A desktop environment is a fundamental feature to most modern operating system. It is the interface between the user and the operating system. The desktop environment. literally simulates a desk on the monitor of the computer. with folders. documents and. applications like word processors. Desktop environments display the toolbars. icons. windows and animated effects in different ways. A desktop environment is a graphic interface that lets the user work with the operating system. Windows and OS X come with a single desktop environment. that can be themed. but not altered in the amount of resources they use. or the global options available for applications. For Linux however. a range of options are available. Most Linux distros offer users a choice between GNOME and KDE.

GNOME (Gnu Network Object Model Environment). is one of. the two most common desktop environments for Linux. It is a desktop environment for UNIX like operating systems. and works for GNU as well as Solaris. The GNOME Human Interface Guideline (RIG). is a set of rules that .act as a benchmark for GNOME itself aims to achieve. and what competing desktop environments also consider. GNOME looks and feels like the Mac OS X. with the menu bar being along the top edge of the screen. There are a bunch of programs' that come with GNOME. most notably. Nautilus. a small and swift file browser. GNOME is also bundled with f-spot. one of the most used photo management software for Linux. Gnome comes with Brasero. which is not as good a burning software. as K3b. There are a huge number of applications written for GNOME, but KDE has more. GNOME does not have all the KDE, but that means that GNOME is less of a resource hog, and works better on old or slower machines.

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Although GNOME came out later than KDE, it is a mature and robust desktop environment and is prone to far fewer crashes than KDE. GNOME does not offer as many customisation options as KDE, but strictly speaking, since the source code is available for everyone, you can do practically anything you want with it.

KDE is also one of the two most common desktop environments for Linux around. It was released a year before GNOME, and stands for the K Desktop Environment. There are a lot more applications written for KDE than for GNOME. KDE also comes bundled with the most used MP3 player for Linux, Amarok, and the popular burner k3b. Amarok is the mp3 player of choice, more preferred to Rhythmbox, which is the GNOME default. KDE looks and feels like Windows, and Windows users are more comfortable starting off on Linux with KDE. It is customisable on many levels, and offers a lot of in-depth tweaking features. Since KDE comes with a lot of bells and whistles, it is more heavy on system resources, and is inadvisable for less than 256 MB of RAM. Most Linux software or distros with the word K before their name means they are meant for KDE, or use KDE. This includes web browsers like Konquerer and distros like Kubuntu. Strictly speaking, GNOME applications run well on KDE and vice-versa, the consideration here is really system resources at your disposal, and how you want your desktop environment to look.

There is a long, ongoing war between KDE and GNOME. We cannot make a call here as really, such a matter is best left to individual needs and tastes. However, what we will say is that if you are willing to experiment, there are other fish in the sea, some of them using less memory than GNOME, or offering more eye-candy than KDE.