A desktop environment is a collection of X clients, including the window managers. It includes various applications and a collection system tools for the user, the system tools are, more often than not, a GUI for existing commands. This makes learning system management easy for new users. In a may, the environment can be viewed as an extension of the window manger, just with applications bundled along. The two most commonly used environments are KDE and GNOME. You may come across Linux enthusiasts arguing about which is better, well, some people like hockey and some like football. Both KDE and GNOME come with a good set of applications such as office suites, files browsers, multi media players, etc.
If you speak to hardcore Linux fans about desktop environments, you will probably hear them bashing both KDE and GNOME! This is because, as they will tell you, desktop environments are huge memory hogs. Besides, everything can be done from the terminal itself, so why use a desktop environment? Well. It’s for the beginner-desktop environments let beginners get used to the feel of linux, while gradually letting them move on to controlling all tasks through the command prompt.
If you speak to hardcore Linux fans about desktop environments, you will probably hear them bashing both KDE and GNOME! This is because, as they will tell you, desktop environments are huge memory hogs. Besides, everything can be done from the terminal itself, so why use a desktop environment? Well. It’s for the beginner-desktop environments let beginners get used to the feel of linux, while gradually letting them move on to controlling all tasks through the command prompt.
