187 lines
9.8 KiB
HTML
187 lines
9.8 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
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<html> <head>
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<title>Two Desktop Systems</title>
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</head>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<!--endcut ============================================================-->
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center><h1>KDE and Gnome</h1></center>
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<center>
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<h4><a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">by Larry Ayers</a></h4>
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</center>
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<hr>
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<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>
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<p>Watching the Linux operating system begin to mature is interesting these
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days. A couple of years ago much attention was devoted to incompatibilities
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with various hardware components, networking, and the development of the
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kernel itself. Though these activities continue, it's no longer necessary to
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follow these development efforts as closely in order to run a dependable Linux
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system. Distributions have improved immensely, and now more free-software
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developers are turning their attention towards refinement and integration of
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the user interface. Two separate projects have arisen in the past year, KDE
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(the K Desktop Environment) and GNOME (the Gnu Network Object Model
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Environment). Both of these projects include among their stated goals the
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desire to make the administration and usage of a Linux system easier for
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beginners, in part by employing a uniform look-and-feel for the most commonly
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used applications and utilities, as well as interoperability of the system
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components. It's difficult to make much of a comparison between the two, as
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KDE is much farther along than GNOME, but I'll make an attempt.
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<center><h3>Commonalities</h3></center>
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<p>There is one common structural aspect to these two projects. They each
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rely on a group of shared libraries, which provides the interface to basic OS
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operations, such as file-reading and saving, as well as basic display and
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appearance functions. The end result of this is that an installation will
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populate adirectory with a variety of shared libraries, which in turn
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supports another directory of fairly small executables. The Gimp works this
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way as well; the individual plug-ins tand to be small, but rely on the
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services provided by both the GTK and the Gimp shared libs. This approach
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facilitates contributions by programmers not directly involved with a project,
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as many of the low-level and window-display functions are already written,
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allowing a contributed application or extension to "hook" into them.
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<center><h3>KDE</h3></center>
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<p>The first of the two to gain momentum was KDE. About a year ago a group of
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developers, mainly European, began coding the components of this ambitious
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project. They chose the Qt toolkit (from TrollTech in Norway) as the GUI
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framework, a decision which has since led to some controversy. Qt has a few
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licensing restrictions which, though not onerous for end-users, can cause
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problems for the creators of CDROM-based distributions. Advocates of
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GNU-style free software tend not to favor Qt, a circumstance which led to the
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creation of the GNOME project.
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<p>Setting aside the thorny licensing issues, the KDE developers have managed
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to pull together quite a remarkable system in the past year, though numerous
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bugs still remain evident. The second public beta was released in November of
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1997, and I compiled and installed it soon after. (I had briefly tried the
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initial beta, but found it too unstable to evaluate).
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<p>This second release still has flaky aspects, but enough of it works to give
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the user an idea of what the developers are planning to accomplish. In effect
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KDE is a sort of GUI wrapper around an existing Linux system, which attempts
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to simplify system-administration tasks and offer interacting and compatible
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utilities and applications. Kfm is at the core of the system, as it is
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intended to be left running in the background and serves as the help-viewer
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for all of the KDE components. Kfm is also a file-manager (icon-based, with
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some resemblance to xfm and moxfm) and serves creditably as a web-browser.
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<p>Kfm is an impressive application, and in itself justifies trying out KDE.
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Many of the other applications are replacements for programs which most Linux
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users probably already have and would only be desirable if a complete KDE
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system is the goal.
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<p>KDE has its own window-manager, kwm, which had some display faults on my
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system. Due to these video artifacts I didn't use it much, but it did appear
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stylish and well-designed. It seems that these display bugs don't show up on
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most systems; I suspect that it depends upon the video-card and X-server in
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use.
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<p>A new Linux user (especially someone accustomed to Windows or Macintosh
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systems) might appreciate the relative ease of configuration and use which KDE
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offers. In a sense, KDE extends the scope of the tasks traditional
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distributions perform. One drawback might be the very comfort of the KDE
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environment itself; the various system-administration tasks outside of KDE's
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abilities might seem too daunting or unapproachable without a KDE interface.
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This won't be seen as a drawback to prospective users who lack the fascination
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with internals and configuration which in the past has typified Linux users.
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<p>Some KDE users have reported that they find the system usable and useful,
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but with my particular setup this wasn't the case. But I have to say that my
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extensively customized Linux installation seems perfectly satisfactory as is,
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and I probably lack the motivation to spend the time learning to adapt KDE to
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my needs. If KDE had existed back when I first booted up a Slackware system
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some years ago, who knows...
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<center><h3>GNOME</h3></center>
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<p>Miguel Icaza (head of the Midnight Commander development group) also seems
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to be at the helm of the new GNOME development project, which has goals
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similar to those of KDE, with one difference: the project is composed
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completely of GNU-style free software. This project is based upon the GTK
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toolkit, the free successor to Motif in the Gimp development efforts. The
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project arose as a direct response to the KDE project, and the GNOME
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developers have borrowed some code from KDE for a few of the applets.
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<p>As of late December (version 0.10) GNOME as a whole isn't really suitable
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for actual use, but several of the applets function well and the future looks
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bright for the project. Miguel Icaza is in the process of porting the
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Midnight Commander file-manager to GTK, which will let it fit in with the
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remainder of the GNOME applications.
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<p>The Panel applet, written primarily by Federico Mena Quintero, is an
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icon-bar and program-launcher which locates itself at the bottom edge of the
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screen. It features cascading menus which could be a substitute for the usual
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window-manager root menus. Most of the GNOME applets have been included in
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the default menu of Panel, allowing this applet to serve as an entry-point to
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the GNOME installation. It takes a little fiddling around to get the hang of
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using Panel, so don't give up if at first glance it seems like nothing is
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working
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<p>The provided applets include a desktop-manager (which in part serves as an
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interface to the <b>Xlockmore</b> screensaver), CroMagnon (an interface to
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the crontab utility), an audio mixer, an interface to the elaborate LinuxConf
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configuration manager, several nicely-done games (some of which were adapted
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from KDE), and several others.
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<p>One major difference between GNOME and KDE is that KDE includes a
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window-manager, whereas GNOME doesn't, and is designed to cooperate with a
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user's current window-manager. This may make GNOME more appealing to seasoned
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users who have extensively customized their window-manager resource files.
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<center><h3>Conclusion</h3></center>
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<p>As I write this only the source code is available for GNOME 0.10, and it's
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tricky to compile. An intel-Linux binary archive of the 0.9 release is
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available from <a href="ftp://ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/GNOME">this site</a>, but I
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would recommend waiting a while for either an updated binary release or an
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easier-to-build source release. The developers are hard at work these days
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(judging by their mailing-list postings) and I think that, given time,
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something both interesting and usable will appear.
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<p>Though KDE is closer to being "finished" (if such a state even
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exists in the realm of software), it still has a ways to go. Development is
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proceeding rapidly, and I imagine that sometime this year a more polished
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release will become available.
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<p>The fate of a free-software project is interesting because of the inherent
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unpredictability. Anyone can start one, but whether it comes to fruition or
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withers on the vine is up to the inscrutable software gods. The timing may be
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just right (i.e., it addresses many users (and developers!) needs) but
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convincing enough programmers with time and inclination to become involved just
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can't be forced or foretold. These two projects seem to have attained that
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essential momentum, and hopefully we shall see them evolve further.
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<!-- hhmts start --> Last modified: Sun 4 Jan 1998 <!-- hhmts end -->
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 24 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, January 1998</H5></center>
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