Desktop environment

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In

graphical shell. The desktop environment was seen mostly on personal computers until the rise of mobile computing. Desktop GUIs help the user to easily access and edit files, while they usually do not provide access to all of the features found in the underlying operating system. Instead, the traditional command-line interface
(CLI) is still used when full control over the operating system is required.

A desktop environment typically consists of

Elements of graphical user interfaces and WIMP). A GUI might also provide drag and drop functionality and other features that make the desktop metaphor
more complete. A desktop environment aims to be an intuitive way for the user to interact with the computer using concepts which are similar to those used when interacting with the physical world, such as buttons and windows.

While the term desktop environment originally described a style of user interfaces following the desktop metaphor, it has also come to describe the programs that realize the metaphor itself.[1] This usage has been popularized by projects such as the Common Desktop Environment, KDE, and GNOME.

Implementation

On a system that offers a desktop environment, a

software library for applications
with a unified look and behavior.

A windowing system of some sort generally interfaces directly with the underlying operating system and libraries. This provides support for graphical hardware, pointing devices, and keyboards. The window manager generally runs on top of this windowing system. While the windowing system may provide some window management functionality, this functionality is still considered to be part of the window manager, which simply happens to have been provided by the windowing system.

Applications that are created with a particular window manager in mind usually make use of a

widgets
that allow the user to interact graphically with the application in a consistent way.

History and common use

The first desktop environment was created by Xerox and was sold with the Xerox Alto in the 1970s. The Alto was generally considered by Xerox to be a personal office computer; it failed in the marketplace because of poor marketing and a very high price tag.[dubious ][2] With the Lisa, Apple introduced a desktop environment on an affordable personal computer, which also failed in the market.

The desktop metaphor was popularized on commercial

Windows from Microsoft since the 1990s. As of 2014, the most popular desktop environments are descendants of these earlier environments, including the Windows shell used in Microsoft Windows, and the Aqua environment used in macOS. When compared with the X-based desktop environments available for Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and BSD, the proprietary
desktop environments included with Windows and macOS have relatively fixed layouts and static features, with highly integrated "seamless" designs that aim to provide mostly consistent customer experiences across installations.

Microsoft Windows dominates in marketshare among personal computers with a desktop environment. Computers using Unix-like operating systems such as macOS, ChromeOS, Linux, BSD or Solaris are much less common;

Wayland with a broad choice of desktop environments. Among the more popular of these are Google's Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, Intel's NUC, the Raspberry Pi, etc.[citation needed
]

On tablets and smartphones, the situation is the opposite, with Unix-like operating systems dominating the market, including the

are used on a much smaller number of tablets and smartphones. However, the majority of Unix-like operating systems dominant on handheld devices do not use the X11 desktop environments used by other Unix-like operating systems, relying instead on interfaces based on other technologies.

Desktop environments for the X Window System

A brief timeline of the most popular modern desktop environments for Unix-like operating systems (greyscale logos indicate when the project's development started, while colorized logos indicate the project's first release)

On systems running the

Qt) and libraries
for managing the desktop. All these individual modules can be exchanged and independently configured to suit users, but most desktop environments provide a default configuration that works with minimal user setup.

Some window managers‍—‌such as

wmii do not provide such elements. Not all of the program code that is part of a desktop environment has effects which are directly visible to the user. Some of it may be low-level code. KDE, for example, provides so-called KIO
slaves which give the user access to a wide range of virtual devices. These I/O slaves are not available outside the KDE environment.

In 1996 the KDE was announced, followed in 1997 by the announcement of GNOME. Xfce is a smaller project that was also founded in 1996,[4] and focuses on speed and modularity, just like LXDE which was started in 2006. A comparison of X Window System desktop environments demonstrates the differences between environments. GNOME and KDE were usually seen as dominant solutions, and these are still often installed by default on Linux systems. Each of them offers:

  • To programmers, a set of standard APIs, a programming environment, and human interface guidelines.
  • To translators, a collaboration infrastructure. KDE and GNOME are available in many languages.[5][6]
  • To artists, a workspace to share their talents.[7][8]
  • To ergonomics specialists, the chance to help simplify the working environment.[9][10][11]
  • To developers of third-party applications, a reference environment for integration. OpenOffice.org is one such application.[12][13]
  • To users, a complete desktop environment and a suite of essential applications. These include a file manager, web browser, multimedia player, email client, address book, PDF reader, photo manager, and system preferences application.

In the early 2000s, KDE reached maturity.[14] The Appeal[15] and ToPaZ[16] projects focused on bringing new advances to the next major releases of both KDE and GNOME respectively. Although striving for broadly similar goals, GNOME and KDE do differ in their approach to user ergonomics. KDE encourages applications to integrate and interoperate, is highly customizable, and contains many complex features, all whilst trying to establish sensible defaults. GNOME on the other hand is more prescriptive, and focuses on the finer details of essential tasks and overall simplification. Accordingly, each one attracts a different user and developer community. Technically, there are numerous technologies common to all Unix-like desktop environments, most obviously the X Window System. Accordingly, the freedesktop.org project was established as an informal collaboration zone with the goal being to reduce duplication of effort.

As GNOME and KDE focus on high-performance computers, users of less powerful or older computers often prefer alternative desktop environments specifically created for low-performance systems. Most commonly used lightweight desktop environments include

MATE
desktop environment, a fork of GNOME 2, is comparable to Xfce in its use of RAM and processor cycles, but is often considered more as an alternative to other lightweight desktop environments.

For a while, GNOME and KDE enjoyed the status of the most popular Linux desktop environments; later, other desktop environments grew in popularity. In April 2011, GNOME introduced a new interface concept with its

MATE as a GNOME 2 fork.[17]

Examples of desktop environments

The most common desktop environment on personal computers is

Shell extensions
.

Mainstream desktop environments for Unix-like operating systems use the X Window System, and include KDE, GNOME, Xfce, LXDE, and Aqua, any of which may be selected by users and are not tied exclusively to the operating system in use.

A number of other desktop environments also exist, including (but not limited to)

GEM, IRIX Interactive Desktop, Sun's Java Desktop System, Jesktop, Mezzo, Project Looking Glass, ROX Desktop, UDE, Xito, XFast. Moreover, there exists FVWM-Crystal, which consists of a powerful configuration for the FVWM
window manager, a theme and further adds, altogether forming a "construction kit" for building up a desktop environment.

Fvwm, as well as Window Maker and AfterStep, which both feature the NeXTSTEP GUI
look and feel. However newer versions of some operating systems make self configure.

The

navigational file manager
program, evolved to become a complete Amiga desktop replacement called Directory Opus Magellan.

OS/2 (and derivatives such as eComStation and ArcaOS) use the Workplace Shell. Earlier versions of OS/2 used the Presentation Manager.

The BumpTop project was an experimental desktop environment. Its main objective is to replace the 2D paradigm with a "real-world" 3D implementation, where documents can be freely manipulated across a virtual table.

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ "Window managers and desktop environments – Linux 101". clemsonlinux.org. Archived from the original on 2008-07-04.
  2. ^ Lineback, Nathan. "The Xerox Alto". Toastytech.com. Archived from the original on 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  3. ^ "Operating System Market Share". Marketshare.hitslink.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  4. SlashGear, archived
    from the original on 16 July 2011, retrieved 5 February 2011
  5. ^ "KDE Localization". L10n.kde.org. Archived from the original on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  6. ^ "GNOME Internationalization". Gnome.org. 2011-10-23. Archived from the original on 2011-03-14. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  7. ^ Link 27 Dec Personalized Golf Ball Sign» (2011-12-27). "Where life imitates art". KDE-Artists. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-02-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ "GNOME Art: Artwork and Themes". Art.gnome.org. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  9. ^ "OpenUsability". OpenUsability. Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  10. ^ GNOME Human Interface Guidelines Archived February 1, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ KDE User Interface Guidelines Archived January 6, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "KDE OpenOffice.org". KDE OpenOffice.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-13. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  13. ^ "GNOME OpenOffice.org". Gnome.org. Archived from the original on 2008-10-18. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  14. ^ "Linux Usability Report v1.01" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  15. ^ "Appeal". KDE. Archived from the original on 2007-01-06.
  16. ^ "GNOME 3.0". GNOME wiki. Archived from the original on 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  17. ^ Thorsten Leemhuis (usinglinux1173.blogspot.com), August 5, 2012: Comment: Desktop Fragmentation
  18. ^ Chris Haynes. "Scalos – The Amiga Desktop Replacement". Scalos.noname.fr. Archived from the original on 2018-09-22. Retrieved 2012-02-04.