On Thu 11 Jun 2020 at 06:03:28 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote: > I'm interested in the installer menu titled "Software Selection". > I want to know explicitly what happens when "Debian desktop environment" > and/or "MATE" is checked. > TIA
Checking "Debian desktop environment" alone gets you the task-desktop package. From apt show task-desktop we see Recommends: task-gnome-desktop | task-xfce-desktop | ... This means that task-gnome-desktop is installed. In other words you get Gnome as a desktop. Checking "MATE" alone gets you the task-mate-desktop package. From apt show task-mate-desktop we see Depends: tasksel (= 3.53), task-desktop, ... task-desktop is installed and its Recommends: is fulfilled by the ask-mate-desktop package. You get MATE. Checking "Debian desktop environment" and "MATE" is the same as checking "MATE" alone. -- Brian.
