Category:Desktop Environment

From GTALUG

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Desktop Environment

Linux has several more or less popular "desktop environments" including GNOME, KDE, XFCE, GNUstep.

A Desktop Environment typically provides icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers, graphical libraries, and other application services.

Perhaps the first major one coining the name was CDE, a proprietary system created by HP. It combined libraries to provide common services along with some applications written using those libraries, and was then intended to be extended to support additional applications.

KDE was founded in 1996 as something a reaction to CDE; the desire was to have a powerful "free software" alternative. GNOME was founded in 1997 as a reaction to KDE, because people were concerned about licensing of some of the libraries used in KDE.

These systems are not window managers, although they may include one. They consist of large sets of libraries intended to allow applications not to need to keep creating application services from scratch. There are common:

  • graphical libraries
  • translation tools to support multilingual applications
  • XML parsers and other configuration management tools
  • widget and icon sets
  • Interprocess communications protocols
  • user interface design standards

Each such environment has numerous applications built atop these "base services."

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Articles in category "Desktop Environment"

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