Talk:Desktop environment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Best to leave out external links to individual entries? 2 Do window managers belong on the list? 3 Choosing images 4 Unnecessary external link 5 Merge

[edit] Best to leave out external links to individual entries?

Assuming someone will make an entry for EDE, wouldn't it be best to leave the external links on the individual desktop environment entries? I think Gnome and KDE already have links off their page, and adding redundant links across multiple articles makes keeping the links up-to-date harder.

Yes, that is a good general principle. Done.--Eloquence*

[edit] Do window managers belong on the list?

According to my knowledge FluxBox and BlackBox are not DEs but rather WMs. Do they belong on the list? -- DNAdk 3/8-06

I'd say "no" - there's already a page for window managers, and if something just manages your windows, it's not really a full desktop environment. Guy Harris 23:34, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Window manager, desktop metaphor and desktop environment are interestingly dependent concepts. Window manager actually redirects to X window manager and I think that's justified, the other windowing systems just don't separate the managing from the environment. Traditional window managers for X didn't implement the whole desktop metaphor, but they had to implement a minimal desktop environment for the system to be usable. The desktop was called the root window and the window manager would provide a menu to launch programs there. Minimized windows would have to be available either in a menu or as icons. Compare this to modern window managers such as Metacity, Kwin or Compiz that cannot necessarily be used without a desktop environment.

I'm not saying that FluxBox and BlackBox should be included in the list of desktop environments, but for example Ion would in my opinion be both an X window manager and provide a full (unconventional) desktop environment for the user. --TuukkaH 09:22, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Choosing images

I suggest we should remove the images of desktop environments, they look all the same and they are not interesting. A drawing that shows the elements of a desktop environment as discussed in the article could be a better choice. --TuukkaH 07:34, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I see that they are all rather similar; yet they are all different. Are you thinking we should take one of these and label it like a schematic? I suppose it could be done, but I am not certain it would look better. --Matthew K 02:59, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

After some thought, I think that perhaps leaving most of these here, but making the images a bit larger and adding captions that describe the differences between them would be the best approach. If there is no oposition to this idea, I will try it in a couple days and we can see what we think of it. --Matthew K 16:21, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unnecessary external link

The most recent addition to this page is a link to a very short opinion about desktop environments... it just lacks substance to be a relevant reference here. Rather than just do it myself, I propose we remove the reference to http://www.evilbitz.com/2006/10/22/windows-customization-needs-help/ --Matthew K

I agree. I doubt it will help the reader understand what desktop environments are. --Chaos386

Done; if anyone has more useful/substantial external links, they are welcome to add them. --Matthew K 16:47, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

The articles Desktop_metaphor and Paper_paradigm should probably be moved here as an introductory section. Dragice 06:41, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Those two articles should definitely be merged, though I'm not sure that this article should be merged with them. — Omegatron 15:10, 22 November 2006 (UTC)