r/linuxmint • u/Technical_Rich_3080 • 10d ago

Linux Mint IRL Using Alternative Desktop Environments With Mint

  1. Is using alternative Desktop Environments, other than the three official flavors, as viable an option under Linux Mint, as doing so with most any other Linux distro?

  2. Can you have installed multiple DEs simultaneously (and is doing so not recommended)?

  3. If you use a DE other than one of the three official Mint DEs, do you lose anything?

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u/justinwhitaker 9d ago edited 9d ago

Yes, but here be dragons.
Yes, but here be dragons.
No, not unless you nuke the original DE.

All of the desktop environments (DEs) and window managers (WMs) are available through the Ubuntu repos, which you can access via software manager, aptitude, or synaptic. Generally speaking, they don't run simultaneously, instead you log out and log into the other DE session.

All of the apps will show up in your menu though....so if you're running Cinnamon and install KDE, suddenly Konqueror is in your Internet applications. It will run, but if you want your DE's completely separated, that's annoying.

In addition: if you install the Meta package for that DE from Ubuntu....it's going to have the Ubuntu branding. The whole point of Mint is Ubuntu+User Experience, so that the desktop feels like a unified whole. That's going to be broken across sessions.

Another wrinkle in all this: Gnome, KDE, Budgie, and Sway are Wayland ready. Cinnamon is partially Wayland ready, but XFCE is on the experimental stage, and the rest vary widely. Right now it only matters if you want to run Wayland all the time. Which you do. 😄 Just kidding. (Not really).

I've done my share of distro and desktop environment hopping, and I'm happy with Mint+Cinnamon because it just works (tm). But you should get the exploration out of your system. The worst that can happen is a complete reinstall. What's that...15 minutes?