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Introduction to Linux: Desktop Environments
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A while back, we posted a brief Introduction to Linux article that was well-received, and thank you to all who Dugg the article. I have been very busy since so, as a follow-up, this is a long time coming. I apologize for the delay, but hopefully the Linux newbies who found my first article useful will find this to be a good next step.
I've discussed what GNU/Linux is (commonly referred to as Linux), what it represents, why people use it and why more should. I've even touched on the subject that you can do almost anything in Linux that you may have taken for granted as being a purely Windows (or Apple) related functionality. For those who took my advice and played around with a Live CD, it must be like being lost in a foreign nation. Where's the Start button? Where's Windows Manager?
You undoubtedly notice that, although the functionality seems to overall be similar (with a few minor exceptions), everything seems to use a different name and/or is in a different place. If you've explored more than one distribution, this may even seem to be the case between Linux distributions. I'll be covering the more mainstream desktop environments, as well as suggested programs to replace the ones you've come to rely on in Windows.
Desktop Environments or GUI (Graphical User Interface)
What is this?
This is what you see when you boot into a graphical operating system and is, essentially, the organization of all of your programs, as well as the overall look and feel. In Windows, by default, you have a Start button on the bottom left, and opened programs will appear along the lower bar. To the right of that is your time and icons for some programs that do not appear in the middle of the bar. It is the crisp, shiny look of Vista, or the bland gray look of Windows 95/98, or the in-between of XP.
Linux has the exact same pattern, but rather than having different levels of quality between distributions (I'll leave it up to my readers as to what "quality" means for Windows), you can choose this level of visual quality for yourself regardless of your distribution of choice. Why would you choose anything other than highest quality, you ask? The answer is in the overall backlash of Vista. For those who "upgraded," you may have been treated to a severe slowdown of system performance. It's prettier, but it's a great deal slower. But there's no need to be concerned about your performance if your computer at least ran XP just fine, as Linux at its flashiest is still more lightweight than XP. On that note, even if the computer is plenty powerful enough, there are Linux users who actually prefer a lightweight environment and appreciate its simplicity, in addition to the power users who love all sorts of eye candy. And there is plenty of eye candy with Compiz-Fusion, which I will discuss later when I do an overview of software available in Linux.
I'll be discussing the various choices of desktop environments for Linux, and some popular distributions of Linux that come pre-installed with each one, as well as providing various images (borrowed from Flickr galleries, credit given to the user who submitted the image) showing the level of customization that one is capable of doing to personalize your system. Note that for some of the more popular distributions, there are often remakes released where you can get your favorite distribution made available to have your favorite desktop environment "out of the box." My suggestion, however, is to experiment with the main release first (reason being there will be more help available, though this will be difficult for some desktop environments), and if you find you really like, say, Ubuntu but want it with KDE, they have a Kubuntu release available. Or, if you like PCLinuxOS but want it with Gnome, they have a release called PCLinuxOS Gnome... Yeah, they seem to care more about making a quality distribution than coming up with a witty name.
Gnome
Gnome and KDE are the two mainstream, high-end environments for Linux, and are considered more drop-in ready for less-knowledgable users than other environments, because they offer a much more user-friendly interface out of the box. One could argue either way as to which is better, but this usually comes down to personal choice rather than actual functionality. The preference one way or another is primarily based on aesthetics, in regards to what feels more natural to the user.
Gnome is, as far as I know, the most-used desktop environment, primarily due to Ubuntu's popularity as a newbie/all-in-one distribution. It offers a customizable interface where the task bar can be along the bottom like in Windows, or along the top, which is most well-known as the way it is packaged into Debian and some Debian-based distributions. This environment has a reputation as being the one that is easiest to use for people who have never/rarely used a computer before, primarily due to its logical organization of programs. If you or someone you know would describe themselves as "computer illiterate," you might want to try one of the following distributions: Debian, Ubuntu (based on Debian), Mint (based on Ubuntu), Fedora (Red Hat free release for experimentation).
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| Gnome example (credit to Anyo) | Gnome example (credit to pibarnas) |
K Desktop Environment
The K Desktop Environment (commonly referred to as KDE) is the other competitor of the long-running popularity contest. This desktop environment has the distinction of being very similar to Windows in overall look and feel, where you have a task bar at the bottom, a "Start" icon (although it will not have this name), and the programs are organized in a similar fashion to Windows. It is still different and has a learning curve attached, but for those who would say they "know" windows, you'll feel right at home after a short amount of time of just clicking around. For those who are interested, you may wish to try: Mandriva, PCLinuxOS (based on Mandriva), Sabayon, Xandros (note: they charge a nominal fee beyond the free trial), or openSUSE.
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| KDE example (credit to 176) | KDE example (credit to M. Ignacio Monge) |
We Recommend the Following Hardware for Linux Environments