Change Desktop Environments

Issues & Assistance
1

Hi,

  1. If I wanted to change desktop environments what would be the recommendation to do so?

  2. Is there a list of packages?

  3. Does different DE require different packages?

  4. Is there a list of packages for each DE? If yes, can you share?

  5. If I change DE, does it mean I lose the settings from the previous?

  6. Can I have multiple DE’s at the same time? If yes, how can I change between one or the other?

I suppose information like this could be included in the wiki.

Thanks.

2

Yes

pacman -Sg gnome
pacman -Sg xfce4 xfce4-goodies
pacman -Sg plasma

Yes but it could lead to some undesirable outcomes, Some folks create a New User for multiple DE’s
And to use your second DE just logout, and choose the new session.

Yes of course they do.

3

If you don’t know what you’re doing, it would be best not to tinker or at least realize that your experience may be sub-optimal with strange and weird results.

4

Almost obviously, the 3. I mean in a sense that they require further packages other than the package of DE itself, that I would need to manually include.

Just because I dont have experience in changing DEs, it doesn’t mean I would not be able to handle it.

As much as the questions seem noob like, I choose to write like that to request (preferably) detailed answers from someone who has done it.

Not to include the simple and obvious answers.

I should have mentioned it, but it’s more meant to get the ins and outs of someone who has dealt with any potential issues and learned from it.

5

Yes, I have (for years), but your questions would lead me to believe your experience is low. So thus, the caution.

6

Sure.

There is no specific request to someone, so, don’t waste your time.

In the mean time, the internet should have some answers.

7

After doing some reading.

Apparently it’s not really recomended to switch in between fully environments like Gnome <> KDE.

But It would not be bad to have an additional desktop enviroment that doesnt have too many packages, like sway as secondary, to potentially help on recovering from possible issues.

In the complete DE, it would be better to have a formatted OS, as packages from one or the other along side certain configurations could conflict with each other. Even by removing the other one would not guarantee 100% to be free of any potential issues.

  1. What I dont know is on cachyos, if there is specific packages that would be per DE. I suppose knowing them all would help, though, only in case of switching.

  2. No setting is lost but can be mixed, and therefore conflict with one another.

8

I would have a look in there @dougg0k , you might learn something & do some search in the forum as some might have had similar questions asked also,

Edit: I would also add , you took the chance to try out CachyOS, I would also take a chance with DEs as you ll learn & see which one might fit your wants & needs. Or whether you like one over the other.

If you attempt to remove one DE, it might bork one day, something might happen , we never know, & other times, all s fine.

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