Multiple desktops ?

[scbs29]

Hello all
I seem to remember that at one time one could install multiple desktops, eg. KDE, Gnome etc to an installed distro so
that on bootup the choice was given to select a desktop to boot into. It strikes me that if this facility does
in fact exist it would be useful to try out the different ones.
Does anyone know if I am remembering correctly, and if so could this be done in Linux Mint?

[AndyMH]

Yes you can, should you do it - no. If you want to try out other DEs suggest you run them in a VM.

[RIH]

+1, or just download & try as live disks.

[spamegg]

That approach works better on bare-bones / vanilla distros such as Debian or Arch.

If you install multiple DEs on a customized distro such as Mint,
it will lead to conflicts / problems that are hard to understand / fix.

[Hoser Rob]

Actually I wouldn't install multiple DEs in Debian or Arch either. Antix comes with 3 or 4 window managers, but those aren't full desktop environments so you don't get all the dependencies that cause problems with multiple DEs.

The problem with multiple desktops is that while it won't necessarily break something right away, it's very likely that it will break at some point after an update. And because you have made the number of possible dependency conflicts grow exponentially by having them, it's almost impossible to fix them. Even if you have physical access to the machine let alone depending on other remote users on support forums. So it's best fixed by a clean reinstall.

As mentioned above a much better approach is a VM, or you can just dl a live iso with that desktop and test it in in a USB live boot.

[WHVW]

Hi:

Cntrl+Alt+up arrow. This will switch you to a screen with an indication of your current desktop. There will be a plus sign at the middle of the extreme right; clicking on it will add desktops. The desktops will be indicated in the lower bar (taskbar?). Right clicking on any ot them will allow you to change the display to a simple number.

Hope this is what you are looking for.

[spamegg]

Actually I wouldn't install multiple DEs in Debian or Arch either. Antix comes with 3 or 4 window managers, but those aren't full desktop environments so you don't get all the dependencies that cause problems with multiple DEs.

So the Debian installer is by default problematic then.
It lets you install multiple DEs right there in the installer.

[tonywhelan]

Hi:

Cntrl+Alt+up arrow. This will switch you to a screen with an indication of your current desktop. There will be a plus sign at the middle of the extreme right; clicking on it will add desktops. The desktops will be indicated in the lower bar (taskbar?). Right clicking on any ot them will allow you to change the display to a simple number.

Hope this is what you are looking for.

As I see it, that is how to access multiple workspaces, but is not the same as having multiple desktop environments.

[Hoser Rob]

Actually I wouldn't install multiple DEs in Debian or Arch either. Antix comes with 3 or 4 window managers, but those aren't full desktop environments so you don't get all the dependencies that cause problems with multiple DEs.

So the Debian installer is by default problematic then.
It lets you install multiple DEs right there in the installer.
a.webp

Well, Linux lets you do all kinds of things that you probably want to avoid. Your typical experienced Debian geek would know that if you want to install Gnome and something else you'd want something like LX-Qt, and even that might be iffy. But Debian would allow it in their expert level installer.

BTW Debian as of Debian 12 comes with the Calamares installer used also by Mint and Ubuntu and many others. That's what I used and it doesn't offer other DEs. This is on the live boot iso that also now includes nonfree firmware. The lack of that always ticked me off and was the main reason I didn't run Debian before. I can understand with the multimedia codecs, they might sue, but the hardware mfrs wouldn't.

[AndyMH]

BTW Debian as of Debian 12 comes with the Calamares installer used also by Mint and Ubuntu and many others.

Purely for clarity Standard mint uses ubiquity, same as ubuntu, I think LMDE uses calamares.

[vimes666]

I have been running the mate desktop on LMDE for years now because I do not like ubuntu nor cinnamon. This combination works fine apart from some icon theme quirks after install.
However, for a test I tried the same with the XFCE desktop (on a test pc) on LMDE and I ran into a slew of problems and I decided to leave it at that because I wasn't going to use it anyway.
I must add that I am not afraid of technical problems as I have been solving these since '75. I advise average users not to do it and especially not if you depend on a working pc.

Normally I just use a live install of a specific version if I want to try it out or want check something for the forum. For that purpose I use a Ventoy stick that contains some 12 live iso's. Much easier and less risk.