The last 2 years I used Budgie on me machines. For a couple of weeks I tested KDE on an external drive, and I like it 
Can i switch from Budgie to KDE without a fresh install? Or is a fresh install the only way?
I would say a clean install is the safest way, but have a look at
https://discovery.endeavouros.com/desktop-environments/how-to-install-desktop-environments-next-to-your-existing-ones/2021/03/
and
https://discovery.endeavouros.com/desktop-environments/removing-a-desktop-environment/2021/03/
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I’ve always understood that mixing DE’s may easily lead to problem because of shared config/setting files etc. Have tried it myself once, many years ago, and the chimera system was very unstable. I did not spend time with tracing the problems and solving them; I simply reinstalled.
But I believe there are other here who do use more than one DE on one install.
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Just got to keep in mind that if you have hiccups, it’s probably your franken system.
Best to just reinstall and be more certain of what you have.
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I’m using KDE and Xfce side by side without problems.
Not sure if switching from Budgie to KDE is easy, but if you try it, be sure to backup of your personal data before doing anything else.
To have some help switching, run commands
eos-packagelist Budgie-Desktop
eos-packagelist KDE-Desktop
to get an idea which packages would be removed and which added.
Note that there may be other changes needed as well.
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Thanks for your help. Will try that:
Will perform it on a Mini PC where not that much is to loose
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Using full DEs side-by-side is generally going to cause issues.
Using window managers/compositors or component-based DEs like Xfce usually only cause easily-fixable theming issues or issues with XDG.
if you want to minimize problems a full reinstall is the safest. The next safest would be to create a new user account for your new DE this way config files don’t conflict with one another. The biggest issue your going to have is with the DM, I don’t know what budgie uses but KDE uses sddm so you’ll have to pick which DM you you want to use on your system, and deal with integration issues if you opt not to use sddm.
Budgie uses LightDM. Maybe i have to take the time for a backup and reinstall the system.
Thank you all for your help!