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MATE Desktop — stable and efficient

MATE is definitely one of my favorite desktop environments to use on Linux/BSD. MATE is based on GNOME 2, and also has a set basic applications and utilities, which are also forked from GNOME 2. Since version 1.18 it no longer uses GTK2, and as of version 1.28 it has partial Wayland support. It has clearly come a long way from GNOME 2, while still maintaining the look and feel of the original desktop environment. I kind of wish the team would make a fork of GNOME 2's Totem media player, but Parole from the Xfce desktop works fine.

I can also thank MATE for providing most Linux distributions' package repositories with GTK3 versions of the Clearlooks theme, which is nice.

OpenBox — a completed project, and it shows

OpenBox is a floating window manager based on an older window manager called Blackbox, but it has since then been rewritten and no longer uses any Blackbox code. It's considered feature complete and bug-free, making it a good option for people needing a stable graphical environment that "just works". It has an easy to use configuration tool called "ObConf" that lets you change the look and functionality of the window manager, and you can configure it further by editing its rc.xml, menu.xml, and autostart files. It can also be used alongside other desktop environments such as Xfce, MATE, and LXDE.

Small notes

• ThinkPads are my favorite laptop brand. I also like Toughbooks.
• If you are new to Linux, I recommend starting with Linux Mint. Debian is also good if you want a little more of a challenge.
• Flatpak is probably the best "universal" package manager. AppImage is also really good too.
• I honestly don't have a problem with video game resources like models and textures being nonfree, but developers should make the game's engine open-source.