Linux: The Ultimate Guide

part in the development of this book.
• All the folks associated with Zeba Academy, either directly or indi-
rectly, for their help and support.
• The programming community in general, and the web development 
community in particular, for all their hard work and efforts.
 Sufyan bin Uzayr

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xxvii
Author
S
ufyan bin Uzayr is a writer, coder, and entrepreneur with more 
than a decade of experience in the industry. He has authored several 
books in the past, pertaining to a diverse range of topics, ranging from 
history to Computers/IT. 
Sufyan is the Director of Parakozm, a multinational IT company spe-
cializing in EdTech solutions. He also runs Zeba Academy, an online 
learning and teaching vertical with a focus on STEM fields. 
Sufyan specializes in a wide variety of technologies, such as JavaScript, 
Dart, WordPress, Drupal, Linux, and Python. He holds multiple degrees, 
including ones in management, IT, literature, and political science. 
Sufyan is a digital nomad, dividing his time between four countries. He 
has lived and taught in universities and educational institutions around 
the globe. Sufyan takes a keen interest in technology, politics, literature, 
history, and sports, and in his spare time he enjoys teaching coding and 
English to young students. 
Learn more at sufyanism .c om.

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1
C h a p t e r
1
Desktop Environments 
for Linux
IN THIS CHAPTER
¾
Desktop environments for linux 
¾
History of desktop environment
This chapter will cover the fundamentals of the desktop environment 
for Linux with its significant concepts, primary usage, and more. So let’s 
begin with the introduction of the desktop environment (DE). But in the 
coming chapter, we will discuss some of the valuable desktop environ-
ments of Linux in detail.
DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT INTRODUCTION
A desktop environment implements the desktop metaphor of a bundle of 
programs running on top of an operating system that shares a standard 
graphical user interface (GUI). Sometimes, it is described as a graphi-
cal shell. The desktop environment mainly was on personal computers 
until mobile computing. Desktop GUIs help the user quickly access and 
edit files, while they usually don’t provide access to all of the features in 
the underlying operating system. Besides, the traditional command-line 
interface (CLI) is still used when complete control over the operating sys-
tem is required.
Linux
Desktop Environments for Linux
DOI: 10.1201/9781003308676-1
10.1201/9781003308676-1

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2
◾
Linux 
It typically consists of various icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpa-
pers, and desktop widgets. A GUI also provides drag and drop function-
ality and other features that complete the desktop metaphor. A desktop 
environment aims to be a way for the user to interact with the system 
using concepts similar to those used to interact with the rest of the world, 
such as buttons and windows.
While the term desktop environment is described initially as a style of 
user interface given by the desktop metaphor, it has also defined the pro-
grams that realize the metaphor. The usage has been popularized by proj-
ects such as KDE Plasma, GNOME, XFCE, MATE, Budgie, Cinnamon, 
and LXDE.
LINUX
Like other operating systems such as Windows, iOS and Mac OS, Linux is 
an operating system. One of the world’s most popular platforms, Android 
is powered by a Linux operating system. An application is a software that 
controls all hardware resources associated with your desktop or laptop. 
To put it simply, the operating system controls the connection between 
your software and your hardware. Without an operating system (OS), the 
software will not work.
Components of Linux Application
• Bootloader: The software that controls the process of launching 
your computer. It will simply be a splash screen that pops up and 
eventually moves to the operating system for many users.
• Kernel: The kernel is the system’s core and controls CPU, memory, 
and border-related devices. The kernel is a very low OS rate.
• Init System: This sub-system initiates user space and is charged by 
control daemons. It is an init program that controls the startup pro-
cess, when the initial boot has been transferred to the bootloader.
• Daemons: These are background services (printing, sound, editing, 
etc.) that may start during launch or after the desktop entry.
• Graphics Server: This is a sub-system that displays graphics on your 
monitor. It is usually called an X server or just an X.
• Desktop Environment: This is the piece users are interacting 
with. There are many desktop areas (GNOME, Cinnamon, Mate, 

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Desktop Environments for Linux 
◾
3
Pantheon, Enlightenment, KDE, Xfce, etc.). Each desktop includes 
built-in applications (such as file managers, configuration tools, web 
browsers, and games).
• Applications: Desktop locations do not provide a complete network 
of applications. Like Windows and macOS, Linux offers thousands 
of software titles that are easily accessible and installed. Many mod-
ern Linux distributions include tools like the App Store that inte-
grates and simplifies system installation.
THE DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT IN LINUX
The first “desktops” on Linux were not yet desktops. Instead, they were 
window managers using the X Window System. X provided basic building 
blocks with visual effects, such as making windows on the screen and giv-
ing keyboard and mouse input. To make the graphical X space usable, you 
need a way to manage all the windows in session. Using the X program as 
xterm or xclock opens that program in a window. The window manager 
traces the windows and performs essential house maintenance, allowing 
you to move the windows and minimize them. The rest is up to you. You 
could start programs when X starts by listing them in the ~ / .xinitrc file, 
but in most cases, you could run new programs from xterm.
There are the following terms used: graphical user interface, command-
line interface icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers and desktop 
widgets, elements of graphical user interfaces (GUI), and WIMP. Let’s dis-
cuss the following terms.
Graphical User Interface
It is an interface that allows interaction with devices through graphical 
icons and an audio indicator such as notation instead of text-based user 
interfaces, typed commands, and text navigation. In reaction to com-
mand-line interfaces’ sensed steep learning curve, GUIs require typing 
commands on a computer keyboard.
The actions in a GUI are performed via direct manipulation of the 
graphical elements. GUIs are used in mobile devices such as audio MP3 
players, portable players, gaming devices, smartphones, household, office, 
and industrial controls. The GUI is not to be applied to the lower-display 
resolution interfaces, such as video games; this term is restricted to the 
scope of two-dimensional display screens to describe generic information 
of the scientific research at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.

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4
◾
Linux 
The temporal behavior of a GUI and designing the visual composition 
is an essential part of software application programming in human–com-
puter interaction. Its goal is to enhance ease of use for the underlying 
logical design of a stored program, a design discipline named usability. 
User-centered design methods are used to ensure that the visual language 
introduced in the design is well-tailored to the tasks.
The visible graphical interface features are sometimes referred to as 
chrome or GUI. The users interact with information by visual widgets 
that allow interactions to the kind of data they hold. The widgets having 
a well-designed interface are selected to support these necessary actions 
to achieve users’ goals. A model view controller allows flexible structures 
in which the interface is independent of and indirectly linked to applica-
tion functions so that the GUI can be customized easily. It will enable 
the user to select a different skin and eases the designer’s work to change 
the interface as the user needs to evolve. Good interface design relates to 
users more and system architecture less. Large widgets, such as windows, 
provide a frame or container for the main presentation content, such as a 
web page email message.
A GUI is designed for the requirements of a market as application-
specific graphical user interfaces. Examples are automated teller machines 
(ATM), point-of-sale (POS) touch screens at restaurants, self-service 
checkouts used in a retail store, airline self-ticket and check-in, a train 
station or a museum, and monitors or control screens in an embedded 
industrial application which employ a real-time operating system (RTOS).
Examples
The following are examples of the graphical environments for Linux.
• Ambient
• Bugie Desktop
• Budgie
• CDE
• Cinnamon
• Cutefish
• Deepin DE
• EDE

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Desktop Environments for Linux 
◾
5
• Elokab
• Enlightenment
• 
Étoilé
• GNOME Shell
• GNUstep
• Innova
• Katana
• KDE Plasma 5
• Liri Shell
• Lumina
• LXDE
• LXQt
• MATE
• MaXX
• Maynard
• Mezzo
• Moksha
• Pantheon
• Project Looking Glass
• oZone GUI
• Razor-qt
• ROX Desktop
• Sugar
• theShell
• Trinity
• UKUI (desktop environment)

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Linux 
• UKUI (desktop environment)
• Unity
• vera
• Xfce