X11 and Xfree86

[Scott W]

M.D. DeWar wrote:

>Thanks.
>Now for a more stupider question.
>What is the purpose of them exactly. I have read the sites but being alien
>to the unix world it confuses me.
>Do they just make unix a windows type enviroment ?
>Is KDE/GNOME the same or they like themes to X windows. ?
>So confused. but am trying to get away from microsoft.
>thanks
>mark
>  
>

Ok, _trying_ to leave some things out of this, like the fact that 
X-Windows was available long _before_ Windoze... ;-)

Sort of.  X/XFree is basically a minimal graphical user interface with 
built in networking support.  It provides the bare essentials and 
infrastructure to build a 'window manager' on top of.  Window Managers 
like CDE, TWM, WindowMaker, IceWM, and others all 'sit on top of' X, 
adding their own widget libraries(think icons, dialog boxes, 'styles') 
and defining behaviors (focus follows mouse, click to focus, hot 
key/meta key support/keybindings).

In an X environment, because of having builtin networking from the 
start, it's fairly common to be running an application on one system, 
and displaying it on another.  The X Server is required on any system 
that you want to actually display applications on your screen.  These 
applications can be running on the same system (which is what all non 
networked systems do), or from another system.  One of the nice features 
of X is the underlying architecture is standard across ALL flavors of 
*nix- it's not perfect, but on a *bsd or Linux system, you can have 
Solaris's admintool or smc running from a Sun box alongside OpenOffice 
running locally.

Theres a lot more to X, and arguably a lot of features that X 'may not 
need' any longer, and others that have become security risks as hacking 
and script kiddies have become more frequent.  A search for 'X Windows 
FAQ' should turn up something.

Back to your question- KDE and GNOME both sit on top of X, like any/all 
X Window Managers.  KDE and GNOME both go a step 'further' and also 
provide session and desktop management.  A 'pure' Window Manager is 
generally only conccerned with the basics- handling window actions and 
providing for basic window operations- title bars, window decorations 
(buttons and menus), and the like.  KDE and GNOME actually include 
Window Managers of their own (KDE and Sawfish respectively), but add on 
additional functionality as well, including some fairly detailed 
specifications of what an application should/''must' do to be fully KDE 
or GNOME compliant.

Hope that helps somewhat...

Scott

>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Payne" <payne at magidesign.com>
>To: "M.D. DeWar" <mark at s-wit.net>; "freebsd-questions"
><freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 5:11 PM
>Subject: Re: X11 and Xfree86
>
>
>  
>
>>X11r6 is the version of  xfree86.
>>
>>Payne
>>
>>M.D. DeWar wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>What is the difference between x11r6 and xfree86 ?
>>>I went to xfree site and ended up at x.org and the d/l are not the same.
>>>
>>>thanks
>>>newbie mark
>>>
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>>>
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>>>
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>>
>>    
>>
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