Change Desktop Environments on Linux

Change Desktop Environments on Linux
Let's go over what it takes to switch your desktop on Linux change it from KDE, GNOME, XFCE, MATE, Cinnamon, LXQt, etc. .

If there is anything good about distro hopping, it is that it teaches you that, in the end, it really comes down to either Arch or Debian, depending on which philosophy you prefer. If you pick a solid foundation, like one of these two, you can have anything on top of it.

[nathansaylor]

Sounds like you could make a Choose Your Own Linux Adventure series on installation options. At the end of each video is a few links to the next step. Of course some paths lead to failure and others to epic success.

[ashleyhouse]

Funny you posting this video today. I've only recently come to Linux as a Windows 7 escapee and started with Linux Mint Cinnamon which I like. Then I got the bug and started watching millions of Linux videos on YouTube including yours and of course, started "distro hopping" to see what other flavours were like. Then literally this morning I found out that you could just change your DE which I tried changing Ubuntu Mate (which I don't much care for) to xfce (which I do). Then your video came out...


Maybe you could do more detailed video of how you start at the bottom and build it up (or maybe you already have?). I'm learning a lot though, thanks for all the great information not to mention the entertainment value. 👍👍👍

[danielclark]

This could definitely be a short series that you could go into more detail with the different steps and aspects.
Great overview!

[somewhatfrog]

this video actually saved me from all that mess with switching to another distro in search of better input lag. Thank you

[bradlywalsh]

Hey Chris I posted on your Reddit about manjaro xfce 32bit and I think this video really helped. Thank you.

[torspedia]

One of the main reasons I distro-hop, on either VMs for one of my spare machines, is to see what default packages they've installed and to see what they have... that's different, so I can see if it's something to incorporate into my current setup.

[BlackMetalGods]

I think the safest way is just to use VM's and play around with desktop environments that way so you can basically learn as go if your a noobish Linux user and fear something breaking on your main or host machine.

[AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Chris. It was interesting to experience the various DEs and WMs years ago. But Gnome with a tiling extension does whatever I need. And Pop-shell is going to integrate i3 tiling and shortcuts, perhaps as soon as 20.04. But it is good for people to learn just how different these DEs can be.

[senselessinductor]

One of the things that you might consider covering, is the workflow for preparing to do a vanilla install.

It's a bit of a challenge your first time out to make your definitive list of packages to install. Both the packages that you absolutely need to have a working system, and the packages you want to have on a fresh install you know you'll need right out the gate.

I liked the script tutorial, but the obvious next step in tutoring should be covering the full planning and implementation of a vanilla installation. So many people would benefit greatly; It took me several attempts and a lot of planning and revising/learning to get it done right.

[ConsciusVeritasVids]

I made the switch from Windows 10 to Linux Mint last night and am so glad I finally pulled the trigger on making the transition.

[mgabriel]

I am a new Linux user and I love it. Thank you for your content.

[cgw]

Chris, I strongly agree with you about the pointlessness of distro-hopping if all you want a new desktop environment. I've not experienced any serious problems having multiple DEs installed (I use lightdm to select which DE to log into). It is even possible to run multiple X-sessions on your machine, so that CTRL-ALT-F8 can be a different X-session (I've never tried running two different DEs at the same time, doing this). It's more of an amusing thing to try out, rather than being particularly practical. Debian unstable is a good distro to use as you get the bleeding-edge releases and a fair amount of reliability too. My favourite DE is Enlightenment which although somewhat of a veteran DE is particularly easy to use and it's virtual desktop is second to none (KDE and GNOME feel awkward in comparison).

[eliyah]

thank you very much, that was very informative, learnt a lot more about Linux

[hammerheadcorvette]

The "Fedora Everything iso" enters the chat...

[rons]

Distro hopping can be fun. Sometimes I'd do it because I wanted to find a faster distro that still had the features I wanted but without the bloat. Btw, the fastest I ever found was Vector Linux. Don't remember the version. I think I dropped it because it had an odd package manager, but I don't really remember. It was noticeably faster than anything I'd used other than maybe Puppy linux.
Eventually I settled on Linux Mint.
Sometimes I hopped because I was just curious about what other distros had to offer. I learned a lot about linux by doing it too.
Now I'm starting to get the itch to do some more distro hopping.

[johnnyaxelsson]

One good thing about Distro hopping first, at least for me, was that I have found so many different software I would not even dream about. Now I am trying out Manjaro, which will be my gateway into the Arch realm of linux. After I have tried this for awhile, I will jot down which software I want from all the different ditros I have tried, and build my own ditro on top of Debian or Arch. This is the plan at least XD.

[l.p.bilham]

Chris THANK YOU. A LOT of confusion for me but at least I have a starting point now

[golvellius]

Dude thank you so much for this video
Very clear

[ClifffSVK]

(Derived) distributions not only provide their custom desktop environments, but often their own repositories, custom update model, custom software and sometimes even their own philosophy ("systemdless", Linux-libre kernel, etc). For example, Manjaro tests packages before they push updates to users, so it's a different experience from vanilla Arch.

My second point is that distributions often offer an ISO without a desktop environment preinstalled. You can install multiple DEs on these distros and still benefit from having access to their custom repositories and stuff like that.

So you're not limited to just vanilla Arch or Debian. Distribution doesn't mean how it looks, but how it works.