this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
40 points (88.5% liked)

Linux

46952 readers
1623 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm planning on moving (back) to Linux from Windows, but I'm not sure which desktop environment I want to use. What's the easiest way to try them all out? Just do a bunch of dnf/apt installs? Is there a distro or project out there that makes this easier?

Looking to try out kde, gnome, budgie, cinnamon, xfce, others

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1984 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You can install them all on any distro I believe. I use Arch and installing Plasma is just a single command, same with Gnome and the others. After install you can pick which desktop to use after the graphical login screen loads.

There are some annoyances, like for example if you have both Gnome and Plasma installed, and you type Files to open a file app, you get the Gnome file app even in Plasma since it's named Files. To use the Plasma file app, you have to type Dolphin instead.

Same with settings app, I often open the Gnome settings app instead of the Plasma settings app by mistake since it's called Settings.

But these are not bugs per se, it's just because I'm used to typing something...