM. I love the minimal desktop, yet it includes a surprisingly large number of tools that I use constantly and would want to install anyway, all without sacrificing the speed, and usability on old hardware. Beyond that, its base system components are no more complex than they need to be, but not so simple that they aren't usable, making it an easy drop-in system that even linux novices can use with relative ease.
MX Linux:Very similar to Antix, but with the default XFCE desktop that is configured to look really pretty by my tastes, MX is a great alternative to Antix if I am running on a system that can handle just the slightest bit more juice than what Antix can work on.
TinyCore:This system feels like magic to me. If I have a system that remembers the cuban missle crisis, TinyCore will somehow work even better than whatever OS it originally came with. I've seen TinyCore working on Pentiums from the late 1990s, and it never fails to impress me. It may be outdated in appearance, but none of that matters to me when a system runs that well on hardware that has no business running modern software.
Linux Mint:A fantastic Ubuntu derrivative that gives you Ubuntu without snap packages, Mint is generally what I install on computers for people who have never used linux. As I mentioned in my previous tier list, Mint currently lives on my grandparents' computer that was previously running Windows 7, and they genuinely cannot tell the difference between windows 7 and it in respect to general functionality, as it does everything that Windows did for them. Because of that, Mint always ranks highly in my mind.
Tails:Although I don't have an immediate need for this OS like journalists and activitists might, it is an invaluable tool in reporting on and fighting tyranny across the world, and beyond those more lofty functions, Tails in general is very useful if you need a system that will not store anything you did while you used it, and that is very easy to shut down with a simple yank of a usb if you need to, which although not essential for me at this time, is essential for a lot of important work.
Qubes:Similarly useful to Tails, but as a main system rather than a temporary distro used over a usb, Qubes is invaluable for the way in which it ensures privacy better than any other distro aside from Tails. The way it works is you get different VMs that isolate the different functions you would perform on the system, so if you have some hackerman work to do, you open up the hackerman "qube", which remains entirely separate from your listening to music qube, thus preventing those lives from mixing. This added security is fantastic, and if you need it, there's no other system that makes this level of virtualization nearly as convenient.
Raspbian:Raspbian is my go-to OS for raspberry pis, and it is light enough to handle the low-spec hardware of the raspberry pi effortlessly. It is also a variant of my beloved Debian.
gentoo and LFS tier:
Gentoo:I don't personally like gentoo, but have a great deal of respect for it. Because of that, I am not gonna place gentoo in the spot it would be if this list were purely a description of my taste, and not additionally a description of ideology, and instead have made it and LFS their own tiers. I am very happy that gentoo exists, I am not taking the time to compile every single package from source.
Linux From Scratch:Similar to gentoo in that it gives you more freedom than any other system, but I do not have the patience for it, and as a result, it belongs here.
A:
Fedora:An otherwise fantastic distro that I rank slightly lower because of its status as a corporate distro, as well as its reliance upon its own flatpak repo that sucks as compared to the mainline flathub. What I love about the main fedora workstation is the default, super fast Gnome implementation, as Gnome is my favorite desktop, and it provides a good base by which to use Gnome (although I would prefer to just use Debian or Arch). Ultimately, the dnf package manager is not so great as to justify the use of fedora as my daily driver, and it breaks enough that I would not use it on machines I need to work 100% of the time. All the same, a great distro that belongs at the top of the A tier.
Ubuntu:Me and Ubuntu, like many Linux users, have some serious history. Like an Ex that I still hook up with from time to time, I just can't kick Ubuntu. Sure, snaps aren't great, its another corporate distro, and canonical has made some pretty terrible decisions in the past, but I just can't stay mad at him. The Gnome variant that it uses is the prettiest desktop in my opinion, and I always end up making my Gnome setup look like Ubuntu on my systems in the end, snaps have genuinely gotten better, such that they are nearly as fast and solid as flatpaks, and the level of community support found in Ubuntu is second-to-none. Because of that, Ubuntu is a fantastic choice as a first distro, and will always have a warm place in my heart.
SteamOS:A great distro that has done more to grow the linux desktop than almost any other in the past 10 years with the Steam Deck. I absolutely love my Deck, and SteamOS gives me everything I need to make it my favorite console. That being said, it is another corporate distro, and Valve has not done enough to make it more freely available, and as such, it will not leave A tier.
Puppy Linux:Another system that I have a lot of history with, puppy was one of the first distros that I used on my old laptop when the (at the time) newest version of Ubuntu was too much for it to handle, and as such, I have a lot of positive feelings towards puppy. That being said, it running everything as root by default is kinda dumb, and I wish it didn't do that.
Ubuntu MATE:I love MATE, and I love Ubuntu, but it has all the same pitfalls of Ubuntu proper, but with a desktop that I like a less than Gnome, and as a result it stays in A tier, but lower within it.
Peppermint OSA great choice for low-spec systems, but one that I don't have a lot of experience with, so without more time with it, I don't think I can rank it any higher, but this is subject to change as I use it more and get more familiar with it.
Xubuntu:Like Ubuntu MATE, I really like XFCE, just not as much as MATE and Gnome, so it ranks a little lower than those two.
Kubuntu: Same as before, but I rank KDE below Gnome, MATE, and XFCE (one of my hotter takes)
B:
Pop!_OS:This system has so much potential, and I WISH I could love it, but it just isn't there. As far as corporate distros go, System76 is solid, and the COSMIC desktop looks really great, but the system is just so outdated. When an Ubuntu variant that is not as stable as Debian is more outdated than Debian is, you have a serious problem, and Pop!_OS is YEARS out of date. I understand they are putting a lot of time and resources towards COSMIC, but until it releases, Pop!_OS just isn't as good as other systems that are either more stable, more up-to-date, or both. I mean, just to put things into perspective: the current release of Pop!_OS is 22.04, based on Ubuntu 22.04, which came out in 2022. It is 2025, and we are currently on Ubuntu 25.04. That is just too old for a system that doesn't have the stability of a system like Debian. I truly do not know why you wouldn't just use Ubuntu proper, or the far more up-to-date and better Linux Mint. That being said, I want to love it, because if it was more up-to-date, it would be an easy A or even S tier, but the lack of updates brings it down dramatically.
Kali Linux:Another distro I have history with (as I'm sure anyone who used to be a kid who was into cyber does), and it is a solid option, with frequent enough updates, and plenty of really useful tools preinstalled. That being said, it doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from Ubuntu or Debian to justify itself in my opinion, as if you know how to use the tools that are preinstalled on Kali, it probably makes more sense to set them up on a distro that is a little less bloated. As a generalist cyber distro, it has most everything you could want, but has a LOT of redundancy, as it wants to have everything you might use, and everything you might not. Due to this, I think running a Debian-based distro that you've put only what you need on makes more sense.
ParrotOS:Same opinion as Kali, Parrot is good, and gives you a lot of the tools you would need in cyber, and is a little less bloated. I do not have history with it, however, and because of that it ranks a little bit lower than Kali subjectively for me, although realistically, they may as well be interchangable for me.
C:
Ubuntu Unity:I wish I could love the Unity desktop, as it was the first desktop I daily drove back in 2014-2016, but it really isn't that viable today. It doesn't have much support, is very out dated, and lacks a lot of functionality that other nostalgic distros like Ubuntu MATE have, and because of that, the best I can put it is in C tier, but I want to put it higher.
Lubuntu:The opposite of Ubuntu Unity, I do not like LxQT personally, so I am putting it here not because it is an Ubuntu variant that is not well supported, but because it is not my thing. I personally prefer the GTK framework as opposed to QT, and because of that, I like MATE more.
Endeavour OS:A fine system for those that want Arch without installing Arch, but I generally think that it is a good idea to learn how to install Arch if you want to get into Linux, and archinstall is honestly even more convenient and gives you more choices than Endeavour does, so I don't personally care for it very much. I don't really understand why you wouldn't just use Arch, although it is better than Manjaro.
Slackware:Just too outdated for me, Slackware although important historically, and I know well loved by those that use it, it just is a little too old for my taste. Debian is about as "stable" as I am willing to go, and Slackware just isn't for me. I respect it, but it doesn't really offer me anything that other distros don't offer me more of. Like Pop!_OS, their last release was in 2022, and even then it was not as well supported and popular as other options like Debian, so it really does not do it for me.
D:
DeepIn:DeepIn really just serves as the distro for which the DeepIn Desktop is showcased, and I do not like the DeepIn Desktop at all. It is like if you took Gnome, made it uglier in my opinion, less functional,and removed what few options for customization Gnome offers. I get that a lot of people like it aesthetically, and its nice to have a distro being made outside of the west (global linux adoption FTW), but I just do not like it. It goes for a Gnome-like look without the Gnome functionality and support.
Elementary OS:Just like Pop!_OS, Slackware, and so many others, it just doesn't have the support to be very useful for me, and unlike those, the Pantheon desktop just feels unfinished to me, which is bizarre considering how long its been around. I can make Gnome look and function like Pantheon while working even better. Hell, I can make XFCE look and function better than Pantheon, and it would even run better.
F-:
ZorinOS:Not as pretty of a Gnome variant as Ubuntu, and it has a pro variant that costs money. I am ideologically opposed to that. Sure, Ubuntu has a pro version that coprorate users need to pay for, but individual people do not, and because of that, it doesn't feel as icky to me.
Manjaro:I hate Manjaro. Its unstable, despite trying to be a stable version of Arch, it gives you access to the AUR but doesn't teach you how to use the AUR responsibly, and fundamentally is less convenient and useful as arch installed with archinstall. It serves zero purpose to me, and I just do not understand why it exists, nor why people like it.
And now, onto the DEs, WMs, and Compositors:
S+
Gnome:My GOAT, and the Desktop that I run on most all of my systems, I fucking love Gnome. Its just so pretty, the workflow feels exactly right for me, the gestures with trackpads are second-to-none, even beyond the linux world, and I absolutely love the minimalist look of the GTK framework. There's a reason that I run Gnome on every system that I have that is fast enough to handle it, which most every modern computer is. Although it isn't as customizable as KDE, unlike KDE, I don't feel the need to customize it much when I first install it.
MATE:Another GOAT, MATE is the definition of nostalgic for me, as right alongside the Unity desktop, I used Gnome 2 on tons of systems, and I absolutely love it. It may be outdated, but it runs on pretty much anything, and looks and feels fantastic for me personally.
i3:My personal favorite tiling WM, i3 has basically limitless flexibility, and runs on absolutely anything. Sure, it is X11, which is going the way of the dodo, but it is fast, infinitely customizable, and super cozy for me personally.I imagine that i3 was a lot of people's first tiling window manager, and it absolutely was for me, so it has a special place in my heart. That being said, I don't generally use tiling window managers all that much, since I've found a combo of floating and manual tiling is my prefered means of interfacing with my computers, I still love i3.
S:
IceWM:Will work on anything, and brings me back to my very first operating system, Windows 98. Sure, that itself is somewhat if a description of it being outdated, but you kind have to be to be able to run on so many low-spec systems, and to me, a lot of "outdated" design languages are not actually oudated, just out of style, and for me, IceWM is cool no matter what decade it is.
Hyprland:I would place Hyprland higher, but I think the people who run it are assholes. There is no prettier and easier to configure auto tiler, and it is on wayland, which is a plus. That being said, I do feel like Hyprland is a little bit bloated as compared to i3, or awesomeWM (which again is kind of necessary for it to be as pretty as it is), and if I am using a tiling window manager I'm using it for the purpose of digital minimalism, and Hyprland is very much not that. However, I cannot deny that I love it, and use it on several computers due to just how pretty and functional it is as an autotiler.
awesomeWM:awesomeWM is another WM that I super love due to its ease of configuration. awesomeWM uses Lua as its scripting language for configuring the system, and my familiarity with Lua makes it a great desktop for me to use, esepcially on Debian systems. I can make awesomeWM work just how I like it, and with minimal effort, as it uses a language that I am so familiar with.
Qtile:another great tiling window manager with super easy configuration, only Qtile uses Python, which I am even more familiar with than Lua, and as such its configuration is even easier. To be honest, awesome and Qtile are interchangable on this list for me, but I like the name awesomeWM more, so I ranked it higher. Like awesome, I can very easily make Qtile work exactly how I want it to because the python configuration is so easy.
XFCE:Another really nostalgic one for me, XFCE is fantastic as it has the flexibility of a system like KDE, but with the ability to run on significantly more low-spec hardware options than KDE. Although it does look outdated by default, XFCE can be made to look very pretty with relatively little effort, and has fantastic baseline functionality as a desktop. In fact, one of the better ways of working with i3 is to use XFCE as the desktop, and i3 as the window manager, as done by the YouTuber LivaKivi. XFCE is super easy to configure, and works great on slow machines, which is pretty much all I want in it as a desktop
KDE:I love KDE, don't get me wrong, I just don't care for the KDE toolkit as compared to Gnome's, and I prefer systems that can intergrate a bit better with the GTK. Still, I cannot deny just how fantastic KDE is as a desktop, as it gives so much ease of customization that even those who have never used Linux before can make their system incredibly personalized. Beyond that, the system just looks super pretty by default (even if it does emulate Windows by default, which I do not care for, since I prefer the MacOS aesthetic personally, but it is super easy to make KDE look dramatically different, so its not really an issue).
A:
Cinnamon:Much like KDE, Cinnamon provides a ton of flexibility within super easy GUIs that allow people to make their system look pretty much however they want to. That being said, it has some weird compatibility issues on systems that aren't linux mint in my experience, and I still reliably get screen tearing on the UI elements even on native Mint systems sometimes, which I just don't get on KDE or Gnome, which I would say are the other two most popular of the "set it and forget it" DEs. Still, Cinnamon is a great desktop, and I actively enjoy using it.
Wayfire:Wayfire is just really cool. Although I haven't used it much because I can't be fucked, I have seen some seriously impressive looking and functioning systems made with Wayfire, and I really like it in theory. It is not any higher as I do not have enough experience with it.
Fluxbox:Very much in the same vein as IceWM, but one that I have not used nearly as much. It might be an S tier, but I just don't have the experience with it to say for certain. That being said, if I use it more, it might end up in S tier.
Sway:Sway is a drop-in replacement for i3 but on Wayland, which is super cool, as I love i3, and Wayland is the future, but I just don't have the experience with it to rank it higher. I've used it a bit, and it seems just as good as i3, but since I don't have all that much experience with it, I can't rank it any higher. That being said, it very easily could be placed in S+ if I have more time to confirm that it really is just as good as i3, just on wayland.
B:
JWM:I've used it a little bit on Antix, and didn't see too too much difference between it and IceWM, but I prefer IceWM for its configuration, and my experience with it. This WM could go up on the list once I get more experience with it, but for now it stays here.
Trinity:Trinity is to KDE what MATE is to Gnome 2, and as such, I have a lot of respect for it as a project. That being said, I never used KDE in the era that Trinity is emulating, so I don't have nostalgia for it, nor do I have the comfort with that workflow that I do with MATE.
PIXEL:The Raspbian DE, PIXEL has a lot in common with LXDE as it was branched off of it, and it also is functionally similar to MATE. Even though I placed Raspbian in S tier, the DE that it has is B tier as I don't care for LXDE personally. LXDE is not on this list, but if it was, it would be in D tier with LXQT.
C:
Unity:I talked a lot about Unity and how much I wish it was better than it is in the Unity desktop section of the previous list, so I won't rehash all that. Instead, I'll just say that Unity could be right up there with MATE, but isn't.
Enlightenment:I've used Enlightenment a bit on a chromebook with just 15 gbs of space, and it works well for that purpose. It lacks a lot of what I would call necessary functionality, however, and I honestly think that IceWM does what Enlightenment is aiming for, but better. Beyond that, Enlightenment makes some strange design decisions that are a little goofy to me, like having a bouncing blue box when you mouse over a resizable window, or how you have to hover over an icon to pull up an already opened program that is pinned to the dock, but if you just click that icon, it will launcher a second copy of that program, which just doesn't seem very useful for me. I'd rather it function like other desktops, where if you want a second window, you can right click on it for more options, since I want to open a closed window a lot more often than I want two windows of the same program opened.
Budgie:Love the name, don't care for the desktop. In fairness, I have barely used it, but from the time that I have used it, it just wasn't my thing, and felt fairly average as desktops go.
D:
DeepIn:I explained my reasoning in the DeepIn section of the distro tier list, so I won't repeat other than to say DeepIn bad.
LXQT:I get why people like LXQT, but I just don't. It has some inconsistencies in the design language it uses, the theming never seemed to work right for me, its functionality is lacking for my purposes, and I just don't like how it looks.
F:
Pantheon:The DE of Elementary OS, Pantheon feels like it is always trying to emulate whatever MacOS looked like 10 years before whatever is the latest release of Pantheon. As such, the current version of Deepin honestly looks more like MacOS El Capitan than anything else, but lacks A LOT of the function of El Capitan. Beyond that, it feels like if you want a desktop that functions similarly to MacOS, Gnome is infinitely better, and more up-to-date. This is the only desktop that I will say I truly just cannot use for an extended period of time before I immediately want it gone.
Conclusions and such:
With that, the update to my linux distro tier list is done. I hope that none of my opinions made you too upset, nor that they were too stupid. I love Linux, and no matter what you use, I am happy to have more people using FOSS operating systems and environments!!! Much love from your girl Zaz <3