KDE, GNOME and windowmaker?

[Morjo]

Hi!
I am going to install Linux on my system once I understand it a bit better.
So what are KDE, GNOME and windowmaker?
Cheers!!!

[Tyr-7BE]

KDE and Gnome are desktop environments. They do things like handle icons, the clipboard, and various other tasks. You can find screenshots of them at http://www.kde.org/ and http://www.gnome.org/ . WindowMaker is a window manager. It handles things like opening a window, where to put that window, how to treat that window, etc... It also has a say on what happens when you right-click on the desktop (what kind of menu you will have). WindowMaker can be used in conjunction with KDE or Gnome...there are instructions provided with each of them on how to change your window manager. By default, KDE uses its own window manager in place of Window Maker (I really don't like the KDE manager, but that's just me), and Gnome uses the Sawfish window manager (a little more flashy than window maker, a little more slow). It's also worth mentioning that Window Maker can be used without KDE or Gnome. If you're running a system with limited resources, this might be best as KDE and Gnome are PIGS when it comes to memory. My advice is to experiment with as much as you can while you're a newbie to find out what you like best. The Enlightenment window manager is a great piece of eye candy, but it's a huge juggernaut. Windowmaker and Blackbox are smaller and not as pretty. Sawfish is somewhere in between. There are many many opportunities out there. Good luck in your search. Hope this helped somewhat.

<edit> Once you do decide to go for linux, you might want to start off with a Red Hat or Mandrake distribution if you're wanting to gain experience with desktop environments. I know for sure that Mandrake comes with both KDE 2 and Gnome, as well as 5 or 6 of the major window managers out there. Plenty of room for experimenting. The only problem with it is that you have to have a lot of hard drive space.

[ 12 March 2001: Message edited by: Tyr-7BE ]

[Morjo]

When you say KDE and GNOME are memory hogs. is it as bad as the windows shell mem manegment?