CDE continues
to be the default desktop on AIX and HP/UX systems, though IBM offers both
GNOME and KDE for AIX. Sun Solaris 10 includes both CDE and GNOME.
As an alternative to GNOME or KDE, Xfce provides a GTK+-based desktop environment
that uses only about one-third the memory of GNOME. Xfce??™s window manager,
xfwm, was the first to include a compositing manager, which made it the first
production-quality desktop with integrated support for drop shadows and transparent
windows when used with the COMPOSITE extension.
All of the modern desktop environments are actually program suites, which include
programs to manage the panel(s), desktop background, files, and program-launching
menus; a session manager and a window manager; and a selection of panel applets
and utilities including calculators, clocks, and monitors. In order to ensure that these
8.2
8.2 Session Managers 119
programs function well together, inter-process communications servers, notification
agents, object request brokers, and other tools get drawn into the mix. It??™s not
uncommon for KDE or GNOME to consume over 60 MB of memory just to start up.
On the other hand, some window managers have been extended to include programlaunching
and panel-management features and can serve as minimalist desktop
environments.
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