Introduction to Linux X-Windows, Desktop Environments Other commonly used programs

X-Windows 1984, Athena project formed at MIT. Later called the X-Windows System. Goal of X-Windows is to develop a network of graphical workstations across different vendors that can be used as teaching aid. X-Windows allows applications to call on remote resources. Note that X-Windows itself is not a GUI.

Window Managers X-Windows needs a window manager to provide a working GUI environment. Common desktop managers: – Open Look – CDE – Motif – Sawfish – AfterStep

Desktop Environments Recently, 2 open source project started to create a complete GUI environment: – KDE – Gnome In addition to simple GUI interactions (i.e. mouse clicks, windows, icons), they support desktop applets, taskbar, etc.

X-Session In X-Windows, there is always a server and a client. The machine where X-Windows is running is the server. The machine where a remote resource is requested (i.e. netscape browser) is the client. To use X-windows over a network, one usually tunnel the X connection through Secure Shell. Two X-Windows implementations – XFree – Xorg

xdm, kdm, gdm Normally, X-Server is not started, esp. on a server machine. To start X-Server when you are logged in, one uses startx command. Xdm is the default X Display Manager, or the login screen. Kdm is KDEs DM and gdm is Gnomes.

Common Tasks with Linux For office related application – OpenOffice(Open source of StarOffice) – KOffice For listening to MP3 – XMMS – KMedia Player Web Surfing – Mozilla/Firefox – Konqueror Photo Editing – GIMP