[twic]

Or Cinnamon:

https://projects.linuxmint.com/cinnamon/

I've been running Cinnamon on a few machines for years, and it mostly works fine, which for a Linux desktop is high praise. The file picker has thumbnails (although it only has a list view, so they're ant-size).

I haven't used MATE. My understanding is that MATE started life as Gnome 2, whereas Cinnamon started life as Gnome 3 reskinned to look like Gnome 2. Both have grown considerably from their starting points.

[nerdponx]

My desktop user experience with Mint Cinnamon was as close to delightful as I've ever had on Linux. All the GUI stuff worked without me having to fiddle around in the terminal like a "hacker", the UX was generally high-quality, and the default theming was pretty and consistent.

My overall impression was that it was definitely and surprisingly usable for non-technical people like my mom, grandma, etc. who don't use their computer for anything sophisticated but also don't have the time/energy/wherewithal to debug and configure things.

I can't speak highly enough about the Mint Cinnamon experience, and I recommend that everyone involved in the "Desktop Linux" world try it (at least in a VM) so they can get a sense of what "good defaults" actually look and feel like.

[twic]

> All the GUI stuff worked without me having to fiddle around in the terminal like a "hacker"

This was also my experience.

The only customisation i've done is:

1. Moving the panel, depending on what my feelings about proper panel placement are at the time.

2. Removing all the default shortcuts, because they collide with IntelliJ and/or are useless, and defining a few of my own

3. Setting up custom compose key sequences

Removing the shortcuts was done in the UI, but i really wish i could do it in a config file instead, because it's a pain to spend ten minutes clicking around. I had to hit the command line to set up compose keys, although i think this is an X problem, not a Cinnamon problem.