Hey guys,
As you can see I decided to write something on Linux, so I thought Linux desktop environment can be a nice thing to write about because you can have many desktop environments installed on a single Linux operating system and you can switch to any according to your likes and dislikes.
In the following image here is an example of how to we get choices in desktop environments. In this case different desktop environment installed on Ubuntu distribution on Linux (We will discuss about Linux distribution in some other article).
In the above picture we can see how we can easily login via any desktop environment into our Ubuntu Linux distributions. Below few popular desktop environment are discussed.
Unity
The most popular among us because it comes with Ubuntu by default. If you are using Ubuntu and didn’t tried any experiments on the environment, then you are probably using Unity. From its searchable Dash (which also searches online sources) to its application dock that functions similarly to Windows 7′s taskbar, Unity has its own identity as a desktop. However, Unity also includes a variety of programs from the GNOME desktop. Prior to Unity, Ubuntu used GNOME..
GNOME
Gnome is the most famous and one of the oldest desktop environments present. In fact Unity is not exactly a desktop environment; instead it’s a graphical shell for the Gnome desktop environment. This means that it just provides a new interface but uses Gnome 3.x apps and libraries underneath. The GNOME 2.x series was used by default on Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and most other big Linux distributions. GNOME 3 was arguably too simple and stripped-down in terms of options and features.
KDE
KDE is a bit more Windows-like than the other desktop environments here, coming with a single taskbar on the bottom of the screen that includes a menu, quick launch-type icons, a taskbar, a notification area, and a clock — the typical layout of a Windows taskbar before Windows 7. KDE is a solid desktop environment that’s well-suited to someone who wants a lot of configuration options. KDE 4′s desktop comes with a variety of widgets, so the desktop itself can be extensively customized, too. KDE is based on the QT toolkit, whereas GNOME and Unity are based on the GTK toolkit. This means that KDE uses different programs than these other desktops — file manager, image viewer, and so on — they’re all different programs than you’d use on a GNOME or Unity desktop.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon was developed for Linux Mint. Cinnamon is based on GNOME 3, so it uses up-to-date libraries and other software — but it takes that software and tries to create a more traditional-looking desktop with it. This modern desktop environment offers nice graphical effects and a rethought application menu. However, it doesn’t throw away the past and includes a taskbar, application menu that doesn’t take up the full screen, and so on. Linux Mint pushes Cinnamon as one of its preferred desktop environments, but you can also install and use it on Ubuntu.
LXDE
LXDE is focused on being as lightweight as possible and is especially designed for older computers, netbooks, and other systems with low hardware resources. While it’s a lightweight desktop, it includes all the standard desktop features — some lightweight desktops omit the taskbar entirely, but LXDE doesn’t. Like Xfce (Another light-weight environment), LXDE bundles its own lightweight file manager, text editor, image viewer, terminal program, and other utilities.
From,Name: Sanchit SaxenaBranch: 2CS 4th yearCollege: IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad
