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Learning Debian GNU/Linux
book

Learning Debian GNU/Linux

by Bill McCarty
October 1999
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
360 pages
10h 18m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Learning Debian GNU/Linux

Desktops

A desktop is a set of desktop tools and applications. The Microsoft Windows 9x desktop includes applications such as the Windows Explorer, accessories such as Notepad, games such as FreeCell and Minesweeper, and utilities such as the Control Panel and its applets. Although you can run X without a desktop, having a desktop helps you work more efficiently. The two most popular desktops used with X are KDE and GNOME.

KDE

KDE (the K Desktop Environment) is a freely available desktop that includes KWM, the K Window Manager, as an integral component. KDE provides a file manager, a help system, a configuration utility and a variety of accessories and applications, including:

  • Games such as Kmines, Kpoker, and Ktetris

  • Graphical applications such as Kfract, a fractal generator, and Kview, an image viewer

  • Multimedia applications such as Kmix, a sound mixer, and Kmedia, a media player

  • Network applications such as Kmail, a mail client, Knu, a network utility, and Krn, a news client

New KDE accessories and applications are available almost weekly. Work is underway on a complete open source office suite (KOffice) that runs under KDE. You can learn more about KDE and the status of KOffice by browsing the KDE web site at http://www.kde.org/.

Although KDE is freely redistributable, KDE uses the QT widget set to create user interface controls. This presents a problem, because QT is distributed under a non-free license that many developers dislike. Therefore, the most popular desktop ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 1565927052Supplemental ContentCatalog PageErrata