Re: Is "Debian desktop environment" identical to "GNOME" upon installation?
On Fri 05 Nov 2021 at 07:43:22 (-0700), Peter Ehlert wrote:
> On 11/5/21 4:50 AM, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) wrote:
> >
> > I did some test by installing 2 identical virtualbox instances
> > (EFI turned on) with the same netinst image
> > <debian-11.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso>.
> >
> > I typically use XFCE, so I wanted to test if leaving "Debian
> > desktop environment" marked would affect or not my XFCE
> > installation.
> >
> > It does.
> >
> > a)
> > | [ ] Debian desktop environment
> > | [*] XFCE
> >
> > b)
> > | [*] Debian desktop environment
> > | [*] XFCE
> >
> > Using (b), I end up with 12 more installed packages. I checked
> > that there weren't any available upgrades after installing both
> > (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade showed 0).
> >
> > The offending list is:
> >
> > hv3
[ and its dependencies ]
> >
> > Maybe there's a bug somewhere in tasksel?
>
> I consider it Faulty Design.
>
> there is no "Debian desktop environment"... from my superficial
> testing it is kinda "Gnome Lite"
> (and in My Opinion gnome desktop is rather hateful).
>
> Being selected by default is a Huge design flaw.
>
> a simple "select a desktop environment" text message with something
> like "without a desktop you only get a terminal" as a suggestion for
> the uninformed would be far superior.
This particular horse was flogged a year ago. Top of thread:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2020/09/msg00238.html
It's not something I take great interest in as I don't use a DE.
> BTW: I only use net-install because I don't want all that cruft.
I wasn't aware that the netinst d-i distinguished itself by not
installing "cruft". AIUI, whether you install a DE depends on your
replies on this screen:
│ Choose software to install: │
│ │
│ [*] Debian desktop environment │
│ [*] ... GNOME │
│ [ ] ... Xfce │
│ [ ] ... GNOME Flashback │
│ [ ] ... KDE Plasma │
│ [ ] ... Cinnamon │
│ [ ] ... MATE │
│ [ ] ... LXDE │
│ [ ] ... LXQt │
│ [ ] web server │
│ [ ] SSH server │
│ [*] standard system utilities │
I've installed non-DE and non-DE, non-X systems from DVDs in the past,
and one DE installation from a netinst.
> PS: hunting down all swap partitions on very drive and setting them to
> Format by default is also a real pain in the tush.
I've no idea what is meant by this, nor its relevance to the Subject.
I'd mention in passing that I installed bullseye on a 512MB laptop
without configuring any swap space, as always. I leave that until the
system is up and running.
Cheers,
David.
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