One of the things I like the most about Linux, is that the user can pick and choose the desktop environment that works for her/him. When I made the jump to Linux, I Linux distro of choice was Ubuntu using GNOME 2.
Now, Linux Mint using Cinnamon has become my favorite Linux distro. This combination just works for me, and it runs like a charm on all laptops I've installed it on. For while I used Ubuntu with Unity, but when they decided to drop it in favor of a highly customized version of GNOME 3 I decided to move to Linux Mint.
The idea that the user can choose the desktop environment that just works for her/his workflow, is a big benefit. Computers are a tool, an as such users have to be able to make it work according to their needs. The desktop environment they use is one of the most important ones, since its one of the things users interact directly when using a computer.
While the number of desktop environments on Linux have consolidated somewhat over the past five years, there is still enough for users find one that works for them. From lightweight ones like LXQt or Xfce, to ones with power feature sets like KDE or MATE, there is a desktop environment that will have what fits any workflow. Most importantly, they all have some level of customization to fine tune them even more to the particular needs of a particular user.
Desktop environments like GNOME and Cinnamon don't need users to have levels of technical knowledge to customize them. That is one of the main reasons I use the version of Linux Mint that runs Cinnamon, I can set it up easily to look and work to suit my needs without much trouble. I could go deeper into customizing it if I wanted to, but why bother if it already satisfies all my need with little extra work.
It has been a while since Linux can be used by anyone who is willing to give it a try, and the desktop environments have been a big part of that.
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