Linux Desktop Environments

KDE

The K Desktop Environment is one of the more popular desktop environments for Linux. It is the default desktop environment for Mandriva and Suse distributions.

Gnome

Is KDE's primary rival. RedHat, CentOS uses it as its default desktop environment.

LXDE

Lightweight X11 Desktop environment - consumes few resources and works well on older computers.

UNITY

Canonical, publisher of Ubuntu distribution, published their very own desktop environment called UNITY. Like Gnome and is easy to use.

XFCE

Originally modeled as a commercial desktop environment. Provides more customization than Gnome or KDE. Designed to consume fewer resources.

Just because a distribution comes with a desktop environment as the default, you are not only confined to that specific default desktop environment. You can install any of the above desktop managers on any distribution of Linux.