Multiple Desktop Shells

[shadowrelic]

New to linux- is there an easy way to install all the popular desktop shells on my computer? If I did this would it be easy to switch between, without a performance hit? (other than hard disk space that is)

I'm interested in trying out MATE, Cinnamon, Unity, etc. and would prefer not to dual boot

[w201]

you can run different distros from a virtual machine like vmware or virtualbox.

[passerby]

You can install the different DE's through synaptic or the terminal.
eg. Open a terminal (accessories > terminal) and type in sudo apt-get install xfce4 ubuntu-desktop* cinnamon mate-desktop*
You'll end up with a bloated installation (ie. more disk space used), but it means you can run them normally without dual-booting.
Just log out, choose a different session and log back in.

[KBD47]

Tonight I installed Cinnamon onto Mint 13 MATE and it brought in most of the Gnome family including Classic, Ubuntu, and Shell is listed but it boots into fallback instead. If you don't mind some extras and have plenty of hard drive space Synaptic Package Manager can access all the desktops you can handle

[tdockery97]

The only downside to it, if you even consider it as such, is that some settings remain between desktop environments. Wallpaper and perhaps desktop icons to name a couple.

[KBD47]

The only downside to it, if you even consider it as such, is that some settings remain between desktop environments. Wallpaper and perhaps desktop icons to name a couple.

Good point, themes are the same also, I believe.

[tdockery97]

I suppose a solution for that would be to create a new user for each desktop environment that you install. That way you won't have the crossover problem between environments.

[KBD47]

I suppose a solution for that would be to create a new user for each desktop environment that you install. That way you won't have the crossover problem between environments.

That's an interesting idea if you could remember which user for which desktop. Maybe name the users for the desktops: Cinna, Uni, Class, etc.