On Thu, 2018-06-28 at 16:34 +0000, Beartooth wrote:
This has to be a Very Dumb Question, but what is the
difference
between a "display manager" and a "desktop manager"?
(Somewhat hand-wavy explanation follows):
The usual terms are 'display manager' and 'desktop environment'.
Recall that X11 was designed originally to support multiple graphical
terminals running off a central server, and all the bells and whistles
to support that are still there, even though most people are just
running it on a single-user workstation.
The DM manages one or more physical displays and allows you to log in.
Examples of DMs are GDM, KDM, SDDM, etc.
The DE is what handles your session you use after you log in. Examples
are Gnome, Plasma, Mate etc.
This being Linux, you can do without either or both. If you log into a
text console with no window server running, you're not using a DM, but
will have to fire up the window system by hand, e.g. using startx. And
once you log in you might just use a simple window manager without all
the paraphernalia of a full DE. The thing about DEs is that they not
only present a (hopefully) consistent interface with inter-related
widgets and design elements, but also provide libraries for
intercommunication between apps that use the DE. Again, this being
Linux, you can run more than one set of libraries at the same time, so
even if your user-facing interface is Plasma (say), you can still use
Gnome apps and vice versa.
This drives non-*ix people mad :-)
poc