These classnotes are depreciated. As of 2005, I no longer teach the classes. Notes will remain online for legacy purposes

UNIX01/A Choice In Displays

Classnotes | UNIX01 | RecentChanges | Preferences

As I have said before, under most UNIX systems you have many choices for a given application. There are many programs which accomplish similar goals, but which have subtle advantages and disadvantages against their contemporaries. With Windowing environments, this is no different.

According to Freshmeat.net, there are 241 entries in their "Desktop Environment" category (see http://freshmeat.net/browse/55/?topic_id=55). While some of these will not be Windowing environments per se, you can be assured that there are a lot to choose from.

Linux distros such as Red Hat tend to make it easy for you by simply providing a very small sampling of environments to choose from (in fact, the latest Red Hat really only provides two easily), however what they give to you may not best fit your needs.

So, we will now examine a small sampling of possible choices. Whenever possible, I will give examples of why you would want to use these environments.

Even though there are so many choices, most UNIX administrators find they settle into one environment and tend to use that one the most.



Classnotes | UNIX01 | RecentChanges | Preferences
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Last edited August 2, 2003 2:55 am (diff)
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