Desktop Operating System Performance Comparison

This is a comparative analysis of various desktop environments, window managers, and display managers across different operating systems. It presents quantitative metrics to help make informed decisions when choosing a desktop environment.

Desktop Services

Display Manager

The graphical login screen that allows users to authenticate and launch a specific window manager or desktop environment.

Window Manager

Responsible for managing the placement and appearance of graphical application windows on the screen. It handles tasks such as opening, closing, resizing, and moving windows, as well as providing keyboard shortcuts and other window management features.

Desktop Environment

A suite of applications bundled with a Window Manager to provide a cohesive graphical user interface (GUI) experience. It typically includes an application launcher, panel, file manager, and other utilities.

Metrics Explained

• Timing: All metrics are measured 10 seconds after the environment has started.
• Memory Usage: RAM consumed by all currently running software.
• Load Average: Measure of the system's CPU load, averaged over a specific time period. Lower values indicate better performance.
• Disk Usage: Disk space occupied by the installed software.
• Reboot Time: Time taken for the system to reboot from an open terminal to an open terminal.

Hardware Specifications

Tests were conducted on a system with the following specifications:

• CPU: AMD 6800H 1vCPU
• RAM: 8GB LPDDR5
• Storage: SK Hynix Platinum P41 M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME SSD

Desktop Environment Comparison

|Rank|Desktop Environment |Window Manager |Display Manager |Operating System |Memory Usage (M)|Load Average|Disk Usage (M)|Reboot Time| |---:|-----------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------:|-----------:|-------------:|----------:| | 1|- |- |- |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| ✔️ 85| ✔️ 0.00| ✔️ 347| 🔵 8s| | 2|- |[Wayland][Wayland] Labwc [0.7.2 2024.05][Labwc Repository] |- |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| ✔️ 96| ✔️ 0.00| ✔️ 415| 10s| | 3|- |🟥 [Wayland][Wayland] [Sway][Sway] [1.9 2024.02][Sway Repository] |- |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| ✔️ 97| ✔️ 0.00| ✔️ 413| 11s| | 4|- |- |- |[postmarketOS][postmarketOS] [2024.06][postmarketOS Repository] | 🟢 101| ✔️ 0.00| ✔️ 459| 🔴 21s| | 5|- |🟥 [Wayland][Wayland] [Sway][Sway] [1.9 2024.02][Sway Repository] |🟧 greetd agreety 0.10.0 2024.03 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 102| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 606| 10s| | 6|- |🟥 [Wayland][Wayland] [Sway][Sway] [1.9 2024.02][Sway Repository] |emptty 0.12.1 2024.06 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 107| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 612| 11s| | 7|- |X11 dwm 6.5 2024.03 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 114| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 710| 🔵 9s| | 8|- |🟥 X11 Spectrwm 3.5.1 2023.11 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 119| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 710| 10s| | 9|- |🟥 X11 i3 4.23 2023.10 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 120| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 720| 11s| | 10|- |🟥 [Wayland][Wayland] [Sway][Sway] [1.9 2024.02][Sway Repository] |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 120| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 732| 🟡 12s| | 11|- |- |- |NixOS 2024.05 | 🟢 120| ✔️ 0.00| 2443| ✔️ 5s| | 12|- |[Wayland][Wayland] Labwc [0.7.2 2024.05][Labwc Repository] |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 121| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 732| 10s| | 13|- |🟧 X11 IceWM 3.5.0 2024.05 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 128| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 721| 10s| | 14|- |🟧 [Wayland][Wayland] River 0.3.1 2024.05 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |NixOS 2024.05 | 🟢 147| ✔️ 0.00| 🟡 3345| 🟢 6s| | 15|Sxmo 1.16.3 2024.06 |🟥 [Wayland][Wayland] [Sway][Sway] [1.9 2024.02][Sway Repository] |🟥 tinydm 1.2.0 2023.12 |[postmarketOS][postmarketOS] [2024.06][postmarketOS Repository] | 🟢 153| 🟡 0.46| 🔵 1152| 🔴 24s| | 16|- |🟥 X11 LeftWM 0.5.1 2023.11 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |NixOS 2024.05 | 🟢 153| 🟢 0.08| 🟡 3416| ✔️ 5s| | 17|- |🟧 [Wayland][Wayland] [Weston][Weston] [12.0.4 2024.04][Weston Repository]|🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🟢 155| ✔️ 0.00| 🟢 744| 🔵 9s| | 18|- |X11 FVWM3 1.1.0 2024.03 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |NixOS 2024.05 | 🟢 169| 0.27| 🟡 3394| 🔵 8s| | 19|- |🟧 X11 Qtile 0.25.0 2024.04 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |NixOS 2024.05 | 🟢 179| 0.20| 🟡 3479| 🟢 7s| | 20|- |🟥 X11 Enlightenment 0.26.0 2023.12 |❌ LightDM 1.32.0 2022.07 |NixOS 2024.05 | 🔵 211| 0.20| 🔴 5671| 🟡 13s| | 21|🟥 LXQt 1.4.0 2023.11 |🟥 🟪 X11 KWin 5.27.10 2023.12 |🟥 SDDM 0.21.0 2024.02 |[Alpine Linux][Alpine Linux] [3.20 2024.05][Alpine Linux Repository]| 🔵 243| ✔️ 0.00| 🔵 1122| 10s| | 22|- |- |- |FreeBSD 14.1 2024.05 | 🔵 258| ❌ 5.62| 🟢 985| 🔴 22s| | 23|- |- |- |Debian 12.6 2024.06 | 🔵 280| ✔️ 0.00| 🔵 1853| 11s| | 24|❌ KDE 4.2.2 2009.04 |❌ X11 KWin 4.2.2 2009.04 |❌ KDM 4.2.2 2009.04 |❌ Hannah Montana Linux v2 2009.06 | 337| ✔️ 0.00| 2534| 🔴 23s| | 25|MATE 1.28.2 2024.03 |🟥 X11 Metacity Marco 1.28.1 2024.02 |❌ LightDM 1.32.0 2022.07 |NixOS 2024.05 | 337| 🟢 0.07| 🔴 5992| 🔴 16s| | 26|- |- |- |EndeavourOS Gemini 2024.04 | 355| ✔️ 0.00| 🔴 5587| 🟢 6s| | 27|- |- |- |Ubuntu Server LTS 2024.04 | 403| ✔️ 0.00| 🟠 4859| 10s| | 28|- |🟥 X11 IceWM 3.4.5 2023.12 |❌ slimski 1.5.0 2021.01 |🟥 antiX Full 2023.1 2024.02 | 444| ✔️ 0.00| 🔴 7395| 🔵 9s| | 29|Phosh 0.39.0 2024.05 |[Wayland][Wayland] Phoc 0.39.0-r0 2024.04