Linux

Good old Debian stable with JWM, IceWM or Trinity Desktop for me. Its very efficient, clean and gets out of the users way. Will probably move to LabWC on Wayland when its ready.

I'm more of a window manager person myself (Qtile to be precise), and I imagine that's not really what you're looking for here, but DE-wise from what I've tried I like KDE and XFCE the most

My vote would be EndeavourOS with KDE Plasma.

I'm not aware of any distro that ships this by default yet, but Hyprland is my favorite visually so far. Excited for it to continue to develop. I'm sticking with Sway for now, Hyperland's grouping isn't nearly as extensive as Sway's tabbing and stacking, hopefully that will come eventually, but Hyprland sure does look amazing.

I've been preferring KDE lately tbh. Very flexible and familiar. Still don't know what that activity thing is for though lol

Yeah, this may not be helpful for you but the best GUI is a tiling window manager (compositor?). Using it for 2.5 years, never looked back. I really recommend Hyprland for everyone to try, it's the perfect thing we've ever needed.

Fedora. It ships vanilla GNOME which is just a very pleasant experience. Vanilla GNOME is just something else man.

Kubuntu or KDE Neon 100%

Ultimately they both use the KDE Plasma desktop environment, which is the only DE I've ever seen that has a proper modern look by default (others IMO look like either the 2000's or an OS 4 Kidz), as well as being pretty featurful for multi monitor productivity

Arch+KDE Plasma is what I personally am gonna switch to this summer

I liked zorin os

Pop yea? Yeah?!

I think i3 looks really pretty

I haven't been on Linux for a while, but I tried out Ubuntu many years ago. I remember there was an update on GNOME that I really liked, before Ubuntu decided to replace it with its own UI? I'd have to dig into what happened because I completely forgot even the year when it happened.

Anyway, I remember liking that new GNOME look. Not sure if it has changed again or not.

Fedora or OpenSUSE with Gnome. Stable, GUI friendly, and simple.

All of them. Every distro can run any desktop, so all of them.

Nitrux, it's a Debian distro with KDE, a rather classic pair indeed, but their Maui Kit is what makes it really stand out IMO... Well worth a look 😁

I've been using i3 for the past 8 years or so, and can wholeheartedly recommend it (or it's cousin Sway if you're in Wayland-land) if you're into tiling window managers (there are dozens of us!). I find them invaluable for their keyboard-centric operation, and also massively sweet on ultrawide monitors. Light on resources and minimalistic too.

As far as distributions go, I've been on Arch for the past several years. I think there are some (unofficial) spins for most Linux flavours with i3 out-of-the-box.

I used XFCE for a long long time before I went to tiles, which is a decent more traditional Window Manager, with a more lean focus than some of the others. Fairly customizable. I still use some of the system apps from there from old habit.

I wouldn't get too tied up into what window manager is default in any given distribution. At least for me, part of the joy is finding a combination of software (including the desktop environment/Window Manager) that works for you specifically. And there are plenty of live CDs (or usb images now I guess) with various WMs that can be used to take things out for a spin without commiting to installing it. :) Here are various Ubuntu flavors for instance.

Pop OS on my main laptop. Fedora 38 on the second. I like gnome

Opensuse because of Yast; Yast does not have the best UI, but for some settings it's the only option if you don't want to use terminal.

XFCE