Desktop Environment
The bundle of software that makes up a graphical desktop, including the window manager, panels, file manager, settings and a shared look, which on Linux is a choice among independent projects rather than part of the operating system.
On Windows and macOS, the desktop is simply part of the operating system. On Linux and other Unix-like systems, the graphical interface is a separate layer, and users choose among desktop environments: integrated collections of programs that together provide the desktop experience; see Linux Distribution.
A typical desktop environment includes:
- A window manager, which decides where windows go, draws their borders and title bars, and handles moving, resizing and focus. On modern systems it is usually also the compositor that combines every window into the final image; see Compositor and Display Server.
- Panels, a launcher, a notification area and a lock screen.
- A file manager, settings application, text editor, terminal and other basic tools.
- Shared libraries and conventions so applications look consistent, store settings in the same places and talk to each other; see Inter-Process Communication and XDG Base Directory Specification.
Early Unix workstations had only a window manager and whatever programs a user started. The Common Desktop Environment, released in the early 1990s by a group of Unix vendors, standardized one for commercial systems. On Linux, KDE was announced in 1996, built on the Qt toolkit. Its toolkit's license at the time wasn't considered free, which prompted GNOME in 1997, built on GTK. Qt's license later changed, and both projects have remained the two largest. GNOME 3 in 2011 replaced the traditional taskbar and menu with an activities overview, which split its users and led to forks such as Cinnamon and MATE that kept the older design. Lighter environments such as Xfce and LXQt target older hardware.
Some people skip the full environment and run a standalone window manager, often a tiling one that arranges windows automatically into a grid without overlap, assembling the rest from separate tools; see Tiling Window Manager. This trades polish and integration for control, and usually means writing configuration files by hand; see Dotfiles.
Choosing one is less permanent than it seems. Most Linux applications run under any environment, though programs built for one toolkit may look slightly out of place in another. Several can be installed side by side and picked at login.
The ongoing transition from the X Window System to Wayland shifted work onto desktop environments. Under X, a separate server handled input and display and window managers were small add-ons. Under Wayland, the compositor is the display server, so each environment must implement screen sharing, input methods, multi-monitor layouts and much else itself; see Input Method. The desktop metaphor that all of them follow, with windows, icons, folders and a trash can, dates back to Xerox PARC in the 1970s.
See also2
Clipboard
The shared buffer behind cut, copy, and paste, invented at Xerox PARC, which offers data in several formats at once and has become a channel for snooping and for commands that paste differently from how they looked.
Systems & Tooling14 connections
Init System
The first userspace process a kernel starts, and the ancestor of every other process on the machine.
Systems & Tooling11 connections
Linked from11
- ClipboardSystems & Tooling
The shared buffer behind cut, copy, and paste, invented at Xerox PARC, which offers data in several formats at once and has become a channel for snooping and for commands that paste differently from how they looked.
- Command PaletteDesign & Interface
A keyboard-summoned search box that finds and runs any command by typing part of its name, giving power users speed without forcing every feature into menus.
- CompositorGraphics & Rendering
The component that draws each window or layer into its own off-screen buffer and then combines them into the final image, which makes transparency, effects, and tear-free output possible at a small latency cost.
- Context MenuDesign & Interface
A menu of actions for the thing under the pointer, opened by right-click or long press, which saves travel and narrows choices but is invisible until summoned, so it should never be the only route to an action.
- DotfilesSystems & Tooling
A tracked repository of personal configuration, making a machine setup reproducible.
- IconographyDesign & Interface
The design and use of small symbolic images in interfaces and signage, which are quick to recognize when familiar and surprisingly ambiguous when not.
- Input MethodSystems & Tooling
The software layer that turns keystrokes into text for writing systems with far more characters than a keyboard has keys, such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean, by letting people type sounds or shapes and choose from candidates.
- Linux DistributionSystems & Tooling
A complete operating system assembled around the Linux kernel, combining it with system tools, a package manager, and a set of opinions about release cadence, defaults, and freedom, with hundreds in active use.
- RicingMeaning & Society
The hobby of customizing a computer desktop's appearance into a coherent look, and the online culture of sharing screenshots and configuration files.
- Tiling Window ManagerDesign & Interface
A window manager that arranges windows automatically into non-overlapping tiles and is driven mainly from the keyboard, trading freeform placement for zero layout effort.
- XDG Base Directory SpecificationSystems & Tooling
A convention placing configuration, data, cache, and state in defined directories rather than the home directory.