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

[Liam Proven]

On Sun, 21 Nov 2021 at 21:14, Bo Berglund <bo.berglund at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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...

Yes, certainly. Although in this instance there is the Ubuntu Cinnamon
Remix which would save you the trouble.

https://ubuntucinnamon.org/

I've tried it. It works fine. I found the colour scheme very garish
and unpleasant, and it uses the default GNOME accessories (text
editor, document viewer etc.) These have no true title or menu bars
and I find them clumsy. IMHO the Mint implementation of Cinnamon is
far better, and includes their own suite of accessories with proper
title and menu bars.

There are standard Ubuntu remixes with LXQt, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, and KDE.

Thus I mainly use the install-server-and-add-packages-manually
approach when I want a desktop that is not included, such as Window
Maker + GNUstep or ROX-Desktop.

> 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.

I suggest just adding the metapackage for the desktop you want, e.g.
lxqt, and not the whole desktop environment. This will give you a very
simple clean combination of a GUI but almost no accessories, taking
very little space. You can then add any accessories you find you need,
such as a Web browser, text editor and so on.

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