You walk into a department store to buy a new suit. This store only sells one style of suit: a three piece polyester item with matching tie. You get your choice of colors, but there is only one size.
Just down the block there’s another store with both suits and separates. It offers a diversity of colors,sizes, styles, and fabrics from all kinds of manufacturers. You can buy any tie you want. Even better, most of the clothes in this store are free. Tailoring isn’t included, but they’ll provide you with everything you need to make the suit yourself or hire a tailor.
Where do you shop?
If you are like me, you might complain a bit, just because it takes more time to make up your mind with all of these choices. But you’ll shop in the second store every time. Now, instead of clothes, think of the graphics on your desktop, and you’ll be on your way to understanding the windowing supermarket that makes up Linux’s X Window System.
X Marks the Spot
Most graphical user interfaces are all-in-one systems. Often, with Windows and MacOS for example, they are integrated right into the operating system. This makes things nice and consistent for the user, but this consistency comes at the expense of choice.
Linux, like most forms of Unix, takes a different approach. It uses the X Window System….
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