Change Desktop Environments on Linux

Change Desktop Environments on Linux
Let's go over what it takes to switch your desktop on Linux change it from KDE, GNOME, XFCE, MATE, Cinnamon, LXQt, etc. .
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[@ChrisTitusTech]

My Desktop Customizations: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j57baI1nbtKqd7c Linux Desktop Environments Explained: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKSlpKuojKlsqtE Conky Desktop Widgets: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3OblJ2BpcmJh7s

[@thebigm4]

How would I go about getting the Windows XP Luna desktop Environment on Linux Mint or zorin?

[@manlyman888]

I love your videos but please stop talking too much straight to the point less talk ...

[@contentlegends7301]

Wait about linux mint?

[@8.1DEV]

@@thebigm4 Zorin OS usually has GNOME pre-installed and nowadays GNOME doesn't have much customisation settings but in Linux Mint having Cinnamon, are full of customisation settings. If you still want GNOME, you might require the old GNOME 2 (This is what I actually think BTW).

If there is anything good about distro hopping, it is that it teaches you that, in the end, it really comes down to either Arch or Debian, depending on which philosophy you prefer. If you pick a solid foundation, like one of these two, you can have anything on top of it.

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Yup, I just wish I figured it out sooner. I distro-hopped too much in the beginning and really it is just 2 distros that matter in the end.

[@TheWilldrick]

_cries in fedora_

[@ChrisTitusTech]

@@TheWilldrick Fedora is a great distro for a workstation, but I just find it lacking compared to debian or arch for all around gaming and versatility.

[@Mr_nah]

Chris Titus Tech can you provide some examples of how Fedora is lacking? I think Fedora is something in between Debian and Arch in regards to the up-to-dateness of its packages. Not as stable as Debian but it's closer to the bleeding-edge. The whole point of using Fedora or Debian is that you have more chances to find Debian or Redhat server and it's useful for your job. Personally, I've never heard of any Arch server (probably never will)

[@Pakanahymni]

I run Solus >_>

[@nathansaylor1239]

Sounds like you could make a Choose Your Own Linux Adventure series on installation options. At the end of each video is a few links to the next step. Of course some paths lead to failure and others to epic success.

[@godfather7339]

I really like this idea

[@ashleyhouse9690]

Funny you posting this video today. I've only recently come to Linux as a Windows 7 escapee and started with Linux Mint Cinnamon which I like. Then I got the bug and started watching millions of Linux videos on KZbin including yours and of course, started "distro hopping" to see what other flavours were like. Then literally this morning I found out that you could just change your DE which I tried changing Ubuntu Mate (which I don't much care for) to xfce (which I do). Then your video came out... Maybe you could do more detailed video of how you start at the bottom and build it up (or maybe you already have?). I'm learning a lot though, thanks for all the great information not to mention the entertainment value. 👍👍👍

[@pavlospilakoutas]

Stick to mint. Stable AF and commands are the same as ubuntu. Lots of packages available and repos for anything you can think of, cinnamon DE is stable. What more can you ask. Recommended alternative, fedora with KDE plasma. Centos commands, more frequent update cycle. 🙋‍♂️

[@zeroday5441]

@@pavlospilakoutas I have a 1 GB RAM can you give me recommendations ??? Cuz, I'm new to this

[@pavlospilakoutas]

@@zeroday5441 mint 32bit, u choose the desktop u like

[@zeroday5441]

@@pavlospilakoutas I have a 64-bit system Plus I'm broke& let's just say that my family doesn't give me freedom& disregards all of my opinions when it comes to tech (I'm Asian BTW)

[@pavlospilakoutas]

@@zeroday5441 u have a 64bit on 1 gb ram, what for?

[@StemLG]

vanilla linux mint cinnamon here :)

[@SyphistPrime]

Hey, if it works for you that's good. Some people just want a working OS that looks decent and they don't have to change things.

[@jaqian]

LM has some of the best WiFi support I've come across. All my PC's are running LM 19.3

[@sheikhejab]

sounds yummy *_*

[@aprameyanaganur2934]

I've got cinnamon running with xfce, budgie, plasma and the ubuntu wayland desktop. I just like to keep all of them in case i want a change, but i mainly use cinnamon

[@StemLG]

@@aprameyanaganur2934 i switched to elementary os

[@BlackMetalGods]

I think the safest way is just to use VM's and play around with desktop environments that way so you can basically learn as go if your a noobish Linux user and fear something breaking on your main or host machine.

[@SyphistPrime]

I always at least test a distro I want to use on a VM. It's much safer. I can also mess with basic theming beforehand to see if I can use my current workflow.

[@senselessinductor7921]

One of the things that you might consider covering, is the workflow for preparing to do a vanilla install. It's a bit of a challenge your first time out to make your definitive list of packages to install. Both the packages that you absolutely need to have a working system, and the packages you want to have on a fresh install you know you'll need right out the gate. I liked the script tutorial, but the obvious next step in tutoring should be covering the full planning and implementation of a vanilla installation. So many people would benefit greatly; It took me several attempts and a lot of planning and revising/learning to get it done right.

[@hammerheadcorvette4]

The "Fedora Everything iso" enters the chat...

[@johnnyaxelsson6032]

One good thing about Distro hopping first, at least for me, was that I have found so many different software I would not even dream about. Now I am trying out Manjaro, which will be my gateway into the Arch realm of linux. After I have tried this for awhile, I will jot down which software I want from all the different ditros I have tried, and build my own ditro on top of Debian or Arch. This is the plan at least XD.

[@hedgeearthridge6807]

That's me with Mint Cinnamon. So many awesome programs that I don't want to go without, like the Gnome Disks and Terminal programs. Really helps familiarize you with the great software that's out there.

[@somewhatfrog]

this video actually saved me from all that mess with switching to another distro in search of better input lag. Thank you

[@ClifffSVK]

(Derived) distributions not only provide their custom desktop environments, but often their own repositories, custom update model, custom software and sometimes even their own philosophy ("systemdless", Linux-libre kernel, etc). For example, Manjaro tests packages before they push updates to users, so it's a different experience from vanilla Arch. My second point is that distributions often offer an ISO without a desktop environment preinstalled. You can install multiple DEs on these distros and still benefit from having access to their custom repositories and stuff like that. So you're not limited to just vanilla Arch or Debian. Distribution doesn't mean how it looks, but how it works.

[@0cgw]

Chris, I strongly agree with you about the pointlessness of distro-hopping if all you want a new desktop environment. I've not experienced any serious problems having multiple DEs installed (I use lightdm to select which DE to log into). It is even possible to run multiple X-sessions on your machine, so that CTRL-ALT-F8 can be a different X-session (I've never tried running two different DEs at the same time, doing this). It's more of an amusing thing to try out, rather than being particularly practical. Debian unstable is a good distro to use as you get the bleeding-edge releases and a fair amount of reliability too. My favourite DE is Enlightenment which although somewhat of a veteran DE is particularly easy to use and it's virtual desktop is second to none (KDE and GNOME feel awkward in comparison).

[@danielclark6033]

This could definitely be a short series that you could go into more detail with the different steps and aspects. Great overview!

[@torspedia]

One of the main reasons I distro-hop, on either VMs for one of my spare machines, is to see what default packages they've installed and to see what they have... that's different, so I can see if it's something to incorporate into my current setup.

[@rons3634]

Distro hopping can be fun. Sometimes I'd do it because I wanted to find a faster distro that still had the features I wanted but without the bloat. Btw, the fastest I ever found was Vector Linux. Don't remember the version. I think I dropped it because it had an odd package manager, but I don't really remember. It was noticeably faster than anything I'd used other than maybe Puppy linux. Eventually I settled on Linux Mint. Sometimes I hopped because I was just curious about what other distros had to offer. I learned a lot about linux by doing it too. Now I'm starting to get the itch to do some more distro hopping.

[@jasongoulet-lipman7308]

I don't usually respond to youtube videos, but I have to say something as a Fedora user. I really prefer it over other distros. I have distro hopped and tired the three main branches. Debain based (Ubuntu, Pop_OS,) arch based (Manjaro) and RHEL (Fedora). I have to say that fedora is my favorite for running on a laptop. I love that it includes vanilla gnome by default without any bloated extensions. I personnally have zero gnome extensions on my setup because I find that it runs the smoothest like this. Fedora is also one of the few distros to include Wayland by default and properly support it. This is big for me because it enables smooth multi-tocuh gestures that cannot be found on any Xorg based setup. Also, I find the dnf package manager to be really well done: easy to remember commands that refer to what is actually being done, very speedy, and it rarely gives dependency erros especially compared apt and apt-get. Finally, I love that I can run nearly the latest kernel on top of a relatively stable OS when compared to arch. This way, my laptop regularly gets driver and firmware updates that make it more supported and run more efficient. Don't discount Fedora!

[@JaneDoe-nl1vd]

where my xfce brothers? represent!

[@Luftbubblan]

Used to be but sorry brother, i have failed you. I'm strictly on i3 these days. I always liked Xfce and would probably go back if i want something else than i3.

[@SyphistPrime]

XFCE is the only one I can really use. It allows me to set up panels in a very particular way that I like.

[@theblackcatvieweraccount5402]

Here. First distro was Peppermint which uses it.

[@IaMaWeSoMe7478]

Here!! Always have been and something tells me I always will be.

[@98SE]

I'm here! I use Manjaro XFCE and have been using it alongside Windows 10 for about a year now. :) I only use Windows 10 for Minecraft Bedrock Edition but you can now run that on linux using the android version! Goodbye windows 10 for good haha! :)

[@peterjansen4826]

Chris, I still am curious why you removed dxvk from your system recently. What is going on? Benchmarking games with vs without dxvk?

[@ChrisTitusTech]

I forget why I did this, but I'm pretty sure I added it back in now. I think I was compiling from git and I switched to binaries.

[@peterjansen4826]

​@@ChrisTitusTech Don't you wish that you would have that 3990X to compile the code? Or even the 3950X. #dreaming #oneday

[@night_h4nter]

For some people init system may matter as well. For example, why bother changing init from systemd to OpenRC or Runit on Arch or Debian if there are Artix and Devuan which both provide an option to install the same way their antiderivatives are installed? So one may consider using those derivatives instead of their antiderivatives. And also worth noticing that power user may want to use their distro's "system-level" (GUI-independent) settings for stuff like locales, internet connection, fonts, keyboard layouts and so on. Also the probably might want to implement their own solution or use some ready one to control mentioned settings from their graphical environment.

[@kenji3110]

I was using Manjaro, I love Manjaro. When doing the fresh install I was using i3wm, then installed deepin (because it looks good). After some updates that came in, I decided to switch to a new DE, probably gnome/xfce. Tried to uninstall deepin completely but I was unable to as some dependencies were still used by something.

[@l.p.bilham9852]

Chris THANK YOU. A LOT of confusion for me but at least I have a starting point now

[@8836290]

Linux is like a jigsaw puzzle that each user can create a unique and personal image with the same pieces every one else can use.

[@HerrFlachpfeife]

That's not how a jigsaw puzzle works 🤣

[@8836290]

@@HerrFlachpfeife I know. What I described does not exist. but tried to give a perspective.

[@HerrFlachpfeife]

​@@8836290 I personally think it's more like a box of Legos.

[@8836290]

@@HerrFlachpfeife You can say that but....I think Legos are for kids only/mainly.Jigsaws are for any age, kids to retired grandpas.

[@MansakeLabsOfficial]

@@8836290 ,said the person with a sleeping puppy as their profile pic.

[@jefferyrlc]

Sounds to me the reason your Fedora broke is because you didn't switch your display manager before removing KDE. If you change desktop environments and get settled in, be sure to have the correct display manager installed before you delete your old environment and potentially your old display manager. This can be done on systemd systems via: sudo systemctl enable .service --force GDM for GNOME SDDM for KDE Plasma Entrance for Enlightenment LDM for XFCE, LXDE, LXQt, Budgie, Cinnamon, MATE, and Deepin

[@1pcfred]

A Display Manager should be able to start up any DE or WM. If it cannot then it is broken. That having been said I console login and use startx.

[@fubaralakbar6800]

Some distro spins I would love to see: Elementary Plasma Fedora Budgie Pop Deepin Pop MATE

[@harshal259]

Arch + pantheon

[@fubaralakbar6800]

@@harshal259 Arch is desktop agnostic, and will work with pretty much anything. That's one reason why it is so popular. The ones I listed are designed to work with a certain DE, and will be buggy with anything else unless you REALLY know what you are doing--hence spins: versions of a distro that have been reworked by professionals to cooperate with particular package sets.

[@nietzschescodes]

Gnome after changing its look with extensions as dash to panel and arc menu is not only the best looking but also the most solid and with important extensions that actually works. For example, Gnome has several ways to effectively control the CPU/the fan, while the other DE I have tried don't have CPU manager or it doesn't work at all.

[@davidwayne9982]

So far I've done it and it's WORKED--- but it's good to learn the PROPER way to do it-- and I finally AGREE with you-- it's NOT the distro at all... so i stick with DEBIAN-- just installed Debian 12- LOVE IT.. (Sparky is my go to- but it's almost PURE debian with kde on it-- although it's fixed so it supports 23 DE) :)

[@eonshade6297]

Never really considered Linux but now after seeing how it can boost up old hardware and how much one can change it, Linux became really interesting.

[@bradlywalsh5786]

Hey Chris I posted on your Reddit about manjaro xfce 32bit and I think this video really helped. Thank you.

[@mulatdood]

I hopped from Manjaro to PopOs because I couldn't get my wifi adapter to work. I installed Lutris and it made shortcuts on my desktop and they don't work. If PopOs is easy mode I don't want to move to the granddaddy where stuff is even harder to figure out.

[@ChrisTitusTech]

I would say PopOS is easy mode. Most other options will only get harder. However, you can just modify PopOS to your needs, as there isn't a reason to really switch if it works for you.

[@mulatdood]

@@ChrisTitusTech It doesn't work 100%. But a lot more stuff works now than on day one. Since Windows 7 reached End of Life I live here now. I just wish I knew more about how to diagnose stuff when it doesn't work.

[@wikingagresor]

@@mulatdood the situation is that you proved Titus' point for him - distrohopping just because some wifi dongle doesn't work? 99% of the time it is you just needed to copy a specific library file to your firmware folder...

[@SyphistPrime]

The only reason PopOS would help is finding proprietary drivers. WiFi is hit or miss with Linux. It's gotten better, but I've encountered a few that just are bitches to get working. That's why I have an old USB WiFi card to troubleshoot things. It gives me access to the internet so I can research and download packages.

[@theblackcatvieweraccount5402]

@@mulatdood You want to make the short cuts work, right? Here's how: Use terminal to install the exo-open command. "sudo apt-get install exo-utils" (If you want to skip the Y/n prompt enter it as: "sudo apt-get install -yy exo-utils") If its already installed this command will do nothing. Open a text editor. Type: [desktop entry] Name=your_games_name Comment=Information about your game. Exec=exo-open /home/user/what_ever_directory_you_put_your_game_in/your_game.exe(or ISO or gba, etc.) Icon=/wherever_you_put_the_icon/your_icon.png Type=Application Terminal=false Categories=games; Save file as "Your_game.desktop" and mark it as executable by right clicking>permission>checking the "allow executing file as program"(not always necessary but sometimes will make it work.) Move that file to: /usr/share/applications, as the Root admin. Once done go to your game file, right click>open with>whatever program your game opens with> set as default. Open application menu>games>your short cut> and it'll open in the correct program. Make sure you capitalize correctly or your shortcut will not appear in the menu, and sometimes just not open. You can also drag and drop from the menu to make desktop icons or taskbar shortcuts like any other program file. You can also use this to make a front end for programs that do not have one. For example Debian-Installer-gtk on Linux mint. Replace this line: Exec=gdebi-gtk %f And it'll open the gtk without a need for terminal.

[@PhantomFist37]

At one point you said "demon" and "corrected" it to "daemon" with a pronounced "a". But from what I understand it IS supposed to be read as "demon".

[@gh8447]

No, a demon and a daemon are different things and are pronounced differently. In a modern context, a demon is a bad or evil being or character, and a daemon is a good or benevolent being or character. In computing, this could be considered the difference between a computer virus vs a useful background process respectively. Here's quite a good article on their etymology www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-daemon-and-vs-demon/

[@jyow-xe7pw]

About 10 years ago I would distro hop 2-3x/week. Now I have finally found a good distro. I personally went from Manjaro to Linux Mint Cinnamon, I absolutely love the simplicity of Mint. I just want something that is there and it works. Oh yeah and stability.

[@AndrewErwin73]

I have been using i3 for years now... About 1 weekend every month I get the itch to try a different DE but it never lasts more than that weekend cuz I am so used to i3. I will say this, Deepin is pretty nice because I can use the same key bindings as I use in i3, plus it's a really nice looking (though not very customizable) desktop environment. I keep it installed along side i3.

[@Gornius]

Yeah. Every Desktop Environment has its caveats, and they're hard to fix, because it's hard-coded into DE, while on Window Manager it's like "A" feature from "K" program doesn't work, so I'll use "A" feature from "L" program instead.

[@tonn333]

Thoughts on bspwm?

[@AndrewErwin73]

@@tonn333 to be honest I haven't used it. I am trying out qtile right now and I like it a lot.

[@tonn333]

@@AndrewErwin73 xfce with xfwm replaced by bspwm is pretty cool.

[@AndrewErwin73]

@@tonn333 I have always liked Xfce and I've heard of people using tiling wms with is...something I've thought about trying.

[@Alkaris]

The problem being on certain distros is that some maintainers of that distro drop support for other desktop managers and so you won't get the full complete components from them because they removed them from their repositories, for example I wanted to try out KDE Plasma on Linux Mint, and of course I didn't know till after that the maintainers of Linux Mint dropped support and removed packages a year or so ago so I was missing some of the main essentials that KDE Plasma was suppose to have such as its control panel settings and its themes panel to change themes and such.

[@tatahoda]

Hey Chris, can you do a video on Gentoo? It seems that most youtube channels don't talk about it that much. I have been in the linux world for a while now and I have little to no information about gentoo as content creators don't mention it among popular distros. Your video actually reminded me of it as I know it is highly configurable so it might be a good candidate for "DE hopping" if you will. Anyways, I love your videos keep up the good work.

[@JosueRodriguez08]

Don't do that to yourself bro

[@ironnerd2511]

Love all your videos. I was hoping that after watching this one, I would have been able to know how to switch to any specific desktop environment I would like, but that was not the case. Also, I was expecting to be informed of the potential benefits of switching from one to another. That was not covered either. If I were to switch I would like to know the potential benefits. Going to the conclusion; which is best to start of with vanilla Debian or Arch Linux, I'm still lost. Because I have no practical knowledge on how to Install any desktop environment on one of these distributions. Therefore, in my case I did not obtained the benefit I expected from watching this video. But I appreciate your efforts and thanks. Other videos have greatly benefit me.

[@shaunnan146]

I just found out recently changing DE's and distro hopping is not the same. I installed KDE on top of Zorin Gnome (for one month), then i installed Manjaro with KDE. The settings in the settings menu in Manjaro is much more detailed. You can configure things in more detail.

[@abhishankpaul]

I have recently bought my first ever PC and I got Linux Ubuntu replace Windows and I feel fine with Linux's performance and especially, I am quite happy with GNOME's environment. Once I understand Ubuntu properly, I have plans to do some distro hopping in future, to learn and try other variants so that I can work in any Linux machine irrespective of distro. Also, I think it will be good to try most of the major desktop environments for learning purposes and flexibility while working on any Linux machine.

[@ConsciusVeritasVids]

I made the switch from Windows 10 to Linux Mint last night and am so glad I finally pulled the trigger on making the transition.

[@acesbazaarhealth2246]

If you are starting from scratch and know what you want, you can actually install the server version of many distros, which is exactly the same without a desktop, and add whatever desktop you want.

[@SnowyRVulpix]

Sudo aptitude install xfce4 Sudo aptitude install kde-complete ... logout, select from login screen, log in! Really no need to remove your original DE unless it conflicts. Most don’t.

[@sourabhmestry9933]

will this really work? I am on mint xfce. Can i install kde on it or any other tweaking is required?

[@praetorxyn]

@@sourabhmestry9933 I wouldn't do it. I had KDE installed and installed GNOME alongside it once. It "worked", but it wasn't "right". Honestly, what I recommend is setting up a vanilla Arch virtual machine (you can use archfi to install it pretty easily - Chris has a video on that too IIRC). But don't install a DE / GUI. Just make sure to install and enable Networkmanager or you won't be able to connect to the internet. Then, snapshot that VM. Start it up, install a DE / WM, play around with it for a while. Then you can reload the snapshot and install a different DE / WM. That way you can try all of them without really breaking anything.

[@sourabhmestry9933]

@@praetorxyn I will try this. Thanks for detailed reply.

[@ashfaquealam3033]

I installed xfce on Bodhi Linux now that Moksha DE is interfering with it and I found no guide how to remove moksha and only keep xfce. Can you help?

[@adityashukla7849]

I learnt the same thing long way. I used to install a new linux distro almost everyday trying to see what's that sweet spot where I can stop. Fortunately came to know about Elementary OS. When installing it, I saw it gave me options to install so many GUIs. That's when I found out what I needed to do.

[@lorrewatkins5925]

You say distro hopping is a lack of knowledge, but in my opinion knowledge is obtained by trying new things, and in the case of Linux and distro hopping one would try and tinker with all these great distro's out there, because we can all agree there many distro's to choose from, and trying these versions to see which one is suitable for ones needs is never a bad thing in my opinion, and like I always say "Choice is good"

[@markh.6687]

As someone who has broken a few DE's and distros by changing the default DE from a distro, it is VITAL to know you may break your distro trying to delete various applications, including utilities. Applications which may be optional in pure "vanilla" Debian or Arch may be required by your favorite distro, and trying to delete them will end in tears, broken dependencies, and disappointment. In addition doing more than one DE at a time can lead to excessive memory or processor use, menu items that won't work from the menu, and a menu list a block long as elements of both DE show up. Some distros offer other DEs from their official repositories, but may not offer the full DE. This is also a headache if you are used to certain desktop or menu applications or features in your taskbar or system tray (or their Linux equivalent), and having to figure out what packages you need to install to get the full DE.

[@DJNightchild]

@Chris you really have no love for the rpm family, don't you ;)

[@ChrisTitusTech]

They make great servers ;)

[@frechjo]

OpenSUSE ~

[@David-135]

I would recommend dropping the use of double negatives in your writing style.

[@rossperk]

I really need to learn this now as in a couple of months when the Steam Deck launches, I want to use it as my Main PC with a nice look docked, but I don't want to break whatever driver tweaks Valve will have installed to make all of the games run.

[@rickbhattacharya2334]

Helpful video but I have faced several issues in my Pop os install after installing plasma desktop. One of the issues was 1 tones of bloat 2 system slow down 3 UI mismatch Etc etc.

[@zamSEG]

hello chris, any chances on complete simplified tutorial video how achive this?

[@portersmith1876]

After distribution hopping for several yeasts going back to 2000, I have rotated though every distribution including pure Linux distribution including both mandravia , Fedora, Centos and RHEL. Just recently I got sick of the constantly distribution hopping so I returned to RHEL purely because I can get self directed support for just-north of $200 dollars US but for that price I feel that I got a great deal on a rock-solid enterprise distribution.

[@kargandarr]

So you are saying that I should use some form of basic debian to build a distro instead of trying to use Trisquel?

[@nqomax]

8:06 ... settings demon... I literally died lol

[@angelmoncada382]

I think that is the correct pronunciation, though either one is accepted nowadays.

[@AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Chris. It was interesting to experience the various DEs and WMs years ago. But Gnome with a tiling extension does whatever I need. And Pop-shell is going to integrate i3 tiling and shortcuts, perhaps as soon as 20.04. But it is good for people to learn just how different these DEs can be.

[@lorrewatkins5925]

I love to try different DE's because I believe choice is good and I learn a thing or two. Now I'm know linux expert I've only been using linux on and of for a couple of years, but in my experience in the past by having multiple DE's my distro has become unstable which is a bummer, because like I said, I love trying and learning new stuff in the world of Linux !

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

The best distros for our moms is either Solus or ElementaryOS hands down.... they are pretty, easy to use and familiar (Solus looks and feels like Windows and Elementary looks and feels like Mac ...... if all you do there is browsing web, playing mahjong/solitaire, write a document or two once a year in Libre Office and maybe use VLC or Spotify)... these 2 distros are perfect

[@thelegendaryqwerty]

Man I just want POP OS Mate, all build by system 76 themselves.

[@ekirchman8765]

thelegendaryqwerty why not use Ubuntu mate? Or Linux Mint Kate edition? Both are build off of Ubuntu like Pop OS is

[@khandarwilliam5439]

it's all about choosing 1. package management 2. desktop environment 3. window manager

[@MarkGast]

I think I have settled on MX Linux with XFCE for my daily driver. It runs on EVERYTHING including 32-bit computers. I have the 64-bit version running on my i7 laptop and the 32-bit version on my little Atom based laptop.

[@davidneil5067]

This was a very helpful video. I've been wanting to stick with MX because it's been great for me, but wanted to try different DEs because I think XCFE looks and feels clunky and dated. I've been full-time on Linux for 6 months but six months ago had to get work done. Didn't have time to figure out the 'you can screw your whole system over' stuff that several people warned me about. This video did a great job of explaining it all so I'm not afraid to play with it. 🙂

[@americanparser]

Why not Slackware? Is it the whole "one guy thing?" It's just so fundamental to what Linux has become. I've always heard "use anything if you want to use Linux, but if you want 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 Linux, use Slackware."

[@shadrackman1234]

I felt that when he said he would recommend mint to his grandma haha. I was thinking about distro hopping and found this to be sound advice for someone who wants to dive deeper! I will be checking out more content.

[@AndersJackson]

I do agree fully with you Chris. There are just a few base distributions, the others are packages and backgrounds selected for you.

[@tomspencer1364]

1. Why didn't someone make this plain ten years ago? 2. Why does it need a tutorial to figure out the Debian website? Thanks for your abilities with making clear statements and demonstrations.

[@tomasglavina4166]

I never distro hop. I installed Fedora, and that is it. I need nothing more, it is amazing for software developing and it works wonders.

[@keiichiiownsu12]

You should do a video on the linux framebuffer device. If configured correctly, you can view video, images, and even PDF documents in the console, without Xorg/X11

[@esthergennn]

Running Budgie on Vanilla Arch. It's great 🤙

[@digitalsparky]

lets change linux today.. $ touch /etc/hostname ok, done, bye!

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Sparky is trolling lol.

[@digitalsparky]

@@ChrisTitusTech 100%, take the piss, troll and come up with genius solutions... plus dad jokes... it's what i do.. :D

[@mr.toffeeleviathan5223]

You're better off without a desktop environment at all, the CLI has never failed me.

[@bertnijhof5413]

I don't want to decide at login time, which desktop I want to use and that is, why I use VBox virtual machines. I can start the distro/desktop at any moment in time and I can run a number of them at the same time! I can play my music and at the same time upgrade one or more other VMs. So I use the following 5 desktop/distros: - Ubuntu Mate 20.04 VM for office work, email, torrents, WhatsApp and KDE-Connect. - Ubuntu 16.04 VM is encrypted and used exclusively for banking and PayPal. - Ubuntu Studio 20.04 VM for photos, videos and music. - Ubuntu 20.04 VM to try out new stuff. - Windows 10 Pro VM for the Dutch TV and News. My host OS is a minimal install of Ubuntu 20.04 booted and running on ZFS. Due to ZFS, VM response times are instantaneous and due to my SP nvme-SSD (3200/2300 MB/s) the VM boot times for Linux VMs are between 7 and 13 seconds. Fastest is Xubuntu and the slowest Ubuntu (Gnome). The Ubuntu VM boots even faster than the Ubuntu Host in 13 vs, 19 seconds. The Host boots from ZFS and has to open 3 datapool, the VM boots and runs from ext4 on top of ZFS and has access to some datasets of the 3 datapools through the VBox shared folders. Note that for almost all VMs the firewall is closed for inbound traffic and that is possible, because of the shared folders.

[@sankaracchulaptop2168]

Cinnamon or gnome which one is best?

[@fuseteam]

an intro comprised completely out of DEs sounds awesome :p

[@ChrisTitusTech]

Hehe, that does! My next intro will be 2-3 seconds though, as I just think it is bloat ;)

[@fuseteam]

@@ChrisTitusTech hehehehe

[@marcosoliveira8731]

I totally agree! With Linux we have the real power to build our own distro. That's amazing!

[@mgabriel650]

I am a new Linux user and I love it. Thank you for your content.

[@Zacki06]

Hey Chris, thank you for making these awesome videos :-D I do have a question regarding the use of vanilla Deb or arch as a base because as you mentioned, ripping out the default DE of a distro will break it. If I want to use Debian as my base, I don't have ppas available the same way as I have it in Ubuntu. Can't I just go with the server version of Ubuntu as a base and go from there? Or is that a bad idea? Cheers

[@riverlefae2047]

I started using Arch, but I really miss the APT package manager commands... They're more simple in my opinion, and I type full words out faster than I can type the single letters, ironically, haha!

[@uniqhnd23]

You should include Zorin OS in the list of distros for people who don't want to mess around with their OS

[@orlandokaraoke3002]

Installing more than one desktop environment usually pulls in applications from each one and creating a cluster mess of things that sometimes do the same thing and may or may not be as pleasant on a de other than what it came with. I'm a manjaro fan. As long as I don't wait too long to update things like months of time, it doesn't break. If it weren't for lack of certain specialized software I would abandon windows completely.

[@bonniemunene5163]

That youtube plaque is so reflective looks nice.

[@shanks0108]

Hi Chris, I have an old laptop which has 2GB RAM. I want to experiment it with Linux OSes. I like your idea about using vanilla distros. Which do you recommend would be better (more lightweight) for my old laptop? And what lightweight desktop environments would be suitable for the suggested distros?

[@Matthew_MBG]

xfce

[@eliyah737]

thank you very much, that was very informative, learnt a lot more about Linux

[@SpryCheetah6]

I work in IT in a windows dominated environment, due to budget issues we are trying to cut some costs and figured linux would be a good alternative. How do you use your linux machine at work? Is it pretty fluid to incorporate into an IT infrastructure?

[@flarone]

Big fan of this episode and your movement for pushing noobs away from the distro hop time sink in general. That said, why no callout for Fedora? If anything, stability and package support for Fedora is better than vanilla Debian, and is much more in line with the Linux experience of the corporate world.

[@donmills2647]

As a desktop user, I never saw a reason to poke around at any polkit stuff and from the mid to late 90's up to the present I have never had a problem having multiple desktops installed. I have been running Debian unstable since about '91/'92, if that makes a difference. I have Synaptic set so recommends do not get treated as dependencies and usually go for the whatever-desktop-minimal metapackages instead of the everything but the kitchen sink metapackages. I do look at the dependencies, recommended packages, and suggested packages for the metapackages and pick and choose some of those things to install. Things have to be pretty drastically wrong for me to want to reinstall my Debian installation. My biggest issue switching between multiple desktops has been what mixer to use that does not require pulse-audio. My solution for that for a few years has been to use kmix no matter what desktop/widow manager environment I am running. There have been a couple of times when I have had to change the command used in my .desktop file for kmix so the full mixer would not pop up on every log in, and I have had the change my .desktop files for pulse audio a couple of times for different desktops systems to keep it from starting when I log in. I think because of the close relationship of LXDE and LXQT being more or less 2 versions of the same desktop I have an issue when I go into LXQT where it complains about some keymapping already being taken, but everything I care about works, so I have not bothered to try tracking that down in the user config. I have a system with Ubuntu installed, since it is not my main system and sometimes I might not even boot into it for months at a time, I am more quick to do a reinstall of that system than I am my Debian system. In which case I start with the stock Ubuntu then even though I don't use Gnome that much these days, then at at the very least KDE and LXQT to it. Usually I will use 'dpkg --get-selections' to get a list of pacckages and prune anything I don't want to re-install out of the resulting list along with most of the lib-this, lib-that packages, so I can to the 'dpkg --clear-selections', 'dpkg --set-selections', and 'apt-get deselect-upgrade' so I get the things I had before reinstalled in one shot instead of having to do multiple selections in the package manager.

[@kevinmahernz]

Thanks, have tried installing additional desktop environments alongside whatever came out of the box a few times, and once I've gone beyond about two then things usually started breaking. Now I know why!

[@michaelchalupiak7272]

I can definitely see where you are coming from, but look at Egee's distro delves. There are differences in distros that at the very least make matter to a newer, less experienced user. Some of these things may only be skin deep, but still.

[@aydencook03]

I installed Manjaro preloaded with kde-plasma... Is it as easy to switch up desktop environments?

[@johnbamber7374]

I use Manjaro with Gnome, neon, and Solus with Budgie. I like using different DEs regularly.

[@waynestewart1919]

Makes custom distro soo unique, passwords and authentication aren't necessary. No one else can use it. Or even make your own Iron Man hologram Jarvis UI. (Dreams....)

[@refuse2fear]

Which version of Debian should I instaal? What is vanilla, is it debian with or without a desktop Manager?

[@DrewHowdenTech]

I really don’t care about not being able to remove the Gnome desktop environment. I just use the Budgie desktop environment and ignore the Gnome desktop environment. Besides, I have a terabyte of internal solid state storage anyway.

[@davebean2886]

When I installed the Debian with the Mate desktop, I ended up with a 2nd task panel at the top, which you don't seem to have. Took me quite a while to realize that the top bar was where we launch apps - seems like a waste of screen real estate to have a top and bottom - could not figure how to remove.

[@bwzes03]

Since I mostly work in Red Hat and derivatives like CentOS , I run Fedora 31 KDE spin on both my laptop and my Workstation at home. KDE 5 Plasma on Fedora 31 is a damn nice enviroment ! Went to the 'dark mode' last week, on both the Workstation and the laptop (work laptop ) , its still 'growing' on me.., not sure yet if I'm keeping the dark theme yet... although I must admit, it is a lot easier on the eyes... In fact, I installed it as Fedora 28 KDE spin, and upgraded it from 28 to 29, and 29 to 30, and 30 to 31 using : dnf system-upgrade download --releasever= ; dnf system-upgrade reboot

[@craigw4644]

Thanks Chris: Converted to Vanilla Arch from Fedora KDE a couple months ago on my personal laptop and production machine. Really liking Arch and use Awesome WM on my laptop. Installed Awesome on top of a KDE environment, now I have two polkits, gnome and kdwallet. Each time I reboot into Awesome, I have to log into my KZbin account. Everything is running nice except for the polikit annoyance, I have not tried removing one of the polkits, if I did remove one, I'm thinking gnome --keyring.

[@swapnilkanyal]

tiny core Linux distribution runs very well on my 25 year old computer with 128mb of ram so I think you should check this linux distribution out because I want to know what you think about it

[@akmartinez1]

It feels good to hear what you’re saying in this session. When I first tried to switch to Linux I started with Ubuntu. After a while I discovered that there was a lot of similarities with BASH and MSDOS where I had many years of experience before Window and a GUI spoiled me and started to lose some OS skills. Now that I’m trying to make Linux my primary OS I decided to go with “Vanilla Debian” because it looks like almost everything is a derivative of it. Basically your confirming my beliefs at the moment... thanks...

[@johnmal5975]

To each his own. I like 3 distros Linux Mint, Peppermint OS and KDE Neon because for me they are easy to use and never break. I totally understand the whole Arch, Debian thing but for me they are not a good fit. In my mind, that is the best part of Linux lots of choices. So what if one has to distro hop to find their sweet spot personally I thought it was a lot of fun in the beginning. Linux will never be mainstream anyway nor do I want it to be because big Tech would just ruin it. Take a look at Android no we do not need that in the Linux world.

[@rollipeikko4080]

For bleeding edge KDE there is KDE Neon that runs latest ubuntu LTS. That is if you are settled KDE fan wanting the latest and stable core. So it might not work with all desktops because custom repos but it is not supposed in the first place.

[@AncientGamerUK]

I now use Manjaro as a baseline simply because I like it, and Pamac is excellent for really changing the look and feel and getting an environment that flows and just works for my needs. The main reason for the initial choice of Manjaro after trying a few was the ease of setup with my GPU and Steam, it just worked after install with no need to mess with it.

[@racerx6384]

Do a video about clear linux. Im interested in learning how the package manager works.

[@ChrisTitusTech]

That is Friday's video I show the entire upgrade process and using packages along with the Distro as a whole install and config process.

[@racerx6384]

@@ChrisTitusTech noice

[@racerx6384]

@@ChrisTitusTech not sure if anyone would be interested but I would in a video showing a setup of a container environment to try out different distros and experiment with them.

[@Chenguin]

What is his definition of a "power user"?

[@theblackcatvieweraccount5402]

Someone who opens every program in terminal and scripts on the daily? Lol

[@drednot57]

What wrong with Red Hat based distros like mine? PCLinuxOS has many tools to change the the user interface, and can install from the repos, and boot more than one DE from the login screen. I've done this with no problems (KDE and E17). The Red Hat tree deserves more love than you're giving definitely.

[@grahningemar182]

Hi Nice video If one want eyecandy one huld trye Enlitenment together with compiz. Yust one note. You are still having a reboot habit of windows. One only need to reboot i you install a new kernel. But with the newer kernels one can configure it so you do not even need to reboot then eather. It yust switches over to the new kernel afer up date. But normaly you yust restart the demon or program. In case of windowmanegers is should b enuff to lig in and out. But if ine want ti be sure yust go to run level 3 and back to 5 again. It will save the time to reboot.