Linux Mint Forums

So I currently am running Mint 15 cinnamon. Is there a way to install KDE so that I can choose which to run when I log in or something along those lines? I'm new to Linux so sorry for the noon question. I'm assumingits not dual boit since they are just different versions of the same OS.

Yes you can install KDE, LXDE, XFCE, etc. Once installed you just logout, select the DE you want to use at the login screen and then login.

Ok do I have to do a full install of mint 15 KDE? Or is there just a package I download?

There are desktop packages in the repos to download for each of the DE's. There may be meta packages there to do so but I can't recall. You do not want to do a full install of Mint KDE or you'll just write over your existing install with the same distro, different DE.

Full KDE metapackage (that fast and easy way) will install a whole lot of stuff you probably don't want. Removing the unwanted stuff is a hard, complex, time consuming and annoying task. apt-get purge for the individual packages won't do a very good job. Many files will be left behind in the HD. Better install selected packages in advance. The ones you actually want to have. Installing Kubuntu desktop is possible and will be a decent smaller package than full, but it's "plain KDE", not the tweaked Linux Mint KDE version... which is superior, IMO.

After doing it a lot of times. I don't like installing and mixing DEs in a single OS. Unless you are very limited of disk space I much prefer adding another relatively small partition and building a dual boot system with the two flavors fully independent. They will work as they should without compromises and mixed things. Login out and in for a different DE session won't take much longer than rebooting into a separate OS. What I do to keep a "single home folder" is using the very same user names and IDs. I leave the Desktop and hidden files alone for both OSs. Then for one of them I make links for all those other folders; Pictures, Videos, Music, etc... so I only kinda use one home folder for both systems. But both have their own configuration files. Oh and I sync the .mozilla and .thunderbird folders too.

I don't have such a system right now. Just KDE. But it worked fine for me for some time when testing what distro and DE to choose. Finally settled in LM 15 KDE.

my 2 cents.

I'd agree with Snapcase. Before switching to LM KDE I was a Gnome fan running Fedora. I installed KDE into that system to try it out. The problem was, when I would log out of KDE and back into GNOME (or vice versa), it appeared that a lot of extra processes associated with the other DE were left running. Plus, as others said, you wind up with a lot of extra configuration files in your home folder and other cruft that can make troubleshooting that much harder.

If you want to try out different DEs, go ahead and install them side by side, but I would be prepared to do a celan reinstall with your final choice to have the best experience.

Snapcase wrote: ...
After doing it a lot of times. I don't like installing and mixing DEs in a single OS. Unless you are very limited of disk space I much prefer adding another relatively small partition and building a dual boot system with the two flavors fully independent. They will work as they should without compromises and mixed things. Login out and in for a different DE session won't take much longer than rebooting into a separate OS. What I do to keep a "single home folder" is using the very same user names and IDs. I leave the Desktop and hidden files alone for both OSs. Then for one of them I make links for all those other folders; Pictures, Videos, Music, etc... so I only kinda use one home folder for both systems. But both have their own configuration files. Oh and I sync the .mozilla and .thunderbird folders too.
...

I have a login username for each desktop that I have installed. This keep $HOME clutter to a minimum ... and my thinking straight about what I'm trying to do as each username.
This is like a traditional, multi-user system, where each user is completely separated from the others.

If a given desktop environment has daemon processes that make the end-user experience more responsive, those processes will start and run either at system boot or at initial login for that environment. One caution: if you run more than one desktop-search daemon, a lot of workstation processing and disk-channel activity happen. More likely, you won't want that.

Cheers,
~~~ 0;-Dan

i want both my kde and also i want cinnamon but only kde logs in successfully, how can i install cin env without removing my kde if this is possible? the reason i need cin is iv lost wireless scanning and i cant select mix audio when recording and i hate kde kmix its crap it fails to allow both mic and output mix audio at same time, like on windows where you select mix and i dont know any way of sorting these issues?