It’s midnight and you’re staring at your screen once again. What’s staring back at you? A game? A browser window? System status information? Emacs?
Whatever’s on your display, if you’re using Linux, you’re staring at the results of years of development in the form of the X Window System (or just plain “X”). Originally developed for UNIX machines and later ported to Linux, X draws every pixel and processes every mouse click and key press. More significantly, X provides Linux with a substantial and differentiating competitive advantage: you can make Linux “look and feel” any way you want.
Unlike proprietary window systems, X was specifically designed to be customized. Rather than impose a single look and feel on an application or the desktop, the designers of X chose instead to provide infrastructure — protocol, paradigms, and APIs — and left it to others to specify and build different user interfaces. And, indeed, the variety of graphical user interfaces is one of the things that makes Linux fun to use. Unlike proprietary window systems — like Microsoft Windows and MacOS — you can choose the interface that works best for you.
Don’t like GNOME? Try KDE. Love the old NEXTSTEP interface? Try the AFTERSTEP window manager. Want to change the way xclock looks to complement your Amiga desktop? You can. Want to make xterm work like an old VT220. No problem. (You can find a plethora…
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