The goal: Safely install KDE Plasma (and possibly Cinnamon) alongside Gnome on POP_OS 22.04.
Quick bit of background. With the release of Debian 12 I came to learn (from Explaining Computers dotcom yt channel) about the tasksel tool. This has intrigued me as I have developed the desire, if somehow possible, to have other DEs installed on my system ...to be able to switch between them until I settle on one. Then, just this morning I did a little digging and discovered that System76 already has a dedicated help page for adding Desktop Environments to an existing installation using apt commands. Problem solved right?
Well. This is what I'm not sure. Because I don't just want more DEs on the system. What I hope to accomplish, whether by using tasksel or apt (or something else?) is to install one or two additional environments while keeping all of the existing applications and settings, so they are only installed and configured once on the system (as currently) but with freedom to switch desktop environments to see how each one feels with the same workflow.
What I definitely don't want is to do one of these methods and find that they've buggered existing applications, erased their settings or that the entire workflow has to be painstakingly re-created in each new desktop environment. So I guess the actual question is two parts,
Q1. Is it ever possible to install a new desktop environment to an existing Debian-based distro while maintaining pretty much all of the current software and application settings?
Q2. If yes, can this be done with tasksel and/or apt methods and, if so, which is better to use for desired outcome? Why?
Bonus question: Approximately how much disk space is, or where Gnome is already present, would be consumed by a fully functional, fully installed KDE Plasma (xx GB) and Cinnamon (xx GB)?
Prior to posting the most similar Q&A I was able to find was this and this.
