Fragmentation on the Linux Desktop (Is it Normal?)

That the fragmentation is happening is beyond dispute. Five years ago, GNOME and KDE together accounted for roughly eighty percent of Linux desktops, yet today the picture is more complicated. GNOME 3, Ubuntu’s Unity, and Linux Mint’s MATE and Cinnamon have divided GNOME’s user share, while Xfce has leaped into second place after KDE, according to the 2011 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards. Other desktops have also become more mainstream — LXDE, for instance, is now the basis for the Ubuntu variant Lubuntu.