🔒 Locked

Linux Desktop Environments

Started by TheVirtualDragon Oct 27, 2012 at 11:58 AM 0 replies 1.2k views

Original Post

Oct 27, 2012 at 11:58 AM

Hello All.

I use Linux and I know about Window Managers and Desktop Environments and X11.
I don't want to create a desktop environment from scratch, but I want to know how WMs and DEs work together. Is a DE just a WM with an additional layer of graphics? And how do Desktop Environments work, exactly?

Finally, I want to know how people "fork" desktop environments - for example, Cinnamon forking from Gnome3. How would I do this, and what license would I use?

Thanks in advance.

Ivko

Oct 30, 2012 at 6:54 AM

A DE has a WM as part of its software suite. KDE, for example, has KWin as its WM. It's generally much more than that though - it also includes things like a login manager, desktop, some sort of system control panel, basic applications like a file browser, text editor, and many more. You can use a different WM than the one that comes with the DE, or software from another DE within a different one (though you often need to have some dependent libraries).

I don't really know about forking. You'd probably clone the code, keep the previous license (I think), and find some people that can get behind your cause.

Topic Locked

This topic has been locked by a moderator. New replies are not allowed.