Trying out Linux Mint with other Desktops

[Jason]

I recall that a member wanted to be install different versions of Linux Mint (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce) to multi-boot on a computer so that a user could try each one of them out but was having trouble getting multiple LM versions installed. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but there's no reason to go through that much trouble.

After you install any one of these desktop versions, do a search in Synaptic (name only will make it quicker to find) for "mint-desktop" (without quotes) and you will find the other meta packages for the other desktop versions. Installing a meta package means multiple packages will be installed. For example, if you installed the Cinnamon version, then you should see in the list mint-desktop-xfce and mint-desktop-mate. I'm going by memory now so the names might not be exactly named this way but at least close. Try just searching "mint" and you will most definitely find it if "mint-desktop" doesn't work.

Then when you login again, to the right of the login name will be an icon that you can click to choose which desktop you want to log into. If you set Linux Mint to auto-login, you will have to turn this off. Now you can try all the desktops in one distro. And since it's just adding the desktop plus the few apps that are associated with each, it doesn't take that long to add the others if you installed the Cinnamon version, at least. It was about 65 MB of packages that worked out to twice that size after installation.

As always, use Timeshift to create a snapshot before playing with the other desktops so you can easily get back if something goes wrong.

[dougal]

thanks Jason, I'll check it out.

[fox]

I can verify that this works very well. I have one installation of Ubuntu on my home computer that has Unity, Gnome, KDE and openbox. Even when you boot into one of them, to change all you have to do is log out and log back in with the desktop of choice.

[ssfc72]

Cool!!  Thanks for posting about this, guys!  I didn't know about this trick. :-)