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I'm considering trying out GNOME and maybe changing to it, but I've heard that installing multiple desktop environments (so you can access them both from the login screen) can make your desktop do weird things.

When 16.04 releases, I would like to change my Kubuntu 15.10 KDE desktop to a GNOME one (or changing to Ubuntu GNOME 16.04?), is that possible? If not, when I upgrade, can I later change my system to Ubuntu GNOME 16.04? Can I do this without wiping my system? I do not want to reinstall everything again.

Organic Marble
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userino
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2 Answers2

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There are several desktop environments available like KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, MATE, etc. Just install it using terminal. To switch with new environment. Go-to Login screen, select setting-gear and select your newly installed environment. Installing two environments might be tedious and also create tons of junk in your device. You can try Ubuntu-Flavours which provides you with a preinstalled environment of your choice.

Dhananjay Porwal
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Of course you can. You can install any desktop you want. Maybe, if you install antoher desktop you could have some issues in design for example, maybe the desktop is not exactly like photos. If you want a full integration of Gnome with Ubuntu, try Ubuntu Gnome.

How install Gnome:

sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop

If you want to try gdm, choose gdm instead of lightdm as the display manager when prompted.

Reboot.

Note: if it turns out that gdm isn't your cup of tea you can go back to lightdm by issuing the command sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm and you will once again get to choose.

Elder Geek
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  • Wouldnt this cause me to have double the software? – userino Apr 14 '16 at 12:37
  • No. If some packages already exists, they are omitted. If some packages are old, they will be updated. –  Apr 14 '16 at 12:39
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    But ubuntu gnome uses way different software to handle things? Last time i tried this, (xfce+kde), i doubled my software count, since they used different software to handle things with. – userino Apr 14 '16 at 12:43
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    gdm will only become the default display manager if OP chooses it to be, and if they do choose it, it won't be used until a reboot. – TheWanderer Apr 14 '16 at 12:43
  • @user281916 they do have different tools for a few things, so you will have extra utilities. It doesn't work very well to install GNOME and then try to uninstall Unity to save space. If you're that worried about it, you'll have to do a fresh install of Ubuntu GNOME. – TheWanderer Apr 14 '16 at 12:44
  • And how can i do that without reinstalling every single program and data i have? – userino Apr 14 '16 at 12:46
  • Fresh install means erase all system and install another system in an empty hard disk. You can save your data (photos, videos, documents, etc.) but yours applications (asuming they are in /) will be erased with your system. –  Apr 14 '16 at 12:48
  • That's the issue. You can't really. It is possible, but it's not very easy, and could cause issues. If you are willing to try and risk breaking the installation, you can install GNOME, reboot, log into the GNOME DE and attempt to remove Unity by running sudo apt-get remove unity-*. The dash is important. This could break your system. – TheWanderer Apr 14 '16 at 12:49
  • But im running kubuntu. – userino Apr 14 '16 at 12:52
  • Tested this on 16.04 with Unity. Attempting to boot "Ubuntu" environment tries to boot up with unity which throws an error. (but does provide a desktop). Reverting to lightdm seems to resolve this problem. – Elder Geek Sep 09 '16 at 22:55
  • Best thing to do is try ubuntu-gnome in live dvd /usb for a few days see if it fits what you want then do a fresh install. If your using KDE now and add gnome there will be extra software left on the machine. and you will end up with two package managers and to file managers. And there may be conflicts with some things. JMHO. – kc1di May 30 '19 at 13:43