If you are new to Linux then I'm sure you are giving up lots of time choosing Desktop Environment of your Linux Distribution. You are probably thinking to give a try to each one of them but that's very time consuming. That's why here I'm reviewing the 5 Best Linux Desktop Environments with the pros & cons. The article gives you what you should know for choosing a DE. So let's get started!
I've been using KDE's Plasma 5 and I have to say, it has given me the best experience using Linux I have ever had. It feels so modern and everything just meshes well together. It feels like the first complete desktop environment I've used. I highly recommend whoever hasn't tried it to try it.
Yes KDE is well developed and KDE's Plasma 5 is really awesome. There is alot to do when you're using KDE>
The thing with DE is that you can very easily try them all. And you should! I actually like Gnome 3, a lot. It's a desktop environment that's uniquely linux, that moves beyond the usual windows 95 paradigm and it's stylish and well thought-out. I think much of the negativity it gets is because they made a very big change from the previous version, and its just not what people who used the previous version wanted. Also, i3 is just great, especially if you use the command line a lot (yes, I know it's not a DE, but really whatever. It serves the same function).
I really liked Gnome 3, but found that it could be slow and buggy, even on my brand-new medium-end desktop.
I agreed what you said about Gnome 3, it's all fine. But choosing DE for a newbie or a medium level user can be problematic because there are many out there. The better and faster way is to analyse your needs and read such articles.
Such a list depends highly on the usage of your computer and your experience I use i3 [1] (tiling WM), and never looked back - I can't force myself to use another DM/WM. But it's not for everyone.
The wonderful thing about linux is choice - I can use something completely different than another person - tweaked just the way I like it. Why I chose a tiling WM? I work a LOT on the commandline (only exception is the webbrowser - everything else runs on my CLI). So I don't use my mouse very often - a "classic" interface would be wrong for me - I'm used to harness the power of keystrokes ;-) A window always fills the screen, a new one will automatically adjust, so both are open on the screen without overlapping - it's kind of difficult to explain. There are some geeky screenshots and videos on the i3wm homepage. So - for everyone interested, try a tiling WM - there is a learning curve (depending on different aspects, it might be quite high) bit in my case it was worth it. I would not recommend it for beginners, the look and feel is extremely different.
Tiling window managers are awesome! I never was able to find one that played nicely with a pretty GUI environment, with Gnome 2 + Xmonad being the sole exception. And Gnome 2 feels a bit outdated these days. What I really want is a tiling WM + something like the Unity Dash where you get automatic Super+1, Super+2, etc. keyboard shortcuts, corresponding to the position of icons on the dash. Basically something with graphical cues that go along with the keyboard shortcuts. But I could never quite make it work.
I have been using KDE for a few years now and love it, but I actually just realized that I only know half the features. I haven't experimented with activities at all because I organize my open windows by virtual desktops, and I wonder if it's better or just different. I have tried Gnome 3 again recently, and I don't mind it. I'm going to give it a full month on my new laptop to get a true feel for it though.
Its good that this article give you benefit. And actually there is alot to do with KDE. And every DE is different from each other so does KDE but it is better too.