Just install the one that you want. For example to install LXDE, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.
sudo apt-get install lxde
for XFCE
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
for Gnome
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell
Once you install the one you want, log out, choose the one you want, and log back in.
It is possible, to install KDE run sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends kubuntu-desktop
.
After you install it you can switch between Desktop Environments at the login screen.
This also works with most of the common DE's out there.
For Xubuntu (XFCE) sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xubuntu-desktop
For Lubuntu (LXDE) sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends lubuntu-desktop
And Gnome Shell (Gnome 3) sudo apt-get install gnome-core
Theoretically you can have as many of these installed as you want, but I would only use one or two at time to avoid conflicts.
Note: If you plan on moving to a new DE completely, remove the --no-install-recommends
from the commands above.
Removing
You can remove any of these with the purge
command in apt
, like this:
sudo apt-get purge gnome-core
or
sudo apt-get purge kubuntu-desktop
If you want to try Linux Mint's Cinnamon use these commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
To uninstall Cinnamon use sudo apt-get purge cinnamon
and follow these instructions on removing PPA's.
I have personally run Unity and Kubuntu, Unity and Xubuntu and Unity and Gnome Shell. I have used Cinnamon a little bit too. KDE is by far the most customizable followed by XFCE in Xubuntu. Right now I just use Unity.
Best Answer
You won't have any problems installing multiple desktop environments. Nothing in the system will stop you from installing KDE, GNOME, Unity, Enlightenment, and all the others all at once (except for disk space).
However, desktop environments will often "argue" with each other and overwrite settings. For example, installing KDE on a system will very often break a Unity installation by overwriting GTK or similar properties. Similarly, installing Unity will break KDE most of the time.
Unfortunately for you, these incompatibilities are very hard to repair after they've happened, so this is a risk you must be willing to take with your system. If you want to explore different environments, I'd highly recommend you use VMs until such time as you find one you like. Then, install that one and only that one on your system.