desktop interface
- 2. What is it? In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system, which share a common graphical user interface (GUI). The desktop environment was seen mostly on personal computers until the rise of mobile computing. Desktop GUIs help the user to easily access and edit files, while they usually do not provide access to all of the features found in the underlying operating system.
- 3. History & Common Use The first desktop environment was created by Xerox and was sold with the Xerox Alto in the 1970s. The Alto was generally considered by Xerox to be a personal office computer; it failed in the marketplace because of poor marketing and a very high price tag. With the Lisa, Apple introduced a desktop environment on an affordable personal computer, which also failed in the market.
- 4. Desktop environments for the X Window System On systems running the X Window System (typically Unix-family systems such as GNU/Linux, the BSDs, and formal UNIX distributions), desktop environments are much more dynamic and customizable to meet user needs. In this context, a desktop environment typically consists of several separate components, including a window manager (such as Mutter or KWin), a file manager (such as Files or Dolphin), a set of graphical themes, together with toolkits (such as GTK+ and Qt) and libraries for managing the desktop.
- 5. Examples of desktop environments The most common desktop environment on personal computers is Microsoft Windows' built-in interface. It was titled Luna in Windows XP and Aero from Windows Vista onward. Also common is Aqua, included with Apple's Mac OS X. Mainstream desktop environments for Unix-like operating systems use the X Window System, and include KDE, GNOME, Xfce, and LXDE, any of which may be selected by users and are not tied exclusively to the operating system in use.
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