Hi,
some news from my own experience with various Desktop Environments.
In a first time i downloaded the packages kde-full and gnome without installing them. The download of KDE ends without error, unlike of the one of gnome which generates some errors telling that some coponents can not be downloaded.
So i decided to try KDE first; the install of KDE ends without error. After this, it's possibe to select 'plasma' (the DE's name of KDE if i well understood) as the DE. Then the plasma screen appears, yes
but disappointment comes quickly 
. In fact, most windows (file manager, tools, most softwares) are open at the top left corner of the screen, and it is not possible to move them . As i read on google, that this can be caused by the 'window manager', i tried other window managers, but none of them changes the behavior of the DE, and in some cases installing a WM generates some errors. So i decided to remove kde-full using apt, but it removes nothing (~2GB), so i re-flashed my eMMC again,... end of kde test.
So, after setting up my rock64, i try to install gnome
. Without surprise, as the download has ended by signaling that some components were missing, the install ends with errors. Despite these errors, it's possible to select gnome during further logins, but, without surprise, this not works (each time, the login view is presented again). But the good news, and perhaps this is not surprising this time, further logins with LXDE continue to work properly and, perhaps even, better. For example, the network connections can be edited and some accessories have been installed and work (Disks, ScreenShot, SimpleScan, System Monitor, Compress/Decompress, Software, LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, ...). For my part, as the install of gnome requires "only" ~1GB, i will continue to work like this 
.
Here are the news.
regards
some news from my own experience with various Desktop Environments.
In a first time i downloaded the packages kde-full and gnome without installing them. The download of KDE ends without error, unlike of the one of gnome which generates some errors telling that some coponents can not be downloaded.
So i decided to try KDE first; the install of KDE ends without error. After this, it's possibe to select 'plasma' (the DE's name of KDE if i well understood) as the DE. Then the plasma screen appears, yes
but disappointment comes quickly . In fact, most windows (file manager, tools, most softwares) are open at the top left corner of the screen, and it is not possible to move them . As i read on google, that this can be caused by the 'window manager', i tried other window managers, but none of them changes the behavior of the DE, and in some cases installing a WM generates some errors. So i decided to remove kde-full using apt, but it removes nothing (~2GB), so i re-flashed my eMMC again,... end of kde test.So, after setting up my rock64, i try to install gnome
. Without surprise, as the download has ended by signaling that some components were missing, the install ends with errors. Despite these errors, it's possible to select gnome during further logins, but, without surprise, this not works (each time, the login view is presented again). But the good news, and perhaps this is not surprising this time, further logins with LXDE continue to work properly and, perhaps even, better. For example, the network connections can be edited and some accessories have been installed and work (Disks, ScreenShot, SimpleScan, System Monitor, Compress/Decompress, Software, LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, ...). For my part, as the install of gnome requires "only" ~1GB, i will continue to work like this .Here are the news.
regards