I've reading about about the Cinnamon Desktop through this Q&A:

How do I install the Cinnamon Desktop?

I've also been looking at the various possible various flavours of Ubuntu such as Unity/Gnome-shell and KDE:

1. How do I install KDE shell on Ubuntu?
2. How do I install and use the latest version of GNOME Shell?

My concern is about running applications on Cinnamon - I'm fairly new to linux and am unsure about running software - especially about potentially mixing different software that may have been targeted at different desktops.

Can I run a Kubuntu or Unity applications in Cinnamon or do I have to get specific Cinnamon only applications? For example, KOffice/Libreoffice, Okular/evince etc.

Any help understanding what potential impacts such as extra software I may need to use or additional configuration to make sure that various different software behave and look like each other would be gratefully received.