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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Seeking info on all of the many, lesser known desktop environments (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by borzthewolf@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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So I am an aesthetics guy when it comes to my distro and desktop environment. I like things to look clean and visually appealing. Last night I kinda took a deep dive into the world of different DE's. Of course there's the popular ones that everybody knows about i.e. Cinnamon, Xfce, KDE, Mate, Gnome, etc., however there's a whole other world of random desktops that I was never aware of! Also it's difficult to find a clear list of all the available environments.

Basically, how the heck do I find out more about DE's and which distro they are compatable with. Of course I always check the distros site, but they usually list the big ones and often times will say "plus others"... how can I find out which desktops are available for which distros? I've find it rather tricky to figure out.

Another thing that kinda tripped me out is that it seems not all DE's such as the popular ones I listed, appear to be the same visually. For instance, XeroLinux is very beautiful to me and from what I've gathered, it runs KDE Plasma. Imo it looks nothing like the actual KDE Plasma OS... are there like different versions of Gnome, KDE, Mate, etc. that look different than others? To me, I figure they would and should all look the same. Idk, it's all a bit confusing to me and I hope you kind folks could shed some light. Thank you

I should mention that I have zero interest in the window manager or tiler or whatever they are called. To me, they are super ugly and very confusing to understand :)

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[–] palordrolap@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you want to time travel a bit, OpenWindows / OpenLook was very clean.

How clean? Literally nothing on the desktop.

Everything was accessed through an easily (re)configurable context menu.

By default there would have been absolute necessities on there but precious little else. It was up to the user to edit the config to add programs to it. Kind of like a forerunner of the Quick Launch toolbar or the Dock.

That said, I seem to recall it was possible to put launcher icons on the desktop too, although that is also where programs minimised to in icon form (Windows 3 used to do that too), so maybe I'm wrong about that.

[–] borzthewolf@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I'm sorry, I should clarify, when I say clean I dont mean minimal, maybe sleek or stylish (but now gaudy) would have been better words

[–] marcdw@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I temember when Slackware still included it. Used to recompile any apps that still supported the toolkit just to have a better look and feel. I miss OpenWindows.