Linux desktop

LXQt is where the word ‘theme’ is most likely to hide three unrelated systems. Its panel and desktop use an LXQt QSS theme, Qt applications use a Qt style such as Fusion, Breeze or Kvantum, and window borders belong to whichever window manager or Wayland compositor you chose. A coherent LXQt setup is therefore a... » read more

MATE preserves the GNOME 2 workflow, but it is not frozen GNOME 2 code. The desktop now uses GTK 3, Marco maintains Metacity-compatible decorations, and Wayland support is arriving component by component. Its theme model remains pleasantly legible: widgets, window borders, icons, cursors and panel layout are separate things. The three diagrams in this article... » read more

Xfce looks simple because it does not hide its modules. The same modularity explains its most common theme complaint: changing Appearance styles the applications but may leave the titlebars untouched. Xfwm4 draws those separately. Once that split is clear, Xfce is one of the easiest desktops to theme, back up and automate. The three diagrams... » read more

Plasma is the desktop for people who want every visible part to be replaceable. That freedom has a cost: a ‘theme’ may mean a color scheme, a Plasma Style, a Qt widget style, an Aurorae decoration, or a bundle that merely points at all of them. Install the wrong kind and nothing appears in the... » read more