Quote:
Originally Posted by Damarious25
Hey Cat! thanks for all the pics. I have a few questions for you. i assume WM mans window manager? and how is it different then an OS?
also, by choosing an older gui like flux or black am I going to be limited to what I can do and programs I can run?
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WM means windows manager indeed. But I meant Desktop Environments.
In the linux world (I'm no expert and this confused me as a previous windows user too) the words "slackware" "gentoo" "debian" etc have the meaning of a system configuration with its packaging management, system file structure, system policy some other things, but the Desktop Environment is often up to you to chose. You will feel this if you ever try installing Debian from scratch of Arch linux. They come with no Desktop Environment but instead, it's all up to you to download and install things. Of course, some distros come with KDE or Gnome as default for example but that doesn't mean that with some work you can change this.
Moreover, in Xfce (for example) you can install Gnome or KDE applications and run them just fine. They will just download some KDE libraries and programs (ie Konqueror) so they can interact with the system and function fully.
Most of these have a set of basic programs that come with them, you can take a look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...grams_packaged
Again, it's easily possible to use gedit (Gnome) under LXDE.
Now then, while choosing a DE, you're looking for a combination of speed, looks, ease of use, applications and the set of configuration options they allow.
The latter is also up to the distribution.
As you can see in the screenshot below, I'm running Xfce. (With just a skin, some icons and basic panel configuration Xfce lets you do.)
Now then, the "Settings" window is a variation of Xfce's settings manager and comes with Xfce.
The second is the "Settings Helper" and is also available as an Xfce package.
The last one though, isn't. It's part of the distribution and is available in all Desktop Environment disks that they offer.
Now of course, this is entirely up to the people who maintain a distribution and it will probably take a while before you understand which does and which does not belong to the Distribution/Desktop Environment/Neither.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Damarious25
is it better to install kde and just try and tweak it to look older similar to running windows 7 with a classic theme?
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Are you sure you want to have linux that looks like windows? Blasphemy!
(Oh well, google for "how to make KDE look like windows" "how to make gnome look like windows" "linux is not windows" etc).
Good luck, I hope I've helped a little. There may be a few mistakes/misconceptions in my text but it's as close to what I understand as possible.
