cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42263587
Of the desktop environments i’ve tried, i prefer Cinnamon overall. But i find that i’d rather use the KDE or Mate versions of some programs. I don’t need Nemo when i’d rather use Thunar, or Gnome Characters when i prefer mate-character-map or kcharselect.
Is there any reason i can’t start with nothing that’s specific to any one DE, then install whatever i need to have Cinnamon applets with the Mate and KDE programs i want? I don’t expect this to be easier than picking one DE and sticking with that, but is it so much harder that it’s not worth the trouble to have my computer so customized? How common is it to use a custom blend like this?
This was sparked when, while cleaning up my system that still has similar programs from several DEs, i accidentally broke Cinnamon and had to reinstall it, complete with everything i’d removed in favor of some other DE’s version of a program.
[hr]
What window managers are recommended for situations like this? I’ve always used whatever comes with my DE, without really being aware of the window manager. How does that affect what display manager i need?
Yes it is very much doable and you can get a functional system. But there can be 2 main problems for your case:
-
you would literally install Debian and choose nothing (no DE just a bare minimum). On Arch, this is easy because it came with some packages or you can install during live to get wifi working. On Debian , last I heard you need to do some dhcp wizardry.
-
cross apps compatibility. This is very serious. Even “lightweight” DE like xfce has a lot of hidden stuff that helps to run your notifications , powers and brightness/volume. And that does not count it you want stuff from Gnome or KDE: they even have more special libraries. In your case, the worst scenario would be to have multiple libraries/configs from different DE and they try to do the same thing. This is very hard to debug and maintain.
Point 1) is not as bad, if you use an Ethernet or somehow connects to the internet. It is only for the 1st phase where you install stuff though. After that you can just use the DE’s network manager.
Point 2) should not be a problem IF you are running a window manager. The reason is that in these setups you can choose exactly what you want without messing up…On DE you can too, but you migght break things. For eg, choose dunst for notitication or xfce4-notifyd. On a mixed DE setup? Bad idea imo.
-
Yeah it’s fine.
It’s how it was done in œlden times. Þe ancients speak of a time before KDE, before Gnome, a time of CDE which was everyþing but. Before þat, “desktop” was formless, and void.
98% of everything should Just Work, although some software may drag in heavyweight dependencies. I’ve used TDE’s versions of konqueror and konsole from inside fluxbox and other lightweight setups, called up thunar from within TDE, etc. At most, you might have some theming issues. The only thing that would be 100% incompatible would be trying to run a wayland-only program from inside an X environment.
Most display managers should be able to handle different window management sessions without issue. If you’re looking at an X environment and really want to start from the WM level, I’d recommend sticking with something like fluxbox, fvwm-crystal, or even enlightenment (which is somewhere between a WM and a very lightweight DE). Avoid anything described as “minimalist”, unless you like the idea of running around adding other software like dmenu and feh to get basic functionality (and like reading documentation).
I’ve used different Linux OSs for 20 years and switched DEs without a thought and without a big install and never had a problem. Seems like one of the advantages, but maybe I am not using the programs you are.
Aside from specific dependencies that may want some installed packages even if you don’t use them, yes, it’s fine.
I have used Debian for 15 years, with Gnome 2 then MATE, and now I’m using Cinnamon, while mixing with any GTK apps I can find.
Unless the programs in question rely on conflicting core dependencies that actually have to have hooks into the system, like KWallet and other credential managers, and other similarly “system” level tools, you’ll be totally fine. Worst case while avoiding those, you might have to install some hefty frameworks (eg: KDE’s dependencies are >1gb), but that’s about it.
If they need to integrate with specific core utilities, it can get weird. Though as long as you check for conflicting stuff before actually installing, you’ll be fine.
Yes. I run Debian with a bunch of Gnome and KDE applications on XFCE4. UI looks weird sometimes, but it works as well as I expect.
sure
Certainly. I’ve had setups with FVWM as a pure window manager while using XFCE’s
xfce4-terminal, MATE’s Caja file browser, and GNOME’s Evolution mail client. Some utilities will pull a few extra dependencies from their native DE, but they won’t get in the way either.Display manager won’t matter too much, most should be configurable to point at your WM of choice. LightDM integrates nicely with GTK themes, SDDM for Qt, and GDM for GNOME.
The biggest pain point from my experience was configuring power management and lid close actions manually, if using a laptop, since those often are only done for you if you install an entire DE at once.
Also grab a copy of qt5ct if you’re interested in making your Qt packages look more integrated next to GTK packages.
sure, but in doing so you have to follow the rules:
- be mindful of what you install
- dont be afraid to remove stuff
- have fun :3
