Hello Linux Geeksters. As the title sais, Cinnamon 1.8 and XFCE 4.10 are now available in the default repositories of Debian Sid and Debian Jessie (testing).
Cinnamon and XFCE are two good alternatives of Gnome 3. While XFCE is lightweight, Cinnamon is a Gnome 3 fork created by the Linux Mint Team.
How to install XFCE 4.10 on Debian Sid and Debian Jessie (Testing):
Just make sure your system is up to date:
$ sudo apt-get update
Install XFCE 4.10:
$ sudo apt-get install xfce4
How to Install Cinnamon 1.8 on Debian Sid and Debian Jessie (Testing):
Update the system:
$ sudo apt-get update
Install Cinnamon 1.8, and Nemo, Cinnamon’s file manager:
$ sudo apt-get install cinnamon nemo
Optional: You can install Linux Mint’s display manager, MDM:
$ sudo apt-get install mdm
To set MDM as the default display manager, do:
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
And choose MDM as default, from the list:
To revert the changes, set LightDM as default back again:
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
And remove mdm:
$ sudo apt-get remove mdm