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I have installed UBUNTU 16.04 LTS. Now I want to install multiple DEs (i.e. GNOME3 and KDE in addition to UNITY already installed) on my system. My questions are the following:

  1. Is it a good idea? or should I use a distro that uses GNOME or KDE?
  2. What problems should I expect as an average user?
  3. I have not explored UNITY in depth (i dont know its full capabilities) however I like the feel of GNOME and KDE better. Should I switch or stay with UNITY?

Thanks in Advance.

new2Ubuntu
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    I've been using Ubuntu 16.04 for a long time and only recently I switched from Unity to GNOME3 because of problems with the display of elements in a GUI creation plug-in for Eclipse, and it helped. If I recall correctly, I only had to install the gnome-shell package. I haven't missed Unity ever since, and I like that GNOME3 is customizable with extensions. – Stefan Hamcke Dec 14 '17 at 15:03

1 Answers1

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  1. Is it a good idea? or should I use a distro that uses GNOME or KDE?

Now you are asking for an opinion. Some people strongly prefer one or another DE, some people strongly dislike multiple DE.

Personally I have gnome-shell , LXqt, KDE, and Openbox and I personally prefer the choice of DE as well a apps.

Personally I prefer some of the KDE apps over Gnome app (K3b is top of the list).

You will have to decide for yourself.

  1. What problems should I expect as an average user?

No problems are expected, they should all work together.

Possible annoyances:

  • Takes more space on hard drive.
  • Takes more bandwidth when updating.
  • Duplicate applications for various tasks (2 basic text editors, 2 or more media players, etc).
  • It is difficult to completely remove a DE once it is installed.

Some people have experienced changes to themes or application appearance when using multiple DE, I have not, although the gnome (gtk) themes do not always translate to the appearance of KDE applications.

Those are the most common "problems" I see.

  1. I have not explored UNITY in depth (i dont know its full capabilities) however I like the feel of GNOME and KDE better. Should I switch or stay with UNITY?

You should use the DE of your choice.

I would suggest you try them all and if you settle into one you might well decide to do a fresh install with just the DE you prefer.

I do not believe you can have both Unity and Gnome-Shell installed at the same time, I am not sure. Canonical dropped support for Unity so although it may be supported for some time to come, and although there may be some sort of fork (similar to Mate as a fork of gnome), probably Unity is not the best choice moving forward.

In the long run, due to the number of changes to Ubuntu, I would advise you do a fresh install of 17.10 or 18.04 (once 18.04 is available) anyways (rather than an upgrade), so, no real problem with trying new DE on your current install. But again, that is an opinion as upgrading is supported if you so desire.

Panther
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  • Thank you for taking time to respond with such detail. When I am using a DE will applications of the other DE also be available to use? like you mentioned duplicate apps? – new2Ubuntu Dec 14 '17 at 15:31
  • Yes. You can use K3b (KDE app) in gnome, kde, openbox, all of the DE – Panther Dec 14 '17 at 15:34
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    "It is difficult to completely remove a DE once it is installed." Very True :( – Yaksha Dec 14 '17 at 16:09