Distribution vs. Desktop Environment

[cecilieaux]

In a Facebook forum, someone talked about being upset with Ubuntu, a distribution, and deciding to change to Cinnamon, a desktop environment. As a service to all newbies, I would like to make clear in the simpler terms of a relative newbie and less-than-geek user an important difference.

A distribution (often called distro) is a kind of Linux operating system: Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint are examples. They encompass all of Linux, in particular the basic kernel, and differ only in how they emphasize certain software packages and ways of operating.

A desktop environment (DE) has to do with the graphic user interface (GUI), such as menus, file managers, terminal and other very basic system tools -- in particular how they look and how much hardware they require. Examples are Cinnamon, Mate, Unity, KDE, XFCE, etc.

In theory, I think, a distro can accept almost any DE -- although most distros don't do that out of the box, so to speak.

I hope this helps someone.

[o-l-d]

Since the people at KDE neon claim it is NOT a distro in which category would it be placed ? They claim it is "KDE Plasma5 built upon an Ubuntu LTS base to showcase the latest version and development of KDE Plasma 5". No one there will say it fits into any of the "distro" classes. They offer "versions" (LTS, User Edition, and Developers). But yet it ranks higher than some of the older and better known "distros" at DistroWatch.com.
Even more confusion for those new to the world of linux.

[cecilieaux]

Since the people at KDE neon claim it is NOT a distro in which category would it be placed ?

To my mind, it is a DE (can even see DE in the name, in full: K Desktop Environment).

[dcrowder]

I would call it a Distro. There are many, many distros based on Ubuntu. Most of those do not change much from the base distro. If you download an installer ISO image from their website rather than the base distro website, it is it's own distro.

[hagey]

In a Facebook forum, someone talked about being upset with Ubuntu, a distribution, and deciding to change to Cinnamon, a desktop environment. As a service to all newbies, I would like to make clear in the simpler terms of a relative newbie and less-than-geek user an important difference.

A distribution (often called distro) is a kind of Linux operating system: Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint are examples. They encompass all of Linux, particular the basic kernel, and differ only in how they emphasize certain software packages and ways of operating.

A desktop environment (DE) has to do with the graphic user interface (GUI), such as menus, file managers, terminal and other very basic system tools -- in particular how they look and how much hardware they require. Examples are Cinnamon, Mate, Unity, KDE, XFCE, etc.

In theory, I think, a distro can accept almost any DE -- although most distros don't do that out of the box, so to speak.

I hope this helps someone.

I think that's some good advice and splitting hairs over what you have said will only confuse people more. Fundamentally, it is a good, basic explanation.

Thanks,

hagey.