Ubuntu 12.04 changed itself to xubuntu and stopped working

[Bret Busby]

On 31/07/2015, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 30 July 2015 at 12:11, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>> How do I reverse this switch to xubuntu, without having to reinstall
>> Ubuntu, if it can be done?
>
>
> If you want Ubuntu with MATE, install Ubuntu with MATE and don't
> clutter your system with other desktops you don't need or use.
>
> https://ubuntu-mate.org/
>
> Partition your disk with /home in a separate partition, shared by all
> of them, and then switching distros is as easy as rebooting.
>

For several years, I have kept /home as a separate partition in each
Linux installation, for various reasons.

I also have, for data that is to be accessed by different operating
systems, or, otherwise to be kept out of the home partitions, in
separate data partions.

I also use applications from different desktop environments.

My preference for an FTP client, when it works (it isually works, but,
it did not, in the last web site update session that I performed on
one of my web sites), is gftp, and I also generally have kftpgrabber
installed as a backup ftp client, and, in the last occasion, I used
filezilla, as the backup ftp client.

I prefer gedit as a text editor, especially when writing HTML code,
apart from when I edit system files, when I use vi, as I believe that
vi is less likely to leave extra characters.

In viewing video files, some will work better with Ubuntu Videos or
whatever it is named, some (like .qs files) will work only with
Kaffeine, some will work better with vlc, etc, etc. vlc has
functionality (snapshots) that others do not. I also have used, and,
have installed, kplayer, gplayer, gmovieplayer, movieplayer, etc.
Sometimes, if a video will no0t play with one, I will try others, to
get it to work.

So, I use various applications from different desktop environments.

I believe that sometimes, the applications from the different desktop
environments, may have as dependencies, some of the components of the
desktop environments, from which the applications originate.

In terms of sharing the /home partition, apart from the aspect of
different operating systems, having different versions of the same
software (eg, Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 14.04, having different versions
of applications, the additional aspect exists, that, whilst Ubuntu has
firefox, Debian has iceweasel, and, iceape, whereas, not having iceape
in Ubuntu, I use Seamonkey. And the files associated with each of
them, could, I believe, easily make a mess, if a single /home
partition would be used for the four operating systems that I have
installed.

And, the version of Seamonkey, is years older than the version of
firefox on this system. And, whilst I have had installed, the latest
version of opera, I have gone back to a version that is a few years
old, but, if I have a newer version on one of the operating systems,
it would stuff up the older version on the other operating systems, if
I shared the same /home partition between them.

Similarly, when I get around to transferring my incoming main email
application to this computer; the email application formerly known as
PINE, I believe it highly likely that each of the four operating
systems would have different versions available, so the issue of c
ompatibility of the configuration file(s) and the data directories
hierarchies, between the different versions of the software, would be
quite risky.

So, sharing a /home partition betwen different operating systems
installations, is a bad idea. And, even a pretty clueless person like
me, can see that.

The multiplicity of desktop environements that are and/or have been,
installed, is due to the experimentation, in trying to find a desktop
environment that sould be sufficiently usable and uer-friendly, for
me.

Unless one of them tries to mutiny and take control of the operating
system, like xfce did, I can simply shoose which one to load, at
login, should I choose to use one different to mate. The mate desktop
environment has fucntionality that I prefer over the others, but, the
accompanying applications, are not necessarily all my preferred
applications.

So, I am free to choose which I use.

And, that is partly what I understand free software to be about - a
heretical thing - the freedom to choose.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................