How can I install XFCE and completely remove Unity

Question

I use Ubuntu 12.04 (I have not upgraded to 14.04 for performance reasons) but I don't like Unity. How can I install XFCE as my default graphic system, and completely remove Unity?

Solution

You can install the entire xfce ubuntu package using the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xfce4

Alternatively, you can install the entire xubuntu package:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

To uninstall unity:

sudo apt-get purge ubuntu-desktop unity-*

Comments

[Rinzwind]

I would re-install so no remains of the old desktop remain. is that an option?

[wwwjsw]

in reality, i just want install XFCE and set as default graphic ambient

[tprk77]

I tried this, but got stuck at the first aptitude remove '?and(... step. It spent a very long time searching for a solution.

[briankip]

Installing the xubuntu-desktop package could leave you with many duplicate applications.

[mchid]

@briankip Duplicate applications? Do you mean like nautilus and thunar? Personally I like having the option to use either nautilus or thunar as nautilus is pretty resource intensive but thunar doesn't have the automatic search capabilities that nautilus has.