Does installing desktop on Ubuntu Server turn it into the desktop? version?

[Bo Berglund]

On Sun, 21 Nov 2021 14:00:17 -0500 (EST), Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>
wrote:

>There really isn't anything like a "server" or "desktop" version of Linux.  
>All that makes a server distro is just that just does not include the GUI 
>packages.  It is possible to install some or all of the GUI infrastructure 
>packages on a server distro, which makes it possible to run GUI applications, 
>either on a local screen or via something like ssh X11 tunneling on a "remote" 
>screen.  It is *also* possible to install server deamon packages on a desktop 
>system and run these in background, turning your desktop (or laptop even) as a 
>"server".

So what this really means is that if I create a new Ubuntu machine intended as a
"desktop" I could start by installing the "server" version and then follow up by
installing the Cinnamon desktop environment, rather than installing from the
desktop distro ISO.
This would get me a usable Ubuntu 20.04.3 Desktop machine with a sensible
desktop rather than the very strange one they have now put into the distro...

It does not apply to the server I want to install the gui on now, though,
because this will primarily be used as a server henceforth, but with the
possibility to occationally use it as a dev platform for Linux-on-PC programs.

And it has a server 20.04.3 already running, which has migrated twice now (16.04
LTS => 18.04 LTS => 20.04 LTS)
The last release upgrade was done following a disk migration from an old BIOS
based Acer eMachine PC to a new Lenovo IdeaCentre UEFI based PC.

Good to know.


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden