Chapter 5. Desktop environments
The desktop environment (also sometimes called a desktop manager) concept is one of the more challenging parts of Linux to understand. Most users are familiar with Windows and OS X. Those operating systems only have one desktop interface. The user can tweak those desktops to a certain extent, but essentially you’re stuck with whatever Apple or Microsoft has decided to do. Menus are always going to be in certain places and key combinations are going to be tied to specific tasks and programs. The user doesn’t have a say in the design of their work environment, nor can they change it very much. And for the most part, users of these systems are conditioned to accept this limitation. This is often why you see people who haven’t updated their systems in years—they like the existing interface and don’t want to move onto something different. This could be the reason Windows XP managed to survive for 12 years (and why it’s still seen out in the wild).