Noob to Open OS

[Blackadam1518]

Hey  everyone i'm as you can tell by the title a noob to os 

I get the diff between 32 and 64bit some.  i really don't understand the difference for example Gnome , KDE, LXDE, etc i see some of the same distros have multiple versions with those things there... what do they mean?? Does each one do something better than the others??

[parnote]

Blackadam1518,

My best response is to stay tuned to The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Your question will be very capably answered by agmg, in an article on that very topic that will be appearing in the April 2013 issue of the magazine.

[Just17]

Hey  everyone i'm as you can tell by the title a noob to os 

I get the diff between 32 and 64bit some.  i really don't understand the difference for example Gnome , KDE, LXDE, etc i see some of the same distros have multiple versions with those things there... what do they mean?? Does each one do something better than the others??

Not really 'do' anything different ......  but they first of all 'look' different, and do things slightly differently from the user interactive point of view.

They are Desktop Environments which sit on top of the operating system, to give the user a nice interface to get things done.

As we all have slightly different tastes, some have a preference for each of the DEs or other options available for the user interface.

I hope that will suffice until you read a little more 

Welcome aboard! 

[Blackadam1518]

Thanks guys i will definitely be waiting aprils issue agmg has helped me tons on questions i've had in the past (i had no\o clue he was "famous")

I got into os i have no problems saying by a video i say on youtube by NixiePixel


http://www.youtube.com/user/nixiedoeslinux

[µT6]

"i really don't understand the difference for example Gnome , KDE, LXDE, etc i see some of the same distros have multiple versions with those things there..."

when you create a distro you can choose to put a version of gnome or kde, lxde between many others, or all

also you can choose to add certain tools or not in each desktop

you can choose to have a certain kernel or a set of kernels to choose from in your distro

each distro points to a specific direction a specific goal, offer the latest, the most specific, the most options in software, the bleeding edge on kernel and apps versions while choosing a specific desktop or a set of desktops that goes according to their goals

pclinux in particular chooses kde4 as the main de because it is more friendly for us, users that come from windows and like something that resembles it, also we use a specific stable version of kde, maybe there is a newer one but we use the most stable available because one of the goals of this distro is offer a user friendly distro that is very stable and that can be reached by choosing a stable version of the desktop environment we use

we also have gnome but version 2, version 3 is not being much accepted really and for the moment version 2 is working for most users here, afik

other desktop environments offer different options in design, response time, system requirements and ways to do and handle actions

each desktop environment like gnome, kde, lxde, e17, openbox(to mention some) tries to do things their way, covering as much aspects of a desktop as possible while trying to reach certain expectations

not all the desktops offer the same tools but some tools exist on every desktop like a app to take screenshots, tools to record audio, to configure details of the desktop and similar stuff

each desktop is made by a different team, a different group of persons trying to reach a goal, each team puts their goals

when you run a desktop and you find that it is fast, looks nice, works the way you usually work and doesn't uses much resources(important in machines with limited resources) you can consider on choosing it as your desktop environment

a example of why a desktop exist is gnome, it is inspired in osx desktop, it also has alot less options to configure when compared to kde4(the king in customization i think) to keep it as simple as possible while remaining very functional and good loking

lxde is a mix of performance, low resources consumption and the style of the old kde3 desktop with a nice modern gui

e17 aims to be the prettiest desktop around while being light in resources, you can visit each desktop environment websites and read more about their objectives and reasons to be the way they are

http://www.kde.org/

http://www.gnome.org/

http://www.enlightenment.org/

more links here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment

"Does each one do something better than the others??"

no, there is not a better one, it depends on you, how you use it and on what hardware you will use with it

some desktops are better for some activities but others are better on others, in general you can do the same in almost all the desktops

"i had no\o clue he was "famous""

i didn't had a clue either, on this forum, there is not much famous users, only a couple losers with big post counts, try to ignore them 

[Blackadam1518]

wow thank you so much

do you know of any of the distros or something where you can customize what your looking for example take this  A from pclinux then C from mint throw in this B from ubuntu to create something for you or is it stickily done in code??

[µT6]

that depends on what is a, b and c

if you are talking about windows decorations, mouse cursor, windows colors, wallpaper, system sounds and similar stuff, that is easily done on most circumstances, sometimes is a matter of copy and paste or just to choose the right theme already present on most distros desktops

if you are talking about elements that are part of the desktop environment itself like kde4 plasma widgets to be loaded on a gnome desktop, that is a no go, it requires kde4 to run, same for some tools from gnome, others doesn't require the entire desktop running, just couple of libraries and it will run

i just loaded e17 on this pclinux 64 bit install, dolphin file manager worked perfectly there, being dolphin a tool for kde4 mostly, same applies for gnome tools being usable under kde4

if you want to customize kde4 to behave like gnome on mint or the ubunfantastic distro, that can probably be done, perhaps you could tell us what you like form their gnome implementations and we could see if that can be ported or adapted to kde4, if not already ported and present, awaiting for you to customize kde4 and work the way you like

[Rudge]

I would like a round of applause to T6 for an excellent answer to the question that was asked.

Well done T6!  

That was awesome. 

  

[µT6]

 

 

[Rudge]

I had my suspicions from the start. 

[johnmart]

Well, dang! Gotta configure a new forum filter. 

[Rudge]

Well, dang! Gotta configure a new forum filter. 

There's no way to filter it. It just seeps in.

All you can do is learn the smell and go from there. 

[Old-Polack]

Old-Forum-Filter-Polack here. 

[johnmart]

Old-Forum-Filter-Polack here. 

Heheh.......well done. A fresher environment. 

[Blackadam1518]

so when asked what it was i was looking for and answered what i would like so that i can tweak my os was enough to wow.... you guys are something...