Need help demonstrating something,

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

I have a friend who’s on the brink of switching to Linux. But he’s skeptical about the flexibility of Linux as far as asthetics does. He thinks linux is stuck back in the days of only one desktop environment, and no way to customize it much.

I not only want to show him thats not true, but show him multiple desktop environments in the process.

I’m running a pretty standard Ubuntu 18.04. I like their interpretation of Gnome. But I was hoping you guys could suggest some desktop environments that I could install and switch to as a demonstration to him.

But if they need any complicated steps, I would ask if you please go over those steps, or at least link me to the steps to install them. It would be much appreciated.

Thank you sincerely,
Smerrills

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Could show a video like this one, then pick one he finds interesting and then install it. Save a lot of time and headaches.

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I’m not sure if this is a low effort response, but could you maybe show him reddit.com/r/unixporn ? I’ve found I get a lot of inspiration for my *nix environments from their. I also greatly suggest finding out what his desires are for a DE, because you may show him hundreds and still not get through to him. Just some suggestions for you, but I hope this helps!

Edit: Also what’s nice about he subreddit is that the configuration files are typically available so if your friend loves one it’s typically pretty easy to setup!

2 Likes
4

Here’s my Solus with Budgie, I think it is beautiful:

Here is how you do it:

  1. Open Desktop Settings.
  2. Click “Bottom Panel” on the left then click “Settings” in the center of the screen.
  3. Next to “Position” click drop down menu and select “Top”
  4. On the left click the big plus “+” and create new Panel.
  5. Select it under “Panel” then click “Applets” in middle of screen
  6. Click the plus “+” on the right and select “Icon task list”
  7. Click “Settings” in center of screen and scroll down and click “Doc Mode” to on.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

Screenshot
Screenshot.jpg1280x1024 399 KB

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I was just hoping to set up multiple desktops to show him in person. So he could fiddle around and see what he likes. I don’t mind messing up this Ubuntu installation. i don’t keep personal files on this machine. So thanks for some of the suggestions so far!

@Phantom I totally forgot about that linux scoop video! Thanks!

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Ok, done with showing him the desktops. And he wanted an Ubuntu Gnome type experience. Which shocked me. He’s coming straight off Windows, but says he likes the way Ubuntu 18.04 is laid out. I figured he’d go with Cinnamon or something like that, but he didn’t.

Now I have a problem, where I’ve gotten all the extra desktop environments to uninstall, but there’s still a selection on login under that gear, that says Xfce session. I tried to log into it, and there’s no panel, there’s no programs, just the icons for my drives which I cannot open, and I can open the terminal for Xfce.

Why didn’t this option for an xfce session die when I got rid of Xubuntu? And why is it broken as all hell? I had to force a reboot from the terminal. WHY DOES IT HAVE A TERMINAL APP? It doesn’t have any other apps?

How do I get rid of xfce session?

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apt-get purge xfce4?

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Tried that. The option is still there, and still login-able. Like I said, it’s just a background, with mouse, and 4 incons of my drives.

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Some xfce4 packages must still be installed. I’ve always found it aggravating that apt will install all required dependencies and modules but wont remove them all with the same meta package name.

Try making sure theres nothing getting left with sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get autoremove

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Tried that too when i removed it. And those didn’t work either. But I’ll try it again.

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Nope it didn’t work.

nate@Hawkeye-Pierce:~$ sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get autoremove
[sudo] password for nate:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded

12

Did you see this?

1 Like
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This right here. This is what I was looking for! Thank you!

This fixed it. No more xfce session. That’s awesome. Now I’m back to my stock Ubuntu.

Granted, I don’t mind. I don’t use this machine as daily, but just the fact there was something there that I wanted to get rid of after I got rid of it, irked me. Thanks.

1 Like
14

Which command did you use?

That thread was like a nuke. Everyone recommended something. LOL.

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The one that was checked as the right answer. It worked perfectly.

Most of them though, seemed to suggest almost the same thing.

1 Like