swapping desktops on the fly

[CliferT]

I'm new to Linux and I'm running Cinnamon 20.0.2. Is there any way I can install other DEs and swap them on the fly to try them out?

Thanks.

[absque fenestris]

Is this your own idea or did you pick it up somewhere? If you have seen such instructions somewhere, the source would be interesting.
Nevertheless, to give a constructive answer: use VirtualBox and install virtual systems as you like, with the desktops of your choice.

[JeeVee11]

You can install different DE's like xfce and Mate from the software manager. Then if you log out, there is a small icon on the login screen next to your username with which you can switch your DE.

[Turtletronic]

You can install different DE's like xfce and Mate from the software manager. Then if you log out, there is a small icon on the login screen next to your username with which you can switch your DE.

Sure, and turn your stable install into a FrankenMint. Mixing DE's is a very bad idea, often picked off of websites well over a decade old. A bunch of people here also claimed that it was "their choice" and "easy peasy" ... until their systems went south, jumped into the woods and started talking Bengalese, that is.

VB approach +1

[Hoser Rob]

You can install different DE's like xfce and Mate from the software manager. Then if you log out, there is a small icon on the login screen next to your username with which you can switch your DE.

Sure, and turn your stable install into a FrankenMint. Mixing DE's is a very bad idea, often picked off of websites well over a decade old. A bunch of people here also claimed that it was "their choice" and "easy peasy" ... until their systems went south, jumped into the woods and started talking Bengalese, that is.

VB approach +1

+1. Not only will this often make things unreliable, the easiest fix for the problems caused are usually a clean reinstall.

Even if you do you can't change "on the fly" really, you'd have to log out and lgin again.

If you want to try other DEs just dl the Mint edition with them and try them in a USB stick live boot. I woudn't try DEs unsupported by Mint.

[SimonPeter]

Adding multiple Desktop Environments (DEs) makes your system utterly mad.
I once had a "FrankenLinux" with GNOME, XFCE, MATE, LXDE and Cinnamon. The same apps would be installed multiple times, file managers start fighting each other, config files fight each other ...... finally I did a clean reinstall.
Please don't do that without very expert knowledge.

You can try them in a Live USB (or directly boot from the ISO file) and even install it normally.
BTW Virtual Machines are good, but they are a bit too slow to get the real taste of the distro.

[t42]

You can install different DE's like xfce and Mate from the software manager. Then if you log out, there is a small icon on the login screen next to your username with which you can switch your DE.

That's correct and usually installing Xfce after Cinnamon is not painful if you are fine navigating between XED text editor and FeatherPad, two file managers and two sets of Settings applets. Some DE configuration problems may arise (or not), nothing drastic if you are comfortable to dig in. Still developers' efforts are incomparable in fine-tuning DE and you can lose some fineness comparing to the official release.
Better way to install several DE is the Debian installation DVD. You can pick out during installation several DE, for eg. Cinnamon and Xfce. Probably it is not a good choice to pair any of them with KDE. I have two PCs with simultaneously installed Cinnamon, Xfce, Mate, Openbox, LXQt, LXDE and Gnome. Both systems are stable and there was no issue for years. Anyway as said above it's best to start acquaintance with DEs one by one.