I totally agree, that's a way more important factor when you're starting out with Linux.

~~Gotta be Gnome though~~

That's a strange way to spell Xfce.

DEs are clearly bloat, so the best DE is no DE.

~~Definitely not just because I prefer i3~~

DE? WM!

~~ctwm rocking along nicely since last century~~

Whatever, I always say, use what you want when you want to dive into things. When you don't want to dive into things, use either IOS when you can afford it or Windows. (As long as they don't expect help with the last 2 ;) )

The arrangement of Start menu hardly matters. Virtual desktops are indispensable though. And I can restart crashed Plasma in 35 seconds.

I used to be a huge Plasma evangelist. At first I hated it, the old versions I mean. You just moved the mouse pointer the wrong way and your whole DE was fucked. Too many options and settings. But KDE 5 changed my world. Stable and lighter than Gnome, but still fully configurable. Last night I switched to Debian 12, Gnome. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm loving it. I don't tinker with my DEs that much anymore. Just a couple Gnome extensions and I was good to go.

Maté is awesome