Easy way to try out a bunch of different DEs?

I’m planning on moving (back) to Linux from Windows, but I’m not sure which desktop environment I want to use. What’s the easiest way to try them all out? Just do a bunch of dnf/apt installs? Is there a distro or project out there that makes this easier?

Looking to try out kde, gnome, budgie, cinnamon, xfce, others

BCsven,

VMs are a way, but Live USB sticks are better because you will see how it actually runs on your bare metal machine, and if there see any hardware quirks, without comitting to an install

nawordar,

Ventoy is a godsend in that case. If you have a big enough USB stick, you can just put all distros you wanna try on it

padook,
@padook@feddit.nl avatar

I take any chance I can to drop a Chris Barnett link:

Ventoy

furzegulo,

yeah, i also wholeheartedly recommend ventoy

1984, (edited )
@1984@lemmy.today avatar

You can install them all on any distro I believe. I use Arch and installing Plasma is just a single command, same with Gnome and the others. After install you can pick which desktop to use after the graphical login screen loads.

There are some annoyances, like for example if you have both Gnome and Plasma installed, and you type Files to open a file app, you get the Gnome file app even in Plasma since it’s named Files. To use the Plasma file app, you have to type Dolphin instead.

Same with settings app, I often open the Gnome settings app instead of the Plasma settings app by mistake since it’s called Settings.

But these are not bugs per se, it’s just because I’m used to typing something…

Vilian,

NixOS or fedora ostree

atzanteol, (edited )

Not sure about others but in PopOS (and I assume Ubuntu) it’s pretty simple. Probably easy with most distros.


<span style="color:#323232;">apt install gnome-desktop
</span><span style="color:#323232;">apt install kde-standard
</span><span style="color:#323232;">apt install xubuntu-desktop
</span><span style="color:#323232;">apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment
</span><span style="color:#323232;">apt install xfce4 xfce4-goodies
</span><span style="color:#323232;">etc.
</span>
BlanK0,

You can install them like any other package from dnf/apt and then run them with startX (if its X11) or start them via their name if they are Wayland compositors (all this in the tty, the black screen with just letter outputs)

muhyb,

Gentoo used to have a live CD with almost every DE / WM in it. Not sure if it’s still around though.

nyan,

The last one is from 2017, alas. The current Gentoo GUI ISO only includes KDE and fluxbox ( full package list, just in case someone’s really bored and wants a look).

CrabAndBroom,

I find sometimes installing a bunch of different DEs can cause weird cross-issues, so I tend to just make VMs to try out new things. I have a bunch of them on an external drive like little specimen jars lol.

Also as a side note, I keep a VM that’s as close to my current setup as possible, so if I get the urge to try something weird I can do it there first and see if it breaks anything.

WitchHazel,

If the only thing you need to do is test out the different DEs, you should be able to just install each one and use something like lightdm to easily switch between them upon logging out.

WeLoveCastingSpellz,

therr are utilities to install lots of isos ona live usb, flash distros that use the des that uou wanna try and you can hotswap them

taladar,

You could use netboot.xyz to boot a bunch of Live systems from various distros relatively quickly (depending on your download speed).

g_damian,

Grab live cd and run it in qemu:


<span style="color:#323232;">qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -machine type=pc 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">-cpu host -smp 2 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">-m 4096 -device virtio-balloon 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">-vga virtio -display sdl,gl=on 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">-usb -device usb-tablet 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">-boot d -cdrom "$@"
</span>
pastermil,

Usually when you have multiple DEs installed, the login manager would let you choose.

Just need to make sure the autologin don’t get in the way of your choice (e.g. select it thru autologin or disable it completely).

SharpieThunderflare, (edited )

Not sure how current it is, but LinuxBBQ has a live CD (Cream) with a bunch of WMs installed that you can easily switch between.

Cyberflunk,

Maybe this will help github.com/89luca89/distrobox

g_damian,

github.com/…/run_latest_gnome_kde_on_distrobox.md

Guenther_Amanita, (edited )

There are a few different ways:

  • VM: doesn’t give you the “real” experience. Often feels sluggish.
  • Installation via package manager: really clutters and messes up your system. There are many dependencies, and then you’ll have 5 different file managers for example.
  • Ventoy: the second best option, or the best, if you just wanna take a look at each. If you really want to try the DE for a few days, it isn’t suited of course.
  • Fedora Atomic (immutable variants like Silverblue): there’s a project called uBlue, that provides images for all DEs. You can install the vanilla Silverblue, and then rebase to each according image. Your custom installed programs and personal data stay intact, but everything else gets swapped out cleanly. Each rebase would take ~5 minutes and one reboot, but it feels like you reinstalled your OS and changed the flavor.
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