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ALS 2000 Abstract
Xfce: A Lightweight Desktop Environment
Olivier Fourdan, Xfce
Abstract
There are many differences between UNIX like
Operating Systems and desktop workstationsÕ
OS that make UNIX and Linux so unique.
One of them is the X layer being independent
from the window manager, allowing the end
user to choose between more than 60 different
available window managers.
Recently, two major projects have emerged on
Linux, both trying to reproduce the look and
feel of Microsoft Windows and Apple
Macintosh environments on UNIX/Linux. KDE
and GNOME, as they are known, are doing
very well in this, and the developers have done
a terrific good job, writing many applications to
be embedded in the desktop.
Although these environments work very well
on a standalone workstation, they are slow
when running across a Network. Moreover, the
concept of an X server, with many users
connected through the Network does not apply
due to network performance issues and
memory consumption.
My feeling is that there is a strong need for a
lightweight (but still powerful) environment that
could run flawlessly when running on small
servers and that could serve many X terminals
(that can be real X terminals, other UNIX/Linux
boxes running X or X emulator running on a
Windows workstation).
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