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From what I understand, Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 are 2 different OS.

My question is, is it possible to convert my installation of Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu Gnome 16.04? Or maybe I got it all wrong and gnome is just a desktop environment that I can switch to from unity? Maybe?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Apparently the forum found a possible duplicate so lemme clear that up :). I am not asking what the differences between Unity and Gnome DE are, I'm asking about the entire OS flavors if I can convert one to the other without a complete reinstall.

Gazdaru Andrei
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1 Answers1

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One way to switch to a Ubuntu gnome is installing ubuntu-gnome-desktop metapackage. But, that you give you two DEs aren't much pure. Unity settings sometimes causes problem in Gnome-Shell and vice versa.

To completely remove all components of Ubuntu and install Ubuntu-gnome instead, I suggest using this script. The script was developed by the person who was providing the command for these kinds of Switching till 15.04.

  • Download the purebuntu.py file from this GitHub repository.

  • Install the apt-rdepends package using the terminal command 

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install apt-rdepends

  • Run the purebuntu.py file using this syntax: 

    python purebuntu.py --remove ubuntu-desktop --keep ubuntu-gnome-desktop

  • This will generate an apt-get command which will remove Ubuntu related packages and install ubuntu-gnome-desktop metapackage.

This will give you a fairly clean Ubuntu gnome desktop. Take note though, You might lost already installed extra packages because of this operation.

P.S.: You can generate the commands to switch back using:

    python purebuntu.py --keep ubuntu-desktop --remove ubuntu-gnome-desktop
lrkwz
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Anwar
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