The desktop environment one uses decides how the entire experience is overall. I chose to use xfce4 because it is the most customizable de I have ever used. Remember how other de's sometimes have a top panel with notifications or a side/bottom panel with application launchers? Well in xfce4 you can actually choose where those go. You can even choose what is on each of the panels.
Here's my layout:
Those two little bars on the bottom are hidden panels. If you mouse over the one on the left it gives you a workspace manager. The one on the right is sorta like the iOS7 bottom panel that gives you access to the sound/settings/etc. The panel on the right is where windows go when they are minimized. Then I can just pull them back out of the sidebar in any workspace. On the left I have a Unity-style sidebar with application launchers and an application menu. On the top is a Gnome-style top bar with a cpu monitor, a notification area, a clock, and the session menu(which has shutdown/restart/logout/etc.). I also made a really cool desktop background and name for the theme.
I think you should go with xfce4, nal. It's lightweight and extremely customizable as shown above.
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