Desktop Environment - ParabolaWiki

# Desktop Environment

Summary
In graphical computing, a desktop environment (DE) commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface (GUI) derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. This article provides a general overview of popular desktop environments.
Overview
The Xorg project provides a free software implementation of the X Window System – the foundation for a graphical user interface. Desktop environments such as E17, GNOME, KDE, LXDE, and Xfce provide a complete graphical environment. Various window managers offer alternative and novel environments, and may be used standalone to conserve system resources. Display managers provide a graphical login prompt.
Resources
Wikipedia:Desktop environment
Wikipedia:X Window System

Desktop environments provide a complete graphical user interface (GUI) for a system by bundling together a variety of X clients written using a common widget toolkit and set of libraries.

## X Window System

The X Window System provides the foundation for a graphical user interface. Prior to installing a desktop environment, a functional X server installation is required. See Xorg for detailed information.

  X provides the basic framework, or primitives, for building such GUI environments: drawing and moving windows on the screen and interacting with a mouse and keyboard. X does not mandate the user interface — individual client programs known as window managers handle this. As such, the visual styling of X-based environments varies greatly; different programs may present radically different interfaces. X is built as an additional (application) abstraction layer on top of the operating system kernel.

The user is free to configure their GUI environment in any number of ways. Desktop environments simply provide a complete and convenient means of accomplishing this task.

## Desktop environments

A desktop environment bundles together a variety of X clients to provide common graphical user interface elements such as icons, windows, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. Additionally, most desktop environments include a set of integrated applications and utilities.

Note that users are free to mix-and-match applications from multiple desktop environments. For example, a KDE user may install and run GNOME applications such as the Epiphany web browser, should he/she prefer it over KDE's Konqueror web browser. One drawback of this approach is that many applications provided by desktop environment projects rely heavily upon their DE's respective underlying libraries. As a result, installing applications from a range of desktop environments will require installation of a larger number of dependencies. Users seeking to conserve disk space and avoid software bloat often avoid such mixed environments, or look into lightweight alternatives.

Furthermore, DE-provided applications tend to integrate better with their native environments. Superficially, mixing environments with different widget toolkits will result in visual discrepancies (that is, interfaces will use different icons and widget styles). In terms of user experience, mixed environments may not behave similarly (e.g. single-clicking versus double-clicking icons; drag-and-drop functionality) potentially causing confusion or unexpected behavior.

### List of desktop environments

GNOME
  The GNOME project provides two things: The GNOME desktop environment, an attractive and intuitive desktop for users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop. GNOME is free, usable, accessible, international, developer-friendly, organized, supported, and a community.

Mate
  Mate provides an intuitive and attractive desktop to Linux users using traditional metaphors.

KDE
  KDE software consists of a large number of individual applications and a desktop workspace as a shell to run these applications. You can run KDE applications just fine on any desktop environment as they are built to integrate well with your system's components. By also using the KDE workspace, you get even better integration of your applications with the working environment while lowering system resource demands.

Xfce
  Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment, while remaining relatively light. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment.

E17
  The Enlightenment desktop shell provides an efficient yet breathtaking window manager based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries along with other essential desktop components like a file manager, desktop icons and widgets. It boasts a unprecedented level of theme-ability while still being capable of performing on older hardware or embedded devices.

LXDE
  The "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment" is a fast and energy-saving desktop environment. Maintained by an international community of developers, it comes with a beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Fundamentally designed to be lightweight, LXDE uses less CPU and RAM than other environments. It is especially beneficial for cloud computers with low hardware specifications, such as netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers.

ROX
  ROX is a fast, user friendly desktop which makes extensive use of drag-and-drop. The interface revolves around the file manager, following the traditional UNIX view that 'everything is a file' rather than trying to hide the filesystem beneath start menus, wizards, or druids. The aim is to make a system that is well designed and clearly presented. The ROX style favors using several small programs together instead of creating all-in-one mega-applications.

### Comparison of desktop environments

This section attempts to draw a comparison between popular desktop environments. Note that first-hand experience is the only effective way to truly evaluate whether a desktop environment best suits your needs.

Overview of desktop environments
Desktop environment | Widget toolkit | Window manager | Terminal emulator | File manager | Text editor | Web browser
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
E17 | Elementary | Enlightenment | Eterm | EFM / Entropy / Evidence | N/A | Eve
GNOME | GTK+ | Mutter | GNOME Terminal | Nautilus | gedit | Epiphany
KDE | Qt | KWin | Konsole | Dolphin | Kate / KWrite | Konqueror
LXDE | GTK+ | Openbox | LXTerminal | PCManFM | Leafpad | N/A
ROX | GTK+ | OroboROX | ROXTerm | ROX-Filer | Edit | N/A
Xfce | GTK+ | Xfwm | Terminal | Thunar | Mousepad | Midori

#### Resource use

In terms of system resources, GNOME and KDE are expensive desktop environments. Not only do complete installations consume more disk space than lightweight alternatives (E17, LXDE, and Xfce) but also more CPU and memory resources while in use. This is because GNOME and KDE are relatively full-featured: they provide the most complete and well-integrated environments.

E17, LXDE, and Xfce, on the other hand, are lightweight desktop environments. They are designed to work well on older or lower-power hardware and generally consume fewer system resources while in use. This is achieved by cutting back on extra features (which some would term bloat).

## Custom environments

Desktop environments represent the simplest means of installing a complete graphical environment. However, users are free to build and customize their graphical environment in any number of ways should none of the popular desktop environments meet their requirements. Generally, building a custom environment involves selection of a suitable Window Manager and a number of Lightweight Applications (a minimalist selection usually includes a terminal emulator, file manager, and text editor).

## Acknowledgement

This wiki article is based on ArchWiki. We may have removed non-FSDG bits from it.
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