this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Someone enlighten me. How many active desktop projects are there currently? (Not just window managers...)
KDE Plasma, Trinity (is it active? Fork of KDE 3.5)
Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon (fork all the things!), or "reskins" like Unity or Budgie?
LXQt, Xfce... Is enlightenment still active as a project?
Does anyone use Deepin -- appears to be a partial fork of KDE (kwin, etc.) with new desktop environment built around it rather than use Plasma.
Or Pantheon (Vala+GTK3?).
Cosmic is from the ground up, recent and active I guess.
Missing anything?
Here's a decent list: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_environment#List_of_desktop_environments
Arch based list obvs so won't include every single one but not too shabby.
Deepin was my long running DE for a while until they changed to be more windows like and I ditched it for budgie. Shortlived as it just wasn't being maintained and updated enough for my liking. Moved to Pantheon for quite a while but it got annoying having to fix it breaking with updates. I ditched it and was ginf to go back once they released the distro agnostic version. I don't know if that ever eventuated because I gave up waiting and have been happy with KDE for several years now.
The list is great! But it doesn't really tell us which ones are actively developed. Running historical DEs is fun sometimes. For example, LXDE doesn't really see a lot of development compared to its successor, LXQt. But once again shows the the Arch Wiki is the best ;)
I guess people do occasionally compile KDE 1.x just to see if it still runs on modern systems (it does, but obviously some underlying things have changed over the years, like the audio and graphics stacks). But that isn't the same as being actively developed :)
Yeah that checks out.
I'm fairly new to this space so not aware of the more obscure or older ones but my list of popular Desktop Environments would be:
Window maker is still being develop, I think
Moksha Desktop as well