Linux

Don't pick a whole distro based on the UI. The distro choice is about stability vs bleeding edge packages, package manager, minimal/maximal installs, security hardening vs convenience, use or avoidance of particular systems (e.g. systemd), and things like that.

The UI will come from your choice of desktop environment, window manager, compositor, etc. Those can be installed on most distros. You can also look at dotfiles for more theming. Ofc it's silly to install a different UI on a particular flavor/version/spin of a distro built for a given desktop environment (like Kubuntu), though it's still possible.

I'm enjoying Niri rn. It's a scrolling & tiling window manager. I have it running on opensuse.

You can get a customizable UI on any distro, it will depend on which desktop environment or compositor you choose. Though if you use a slow moving distro like debian it might be a while until you get newer stuff unless you are on the testing branch.

A desktop environment will include everything you need (bar, power menu, notifications, etc) and be configured to work. If you choose KDE, you will be able to customize a lot. Or there's also Cosmic that's still in alpha but will be out soon I hope, it allows for both floating windows and tiling windows, so you can try both and see which you prefer.

If you choose a compositor instead of a DE, it will draw your windows but will not do anything else, you will have to install and configure a bar, a notification daemon, etc, or you won't have any. In that case you have several options :

• Wayfire : Floating windows compositor (like on Windows, or KDE and Gnome)
• Hyprland : Dynamic tiling compositor (the windows are automatically arranged in a grid)
• Sway : Manual tiling compositor (you decide where the windows go manually in a grid)
• Niri : Infinite scrolling compositor The difference is in how the windows are arranged. You can look at demos to see what they would look like. No option is inherently better, it's a matter of personal preference. Personally I absolutely hate dynamic tiling, but I know a lot of people prefer it over manual tiling.

Pretty sure KDE Plasma lets you change just about anything in the UI and has theme support.

If you want to get into customizing UIs hard, something the likes of this

You could get started with window managers (very opiniated topic, its really up to you to decide on which you should use) and UI toolkits like

• ewww
• AGS
• QuickShell

Also I know X11 is slowly dying but AwesomeWM fits your bill really nicely.

TL,DR: You want a cool UI? look at unixporn's top posts of all time, research an option you find good enough and go bananas on everything you need to make yourself at home.

ALSO consider posting at [email protected] so we can marvel at your fine grained setup, good luck!

TL:DR, Kubuntu or Fedora with KDE

Everyone will have their own opinions on this. Just speaking for overall desktop environments, KDE is my top pick. Pretty easy to pick up and change. Works well, feels like Windows but actually good and very customizable. And extensible.

As for the distro behind it, pick your poison. I think either Fedora or Ubuntu. KDE spin would be Kubuntu which is what I currently use. Both are pretty popular and supported well.

Some people dont really care for Ubuntu but coming from Fedora with KDE, its been a much smoother experience personally. Yes, I'm not a fan of snaps, but they can be turned off. In all, I'm using Linux, I'm much better off on Ubuntu than Windows privacy and security wise which are the main things I care about aside from being able to change whatever I god damn please.

I struggle less with shit not working on kubuntu. Fedora for the most part was very solid but there were more than a few times Steam for whatever reason gave me issues on Fedora. I'd consider steam a pretty easy thing to install and use but I had lots of issues with it just not starting or crashing, hanging when downloading updates. Really annoying.

Could be im just better at using linux now than I was back then as Fedora with KDE was my first real jump to Linux from Windows.

I highly recommend Hyprland if you want a truly infinitely customizable UI. But, there’s a big learning curve to even using it, let alone installing it and setting it up.

You could use endeavourOS as your operating system, which is Arch based yet easy to install. I can’t speak to setting up Hyprland on other distros as I haven’t done it, but I’m sure if you look around you’ll find out what you need to know.

The truth is that none will allow you what you have in your mind exactly, unless you get down dirty and start programming it. However, some DEs are more customizable than others, e.g. KDE is more customizable than Gnome, for example.

linux distributions generally don't develop 'their' ui and all distributions worth using generally provide a large number of compositors, wms, or des to choose from.

essentially you just need to find a reasonable linux distribution based on repositories and package managers and set up the ui elements as you like. sddm and plasma are a reasonable starting point

while some people claim that arch is more difficult to use or requires additional troubleshooting, it is really very similar to the vast majority of other distros, especially if youre looking into in-depth customization of the desktop. arch and fedora have excellent package managers and expansive repositories. opensuse and ubuntu are also fine.

That will depend on the desktop environment you choose, not the distro itself, as you can mostly get the same results in any distro. For instance, idk if you saw pewdiepie's video, but he was able to create a really cool and fully customized desktop using I think it was Linux Mint or something super basic like that and with very little prior knowledge. You could probably install arch which is now easier thanks to the guided installer and then copy the hyprland configuration from some post in linux porn or somewhere like that as a starting point. Counter intuitively, I found arch easier to use than something more stable like debian because the packages are almost always updated enough to just work, whereas working with older versions can come with compatibility problems, and you don't really need to use external repos aside from aur. Also the arch wiki rocks

Beginning is always Fedora.

Don't fuck with Immutable anything.

Don't let anyone convince you that Ubuntu and Snap isn't bad.

Just try Fedora. Skip all the bullshit.