Installing Desktop environments

[rmcellig]

Let's say I want to install Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox and Nautilus desktop environments, does this slow down my computer, or does it just install files that will allow me to work in different desktop environments. In other words, does installing different desktop environments add more stuff to the system so that it could make it slower? Or maybe it doesn't work this way? Just curious.

[opensores]

If you install a complete desktop environment like XFCE, you will end up with a ton of programs which all perform the same tasks, i.e. xfburn + brasero, etc. Many DE's also have 'lite' versions with fewer bundled applications, so that might be something to look into. Openbox is just a window manager, so it should just install that single package, it's dependencies, which you probably already have, and nothing else. I believe Fluxbox is similar in that respect, though I always use Openbox when I'm going for something simple, so I haven't used Fluxbox much. I don't think e17 comes with a huge amount of software either, so it should not be much of a problem. You can check the dependency list before you install anything.

In any event, I don't think installing additional software packages is going to slow your system down, so I'd go ahead and expirement if I were you, you can always remove them later. If you want to try out lots of new DE's you might want to look at Arch or something, and start customizing from the ground up. The wiki tells you how to do pretty much everything. I usually only recommend Mint to people that just want a nice pretty system without any major config tweaking, but if you want to use Openbox, you'd better like to tweak

[KBD47]

That's a good question. I don't think it slows it down because you are only using one desktop environment at a time. But I have concerns about it creating problems, for instance, I had Mint 12 installed on my desktop computer, ran updates last night, was switching between logging into MATE and Gnome Classic and it started freezing up to the point I just installed Lubuntu over it.
I keep a copy of Mint 12 on a USB stick with the following desktops installed on it: MGSE, Gnome/Classic, Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce4, and LXDE, and so far it works OK.
I wouldn't worry about it slowing down, though you will have lots of extra programs if space is an issue.
KBD47

[rmcellig]

I have lots of space so no problem there. If worse comes to worse, I can always uninstall some of the DE's through SPM.

[Arrow2Knee]

You aren't using them all together so not very much. Just extra place on your HDD will be used, so every task which uses the HDD will be slower but that's just a minimal factor.

Go ahead and discover the world of DE's

I would suggest you check out Cinnanon, the new GNOME fork.

[rmcellig]

Is Cinnamon in Synaptic Package Manager? I have been a diehard Mac user since 1988 and I have to tell you that I rarely use my Intel iMac that much these days. I have four computers running various Linux distros and love it!!

[cfr42]

When I first started using Linux I installed a bunch of different DEs/WMs etc. (This was partly because I was trying to get X to work and reached the point where I was so desperate I was just installing anything which might contain something which might help...)

The main problem, I think, is that each one which comes with applications will probably install menu entries for those applications and they do not come with a sticker telling you which set they belong to. Indeed, many of them may use the same name and even the same icon in the menu. At least, this is how things ended up for me on Debian. I don't know how these things work in Mint. (_Is_ there a menu?!)

Gnome ran like treacle but I think this was Gnome rather than because the others were installed. Xfce ran nicely...

Edit: rereading this, it makes it sound as though I've been using LInux for years. "When I first started all those years ago..." I didn't mean to imply this and it is certainly false!

[Arrow2Knee]

Is Cinnamon in Synaptic Package Manager? I have been a diehard Mac user since 1988 and I have to tell you that I rarely use my Intel iMac that much these days. I have four computers running various Linux distros and love it!!

Yes, it is. Install both Cinnamon and Cinnamon-session

[rmcellig]

For me, I can't find Cinnamon in synaptic package manager. Maybe I need to add a repository? If so, how do I do this?

[Arrow2Knee]

For me, I can't find Cinnamon in synaptic package manager. Maybe I need to add a repository? If so, how do I do this?

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install cinnamon cinnamon-session

That should work

[rmcellig]

Thanks but this is what I get:

home@ubuntustudio1110:~$ sudo apt-get install cinnamon cinnamon-session
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package cinnamon
E: Unable to locate package cinnamon-session
home@ubuntustudio1110:~$

[truexfan81]

Thanks but this is what I get:

home@ubuntustudio1110:~$ sudo apt-get install cinnamon cinnamon-session
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package cinnamon
E: Unable to locate package cinnamon-session
home@ubuntustudio1110:~$

Are you running mint 12? if so try sudo apt-get update, then try the install command again. if not running mint 12 i don't know what to tell you, cinnamon is in the mint 12 repos.

[rmcellig]

Is there any way I can add the Mint 12 repos to my computer?

[Arrow2Knee]

Is there any way I can add the Mint 12 repos to my computer?

Go to update manager, then software sources in the menu, then select all ubuntu repos.