> everyone who's actually experimented with installing non-default DEs knows
it's not as simple as that. Unless you do a bunch of maual config and
debugging, a non-default DE never works as smoothly as the default.
Not my experience at all. Some default configurations (like the ones for Xfce
and LXDE) are ugly, but that's the only problem I've encountered.
> Plus, adding a whole DE and all the packages and dependencies it needs adds
a lot of bloat to your system.
Having two DEs at once causes duplicate programs to exist, which can be a bit
confusing until you get used to it, so you should prevent that from happening
by starting with a net-install. But it doesn't add substantial "bloat". These
duplicate programs do not run while you use the alternative DE, so all they
do is take up a small amount of space on your hard drive.
> LXDE, with its appalling Midori browser
Midori and LXDE are not related in any way.
