It depends... I've found things I like and dislike with every DE I've ever touched... from early windows, to OS/2, Mac old and new, Amiga, BeOS, and even some bits from more modern Windows. On my personal desktop, I've been running Cosmic, as it's close to what I want. I had run Budgie desktop previously and had it tweaked very specific to my liking, but it was a hodge-podge and I just wanted an out of the box experience easier to deal with.
I think there is/was a lot to like with the Win9x interface that I feel advanced a lot through to Windows 7 even. I think the current taskbar in windows is relatively nice too, but the start menu itself has taken a few steps back. I'd like to see Cosmic get a bit closer to the taskbar, but keeping it's application menus and settings, which get better with each iteration imo. There's still something alien about the spacing on the dock's corners though.
I think there is/was a lot to like with the Win9x interface that I feel advanced a lot through to Windows 7 even. I think the current taskbar in windows is relatively nice too, but the start menu itself has taken a few steps back. I'd like to see Cosmic get a bit closer to the taskbar, but keeping it's application menus and settings, which get better with each iteration imo. There's still something alien about the spacing on the dock's corners though.