Right. But cleaning up the old files left over from swapping your DE is much easier if you actually have read and write access to those files. When you swap DEs, it’s gonna leave shit behind whether you’re atomic or not. But atomic systems have more barriers to cleaning them up, to prevent the user from accidentally cleaning the wrong things.
That’s not how these OSs work. You’re thinking in terms of traditional distros.
Think of it like this. With an image-based OS like Bazzite, whenever you do an update or you switch between different flavors, it’s like completely wiping the system directories and reinstalling them fresh, while leaving the user directories alone.
So you’re not removing GNOME or KDE. It’s like they were never installed in the first place.
The dotfiles between GNOME and KDE are the same, the base image doesn’t matter, if you try to switch DE’s on old distros you have the same problem.
Right. But cleaning up the old files left over from swapping your DE is much easier if you actually have read and write access to those files. When you swap DEs, it’s gonna leave shit behind whether you’re atomic or not. But atomic systems have more barriers to cleaning them up, to prevent the user from accidentally cleaning the wrong things.
All of the affected files are in the user’s home directory, not on the system.
This just isn’t true. There are tons of dependencies that are going to get left all over the place
It’s an image, there’s no such thing as “left all over the place”. Source: I’m one of the maintainers.
Of GNOME or KDE? Because both of them leave gunk in system files when removed
That’s not how these OSs work. You’re thinking in terms of traditional distros.
Think of it like this. With an image-based OS like Bazzite, whenever you do an update or you switch between different flavors, it’s like completely wiping the system directories and reinstalling them fresh, while leaving the user directories alone.
So you’re not removing GNOME or KDE. It’s like they were never installed in the first place.