On Fri, Dec 29, 2006 at 10:56:30AM +0100, Misko wrote: > On Thu, Dec 28, 2006 at 05:21:35PM -0500, Rick Thomas wrote: > > What's the difference between a "display manager" and a "window > > manager"? > > Maybe Rick wanted to ask (if not him than I am :) > What is the difference between a "desktop manager/enviroment" > (GNOME/KDE/XFce4) > and a "window manager" (fluxbox/metacity/IceWm)?
The concept of a 'window manager' exists as a well defined term in the X Window System. There is no 'Desktop Environment/desktop manager' defined in X11, so it has to be considered an application layer sitting on top of X11. A 'window manager' looks after the placement, stacking and decoration of root level windows, usually provides a few menus in the root window, and often includes libraries/style guide to assist in developing applications which are consistent and follow similar conventions and aesthetics. The 'desktop environment' like KDE/GNOME/MacOS/MSWindows includes a window manager (in the latter two examples hard wired into the OS) plus a suite of application programs with consistent GUIs intended to make a complete self contained easy to use work environment, usually designed to eliminate the requirement to use a command line shell and hence be more accessible to a broader customer base.. The terms are not always used consistently, and I am not aware of an 'official' definition of 'desktop environment', but the 'X Window System' documentation is pretty clear on exactly what is meant by the term 'window manager'. Regards, DigbyT -- Digby R. S. Tarvin digbyt(at)digbyt.com http://www.digbyt.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
