Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

So you keep hearing about Gnome and KDE. What are those? They are desktop environments - graphical user interfaces. To understand better: they are some sort of skins, but not really skins as they also come with applications, etc. But there are many such user interfaces besides Gnome and KDE, like Enlightenment, Fluxbox, XFCE and a lot more. Besides Gnome, my personal favorite is XFCE because it's really fast and lightweight. Anyway, here are two screenshots, on the left: Gnome, on the right: KDE:


ubuntu gnome pic
kde screenshot
Some applications are designed specifically for such a desktop environment but wors on others, but only after installing basic components of that desktop environment. For example, Amarok is built for KDE but will run on Gnome after installing ~200 MB of basic components needed for it to run. Luckily, the same files are almost always needed for any such cross-over application.

But those are GUIs, what's up with Kubuntu, Edubuntu and so on?

Well, those are still Ubuntu, but with different desktop environment / default applications. For instance, Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE. Edubuntu on the other hand is also Ubuntu, and uses Gnome (like the default Ubuntu) but it contains a large number of educational applications.

You can read the other parts of Ubuntu Newbie Guide, here.