GNOME

Last year it was a tie. This year, our back-and-forth battle falls to GNOME as the best desktop environment. Due to the timing of the GNOME 3 release, it's hard to tell if the victory is because of version 3 or in spite of it. Nonetheless, GNOME ekes a victory with a 3% margin over KDE. The next-closest desktop environment is XFCE with less than one-third the votes of either of the big two. With such big contenders for first and second, however, that third-place spot is significant, and XFCE is gaining ground. We think it's one to keep an eye on next year.