[vox-tech] Pardon me, but...

[nbs]

On Mon, Jun 17, 2002 at 02:57:10PM -0700, Richard S. Crawford wrote:
> How does the whole windowing thing work?
> 
> On my computer, I've got
> 
> 	Linux which runs

Linux is the Kernel and OS.  (My friend _AND_ slave. [*])


> 	X which powers

Simply an application which happens to be beastly and run as a kind of
'server' for clients like:



> 	GNOME which integrates with

and:


> 	Sawfish which has something or other to do with


SawFish is the "Window Manager."  It provides nicities like titlebars,
buttons to close windows, and lets you resize and move windows, among
many other things.

Gnome is a library and a desktop manager.  It provides the panel(s),
and, along with the GTK+ and related libraries (which GNOME is itself
based upon) provides the guts behind things like panel applets,
programs like Gnome Terminal and GIMP, and so forth.

Now, GTK+-based apps. don't necessary use or need GNOME.
(Just like Qt-based apps. don't necessarily use or need KDE.)
(Also note: Unlike GNOME, KDE has its own built-in window-manager.)



> 	Nautilus

Nautilus is simply a beefed-up file manager.  (like Exporer or IE or
Konqueror).

It also happens to have the ability to take over your desktop (which is
where it can place things like a homedir folder, trashcan, etc.
GNOME and KDE both do this themselves, as well.)

Nautilus happens to use GTK+ and GNOME.



> ...or something like that.
> 
> How do all these pieces fit together?  I've read through my one or two Linux books, but this process still remains a mystery to me.
> 

Hope that helps.  One of those multilayer diagrams might be necessary,
though. ;)

-bill!