Dumb question: Are GNOME and KDE window managers?

[scottydog]

or are they different. I understand that X is an interface that is need to run stuff like GNOME and KDE, but what are all of the window managers, then? I obviously don't have a system up yet, but am still trying to grasp as much as I can before I get my system ready (SOON...cannot wait!).

Thanks,

Scotty-Dog

[X_console]

GNOME and KDE are desktop managers. They run on top of a window manager. So basically if you want to run a desktop manager, you need a window manager. KDE provides it's own window manager. With GNOME you can switch window managers.

[scottydog]

Thanks, X_console.

That makes more sense. I guess I missed that minute detail in my research and reading. When you read about this stuff in books, you only see stuff about X, KDE, and GNOME primarily.

I will have to dig strough some of these posts to see what people like about each one. I am assuming that you can use any window manager with any distro?

[S.D.Willie]

yes you can and depending on what distro you choose it probably comes with either or sometimes both and more. kde is great for beginners, yet still realy cool and better than gnome in my opinion. both kde and gnome are resource heavy in some spots so other people like to run blackbox, fluxbox(awesome), fvwm, and others. these window managers are on the light side but are still pretty damn nice and fast. for a newbie i would start out with mandrake or redhat with kde being 1st choice. from then on, you can expand as you learn.

SD

[Timothy L. Miller]

Of course, if you like, you can flesh out the lighter window managers. I've seen many people running <insert wm here> with Rox and the gnome-panel. This pretty much makes any window manager into a complete desktop environment, not just a window manager anymore.