Giving KDE a try

[CodeCat]

I've been thinking about giving KDE a try, since it's been a long time since I've used it. But I don't want to do a full reinstall of Mint KDE edition, since I'm quite happy with my current setup (Mint 9 main) and don't want to break things unneccessarily. What I want is basically to add the KDE edition into an existing installation, so that I can switch back. I have a few questions about the process though, most of which I know half the answer to but I'm not really sure.

1. Since I'm running Mint 9, do I have to wait for Mint 9 KDE edition to be released before I can do anything at all?
2. How do I install KDE? I think it's a package that just contains a lot of dependent packages (mint-meta-kde?), but I'm not sure if that would cover everything included in the KDE edition itself. I also read something about needing to add extra repositories...
3. Once installed, how do I switch between the two? Is there a setting somewhere that changes my default desktop?
4. Uninstalling KDE. Assuming that it is indeed a single metapackage, can I just uninstall that? Seems unlikely...
5. Any other pitfalls?

I'm guessing these are common questions, so perhaps this would make a good tutorial for on the community site (please slap me if there is one, and I missed it).

[Biker]

Not sure I'd even want to try a Gnome/KDE hybrid. The dependencies are completely different, as are the login and desktop managers (GDM/KDM).

A better solution would be to carve out some space and allocate another partition for the KDE installation. If you don't like it, you can always blow off the partition and give it back to the "Main" version.

[GhoS]

I downloaded the meta-kde package (don't remember the exact name) to install KDE into my Linux Mint 8 (Gnome). It works just fine, although I did have a couple of duplicate programs. I was given a choice on which to use GDM or KDM and I went with GDM at first and could easily select the KDE environment at login.
I have since switched the KDM as I switched totally to KDE. I haven't totally removed all gnome stuff, but plan to do a clean install when Mint 9 KDE is released.

Even though I could revert back to Gnome only if I chose (well before I had removed some gnome stuff lol), I could have but as Biker said the better way if you aren't sure if you want to keep it is to setup a separate partition.
Another idea is to use the Live CD or setup KDE in a virtual machine and try it out that way for awhile to see how you like it first.

[CodeCat]

Seems like trying it out from the liveCD (liveUSB in my case, don't have a CD drive on my laptop) is the easiest option. But about partitioning: is it possible to shrink an existing ext4 partition and then back again after I get rid of the KDE installation?

[Biker]

Yep. Gparted will do the trick, but you're looking at the live CD again, as the drive can't be mounted when you do it.

[CodeCat]

Yeah I figured as much. Thanks for the help.

EDIT: Oh, another question... if I install them both as separate partitions, can they share a single /home partition? Or is that just asking for trouble?

[Biker]

That's asking for trouble as your /home partition also contains program and configuration settings.

[CodeCat]

But that was my intention... to share the same settings across programs installed in both systems.

[Biker]

It's not recommended. While some programs share happily from the same directory across different distributions, some do not. Also bear in mind it's not just the programs that are setting configuration settings, but also the OS. Sharing the same /home directory/partition with multiple distributions is just asking for headache after headache.

[bigBuckets]

But that was my intention... to share the same settings across programs installed in both systems.

You can share a /home partition, but use 2 different usernames for each system to keep the settings separate...

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