[tazjin]

> but it's the best desktop linux experience

This is extremely subjective. I'm a full-time EXWM (Emacs as a window manager) on NixOS user and my environment is customized[1][2] to work the way I want it to.

Default desktops can work great for you if your mindset and workflow align with the designer(s) of the UI - but in my opinion it is much more valuable to be able to (note: not forced to) customize everything about your environment to slowly tailor it to your needs.

TL;DR - there's no single "best desktop experience".

[1]: https://github.com/tazjin/nixos-config [2]: https://github.com/tazjin/emacs.d

[Kratisto]

I completely agree there is no best desktop. I think the statement is better suited as Ubuntu is the "best desktop experience for the average person". I think that's what most people really mean when having this discussion. The average person part is sort of implied.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Problem with that is that "average person" isn't defined by any kind of metrics or anything, it's just whatever the developer imagines it is, which is usually some drooling moron caricature (when they don't want to provide a feature) or themselves (when they've written something that harms others' workflows).

[tazjin]

What's an average person, though?

We're keeping this aura of mysticism around customized computer setups (obviously also because there's commercial interests against them).

I think many "average" people would have no greater difficulty learning a fast, simple, customizable mail client instead of Outlook for example.