Linux Mint Forums

Hello again

I saw, with interest, the announcement of Daryna. It seems to be available in different, erm, "things". What is the difference between xfce, kde and gnome, please?

How does one decide which to download?

Fear ye not! I wouldn't know a bug from my own lack of knowledge, so I won't be downloading it. I'm interested a) from an academic point of view and b) for the future.

Many thanks

Gnome, KDE and XFCE are the three most popular "desktops" under Linux. In Windows there's only one desktop (explorer) and you can't really change it, so it's hard to explain...

Basically the operating system is made of different layers...

- the kernel (deals with memory and hardware access)
- the core (I'm vulgarizing a bit here.. everything which makes the OS run under the hood)
- the X server (manages the mouse, and the screen display)
- the window manager (manages the location of windows and the focus)
- the desktop (manages the look and feel of the windows and the panel, and extra tools that go with the desktop... the file browser for instance.).

More information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFCE

Basically Linux Mint is using Gnome by default. But we also have two community editions, one coming with KDE and one coming with XFCE... and because some applications are better suited under KDE or under Gnome, these editions come with different software selections.

Clem

Thank you both.

I may try them all out