If you haven't set up this laptop yet, then I'd suggest installing a server-oriented distro like Debian, AlmaLinux, or Ubuntu Server. Those have minimal install options that come without a desktop environment installed, as most servers do not need one. If you'd like to make the install harder for yourself, this might be a good excuse to give Arch Linux or Gentoo a try, as those have the option of a fully manual install. If you'd like, you can install a desktop environment afterwards using the package manager.
If you already have a Linux with a graphical desktop installed, you can configure the system not to automatically start it with sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
. (Do not do this on your main device!) You can re-enable it with sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
.
Regardless, you can then start a graphical session using startx
, or whatever command is more appropriate for your desktop environment (gnome-session
to start GNOME on Wayland, startplasma-wayland
to start KDE Plasma), or by sudo systemctl start
ing your login screen manager (sddm, gdm, lightdm, etc).
Saru and Kelvin Spock would probably get along really well. Everyone else would be having heated arguments that I think would be amazing to witness, if not take part in.
I think I'd most like to sit between Mariner and Pike, though.