Installing Different Desktops

[steven8]

1) How does one go about installing, say xfce in place of the default gnome?

2) Is it possible to install it such that you could choose the different environments using the options at login?

[yabbadabbadont]

sudo apt-get install xfce4

That will get you the basic xfce4 desktop. After it is installed, if you restart GDM, there should be an xfce4 session you can choose from the Sessions menu.

[steven8]

sudo apt-get install xfce4

That will get you the basic xfce4 desktop. After it is installed, if you restart GDM, there should be an xfce4 session you can choose from the Sessions menu.

That's cool. And simple. Will gnome still be there to use as well then?

[rfs1970]

Hi there,

If you want to install the very new version of Xfce 4.4.0 (its quite cool), follow the instructions at the Tolero's Blog.

I strongly recommend!

r.

[bigken]

yes your gnome will still be there


I would use sudo aptitude install xfce4

[steven8]

Hmm. A bit more to chew on. What exactly is the difference between apt-get and aptitude?

[agiamba]

also if you want kde apt-get install kubuntu-desktop, same thing as xfce, you can choose what session in the login menu.

the difference between aptitude and apt-get?
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/aptitude

[steven8]

also if you want kde apt-get install kubuntu-desktop, same thing as xfce, you can choose what session in the login menu.

the difference between aptitude and apt-get?
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/aptitude

Okay. Thanks for the link. I am using Dapper, so aptitude is definitely the way I want to go! Thanks everyone! This should go very smoothly, I'd say.

[Rui Pais]

Hmm. A bit more to chew on. What exactly is the difference between apt-get and aptitude?

aptitude deals better with dependencies.
Since you want a meta packages with a lot of depencencies, aptitude is definitely better

You may also prefer to do:

sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop

instead.

[steven8]

Whoa. Each response takes us ever further into this thing. Now, why is it better to install the xubuntu desktop better for me than just installing xfce4?