Desktop environment

In graphical computing, a desktop environment offers a complete graphical user interface (GUI) solution. It provides icons, toolbars, applications, applets, and abilities like drag and drop. As a whole, the particularities of design and function of a desktop environment endow it with a distinctive look and feel.

The term really only makes sense in the context of systems running the X Window System and/or UNIX, systems which have a GUI, but which may not have bundled all the modern features mentioned above. One can think of a desktop environment as a set of tools that make UNIX and X act like the GUIs of Microsoft Windows or Apple Macintosh.

Well-known examples include GNOME, KDE, CDE and XFce; however, a number of other desktop environments also exist, including (but not limited to): EDE, UDE, ROX Desktop, GEM, PerlTop, XPde, Xito and arm0nia.

Some window managers also include elements reminiscient of those found in desktop environments; most prominently Enlightenment.

See also

• Window manager

External Links

• X desktops:
  • GNOME
  • KDE
  • XFce
  • CDE
  • 3DWM: Full 3D Environment
  • 4dwm (IRIX)
  • XPde: It tries to recreate for Linuxthe Windows XP interface to-the-pixel point
• ROX Desktop
• SunView
• UDE
• EDE
• GEM
• OpenWindows
• PerlTop
• XPde
• arm0nia
• http://www.xpde.com