That is easy, just purge the current DE package with apt
then install the new DE package , again with apt
Depending on how your current DE is packaged , it may leave a few things behind… that does not really matter, as long as you remove the main meta-package
Dont try to have 2 DE’s installed at once. It can be done , but is complex, especially if one of them is KDE.
Neville
Yes, Mate is a fine DE.
Hey!
I have GNOME and KDE on my Ubuntu System.
And both run fine except for some theme problems on GNOME.
Still, it doesn’t really matter because I mostly use KDE itself.
Thanks!
Regards,
Hrishikesh
Yes you can install 2 DTE.
As you say, they can interfere
I added KDE to Xfce once. The CD burner would not work. I had a lot of trouble removing all traces of KDE
If you want to do a dual DTE, I would suggest use Fedora… it is properly set up to cope with multiple DTE.
Neville
@nevj
OK, if I decide to install Mate DE, could you share some terminal commands that I need to use.
What really bugs me the most about Ubuntu is un-ability to be able to copy and paste from the desktop to home folders. Gnome3 isn’t very user friendly for me.
Yes sure.
You need to find the names of
the gnome package
the mate package
in Ubuntu.
Use apt-cache search gnome
and apt-cache search mate
You will get lots of output, have to search through it and find the top level package – called a metapackage maybe
Then you purge the gnome package
apt-get purge gnome-whatever as su
then , without logging out, install the mate package
apt-get install mate-whatever as su
Thats all, boot and mate should come up.
The hardest part is finding the names of the top level controlling package.
In Debian the gnome top level package is called gnome
the mate top level package is called mate-core
dont know if Ubuntu is same?
Regards
Neville
I’ve never had any operational issues when I’ve had two DE’s on one computer, but they do occasionally get their wires crossed with themes, setting wallpaper, etc. One way to avoid this is by having separate user accounts for each DE so that you don’t get any conflicting user configs.
Hi @Kenneth_Dotson ,
The DE that tends to conflict with others is KDE.
Separate user accounts is a good idea. One would have to be careful with things like email.
The DE is not owned by the user, it is system-wide, but the config files are user specific.so they would be separated.