It s been so long since I installed eos I forget the choices of de during install. Am I able to choose between all of the de s in the image, or are some of them installed after the os is installed?
@sempterobit If you use the online installer, they are all an option to chose from. If you do offline, KDE Plasma is the only option. You can add others later if you want to.
My personal recommendation would be to experiment with them in VM first. Then you can get a feel for each of them. As many topics here have pointed out, they each have their strengths and weaknesses.
For my last install of eos, which was a few years ago, I downloaded an iso, and flashed it to a thumbdrive. It had the option of gnome, (which I chose,) among others. So are you saying that if I install the same way using an iso of the latest version I will now only get kde, and plasma to choose from? Concerning online install, I ve never done it, mainly because I have always prepared the drive for a new install by wiping it. If I chose to install online I assume I would be installing over the current install right?
If you choose live install you will see more choices.
The live environment is KDE. The actual installed system is whatever you choose. From the installer, you can choose Xfce, Plasma, Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon, Budgie, LxQt, LxDe, i3-wm, or you can complete the installation with no DE and set one up later.
All of the options regarding disk layout are the same for online or offline installs. Whatever your “normal” method is will still be available.
For what it’s worth, most people do an online install. The offline install is primarily for less common use cases where connecting to the internet during the installation is not practical or possible.
Everything in your image except deepin, openbox and “All WMs” is offered by the online installer.
I guess that s the confusing part for me. If I m using a live version, or rather, a thumb drive, to wipe, and install in an offline install scenereo then what s controlling the computer while wiping, and or installing a new os on the drive with an online install?
You will be booting off and installing from the USB and online if you chose live install, what mode your in will make no difference.
You may be thinking the online install is something it is not. It is basically the same as you are describing–that is, you boot to the live environment from a USB stick, and the live environment runs from the USB stick and RAM while making changes to your computer and completing the installation.
The major difference between the two installation types is when the online installer gets to the part where packages need to be installed, it downloads the packages from the repos and install them. The offline installer has the needed packages bundled into the ISO, so it can be completed without an internet connection.
The live version is used in either case which makes total sense. I got stuck on stupid.
this was the first time I ever used a live installer, and probably the best experience I ever had. Because I always fought distros on to bare metal, I did not know what it was like to just take a backseat. Flawless experience.
like @misanthrope said if you had a VM (I never did) you could experiment, but if you know what you want: live.
Weird thing is I’ve outgrown the DE and would like to try Endeavour as Cinnamon now and don’t know quite what to do but that’s a problem for another time/thread. Good luck.