>
> I have tried at least 30, yes 30! DE/WM's So the only barriers are
>> honestly imaginary.
>>
>
> If I'm sitting there in front of my machine, can't I just kill my DE
> (Gnome 2, right now), drop to the console terminal and fire up another one?
>  Can't I install on the system as many of them as I please?
>
> When I used Solaris, it would have a login window that allowed me to
> choose my window manager.  I could use Open Windows, KDE, Gnome, or a
> couple of others that I had installed.  Does Linux do that, too?  It made
> it easy in a multi-user environment for different users to choose different
> desktop environments.
>
> I'm using Ubuntu.  It booted into Gnome 2, so I used Gnome 2, which was
> OK.  Now that they have Unity, I'm thinking about testing a few others to
> see how I like them.  What's the easiest way to do that?
>

it's trivial to apt-get install as many as you like, and gdm or kdm or lxdm
make it easy to logout of one and try another.  of those kdm is most clever
about remembering which user used which environment last.  the hardest part
is knowing what packages to install.  perhaps someone somewhere has a
list.  if you have enough ram and enough wild abandon to learn how, you can
run more than one at once.  if you learn how to invoke them from a getty
login, then yes, you'll have a console shell underneath it all.  when i do
that tho, i don't get sound.  if anyone has the solution to that i'd love
to see that.

a small list of some small DE/WMs:  twm, ROX Desktop, Joe's Window Manager
(JWM), fvwm, Awesome, LXDE(lubuntu), GNUstep, WindowMaker, LWM

when i ran "tasksel --list-tasks" under maverick i got this list of
meta-packages (tho not as nicely sorted):
   u manual                     Manual package selection
   u   ubuntu-netbook             Ubuntu Netbook
   u          netbook-live        Ubuntu Netbook live environment
   u  kubuntu-netbook            Kubuntu netbook
   u  kubuntu-netbook-live       Kubuntu Netbook Remix live CD
   u  kubuntu-mobile             Kubuntu mobile
   u  kubuntu-mobile-live        Kubuntu Mobile Remix live CD
   u   ubuntu-live                Ubuntu live CD
   u  xubuntu-live               Xubuntu live CD
   u  kubuntu-live               Kubuntu live CD
   u   ubuntu-dvd-live            Ubuntu live DVD
   u  kubuntu-dvd-live           Kubuntu live DVD
   u edubuntu-dvd-live          Edubuntu live DVD
   u   ubuntu-desktop             Ubuntu desktop
   u  xubuntu-desktop            Xubuntu desktop
   u  kubuntu-desktop            Kubuntu desktop
   u edubuntu-desktop-gnome     Edubuntu desktop
   u edubuntu-desktop-kde       Edubuntu KDE desktop
   u mythbuntu-desktop          Mythbuntu additional roles
   u mythbuntu-frontend         Mythbuntu frontend
   u mythbuntu-backend-master   Mythbuntu master backend
   u mythbuntu-backend-slave    Mythbuntu slave backend
   u ubuntustudio-font-meta     Large selection of font packages
   u ubuntustudio-graphics      2D/3D creation and editing suite
   u ubuntustudio-audio         Audio creation and editing suite
   u ubuntustudio-audio-plugins LADSPA and DSSI audio plugins
   u ubuntustudio-video         Video creation and editing suite
   u edubuntu-server            Edubuntu server
   i openssh-server             OpenSSH server
   u postgresql-server          PostgreSQL database
   u dns-server                 DNS server
   u lamp-server                LAMP server
   u mail-server                Mail server
   u print-server               Print server
   u samba-server               Samba file server
   u tomcat-server              Tomcat Java server
   u virt-host                  Virtual Machine host
   u uec                        Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (instance)
   u eucalyptus-simple-cluster  Cloud computing: all-in-one cluster
   u eucalyptus-cloud           Cloud computing: top-level cloud controller
   u eucalyptus-node            Cloud computing: node controller
   u eucalyptus-cluster         Cloud computing: cluster controller
   u eucalyptus-storage         Cloud computing: storage controller
   u eucalyptus-walrus          Cloud computing: Walrus storage service
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