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Desktop environments
From WWR
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Unlike these platforms, operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD aren't tied to one particular graphical user interface, but are able to use a wide variety of different desktop environments, depending on your own tastes on what your computer should do and look like.
Most emulate contemporary desktops similar to Windows and Mac OS, but some recent studies show they're easier and more productive to use! Be a rebel, grab yourself a free, open source OS and tune into Whole Wheat Radio on it, what could be more grassroots and independent that that!
KDE
KDE stands for the K Desktop Environment and is currently the most used DE. It is sometimes critisised for being a bit complex, but on the flipside it's infinitely customisable and can be made to look like almost anything you want!
- amaroK and Noatun are KDE media players that can be used to tune into Whole Wheat Radio.
- If you're using Kubuntu, Slackware and openSUSE Linux (amongst others), you're probably using use KDE.
GNOME
Originally KDE was written in Qt which (at the time) was not open source. This spooked some people, so they created the GNOME desktop. It's generally regarded as simpler than KDE to use but at the expense of customisability.
- Audacious and Exaile are GNOME media players that can be used to tune into Whole Wheat Radio.
- If you're using Ubuntu, Fedora or Debian Linux (amongst others), you're probably running GNOME.
Xfce
After KDE and GNOME began to mature some were worried they were getting too large for some older machines to run well. Their alternative was the swift Xfce desktop which is much more lightweight and simpler, but obviously at the expense of some features.
- Xfce uses the same toolkit as GNOME, so the same media players will work.
- If you're using Zenwalk or Xubuntu Linux (amongst others) you're probably running Xfce.
NOTE: If you have a funny picture of Jim Kloss as your desktop background, this does NOT nessisarily mean you're running Xfce as seen on the right.
A retro, nerdy comparison!
In the simplest sense, if you used computers in the early 90s you can think of the Unix-like OS as DOS, and the DE as Windows 3.1 or Norton Commander or whatever graphical environment you used back then!
Useless side note: Rubenerd's family's first IBM PC had Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions. It used 256 colour! We thought it was gorgeous!
