sure, but in doing so you have to follow the rules:
- be mindful of what you install
- dont be afraid to remove stuff
- have fun :3
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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I've used different Linux OSs for 20 years and switched DEs without a thought and without a big install and never had a problem. Seems like one of the advantages, but maybe I am not using the programs you are.
sure
Yeah it’s fine.
Certainly. I've had setups with FVWM as a pure window manager while using XFCE's xfce4-terminal, MATE's Caja file browser, and GNOME's Evolution mail client. Some utilities will pull a few extra dependencies from their native DE, but they won't get in the way either.
Display manager won't matter too much, most should be configurable to point at your WM of choice. LightDM integrates nicely with GTK themes, SDDM for Qt, and GDM for GNOME.
The biggest pain point from my experience was configuring power management and lid close actions manually, if using a laptop, since those often are only done for you if you install an entire DE at once.
Also grab a copy of qt5ct if you're interested in making your Qt packages look more integrated next to GTK packages.
Unless the programs in question rely on conflicting core dependencies that actually have to have hooks into the system, like KWallet and other credential managers, and other similarly "system" level tools, you'll be totally fine. Worst case while avoiding those, you might have to install some hefty frameworks (eg: KDE's dependencies are >1gb), but that's about it.
If they need to integrate with specific core utilities, it can get weird. Though as long as you check for conflicting stuff before actually installing, you'll be fine.
Yes. I run Debian with a bunch of Gnome and KDE applications on XFCE4. UI looks weird sometimes, but it works as well as I expect.
Aside from specific dependencies that may want some installed packages even if you don't use them, yes, it's fine.
I have used Debian for 15 years, with Gnome 2 then MATE, and now I'm using Cinnamon, while mixing with any GTK apps I can find.