Arch Linux

techkey

Member

From: Bangkok

Registered: 2008-07-05

Posts: 7

Multiple DE's

Hello all, can I install multiple DE's and run them 1 at a time to see and test them?

Thanks in advance for any replies and advices.

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ArchLinux <= :P

marxav

Member

From: Gatineau, PQ, Canada

Registered: 2006-09-24

Posts: 386

Re: Multiple DE's

Of course you can.  You could do it through your .xinitrc file or through your login manager.  You could even have multiple DE running at the same time

iggyst00ge

Member

Registered: 2008-01-24

Posts: 50

Re: Multiple DE's

You can, but there are some places where there is an overlap (login managers, for example KDM/GDM/XDM). 

Most window managers/DEs play nice with one another, but you may get some bugs or strangeness in the look and feel of your DEs on occasion. 

It might be easier to just burn a few live CDs to try the various DEs that way.  You can search Distrowatch for a live CD distro with the default window manager / DE you're interested in road testing.

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: Multiple DE's

You can safely try multiple DE/WMs. At one point I almost had every DE/WM in existence installed. See what you like

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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phabulosa

Member

From: Mountain View, CA

Registered: 2007-10-17

Posts: 182

Website

Re: Multiple DE's

The best way is to use QINGY.
This little thing is just like KDM, GDM, SLiM ...
However, it doesn't start X before you tell it which DE to use.

You can have as many DEs running at the same time as the number of TTY(VC).

freakcode

Member

From: São Paulo - Brazil

Registered: 2007-11-03

Posts: 410

Website

Re: Multiple DE's

The login manager is not really a problem. You can have KDM and login to Gnome, or vice-versa. You can even have more than one login manager installed, but only one works at a time as you set them in /etc/inittab