What is GNOME ?

**mandarpowale** · February 28th, 2015

Sorry , but I am a newbie to UBUNTU . I keep hearing the term GNOME on edx.org (during learning linux basics). I want to know if the GNOME is inbuilt into UBUNTU, or if it has to be downloaded?

I do like the default layout, but I want to know what GNOME is.

Kindly reply,
Mandar.

**sandyd** · February 28th, 2015

Originally Posted by mandarpowale

Sorry , but I am a newbie to UBUNTU . I keep hearing the term GNOME on edx.org (during learning linux basics). I want to know if the GNOME is inbuilt into UBUNTU, or if it has to be downloaded?

I do like the default layout, but I want to know what GNOME is.

Kindly reply,
Mandar.

Gnome is one of the many desktop environments that Linux has. A few others are KDE, LXDE, XFCE, OpenBox, etc

By default, Ubuntu uses the Unity Desktop Environment which is based on Gnome (I *think* it is based on Gnome 3, not Gnome 2)

Unity is a bit specific to Ubuntu, in general I have not found any other distribution that uses Unity.

If you want a Gnome 3 desktop, see http://ubuntugnome.org/

**mandarpowale** · February 28th, 2015

Gnome is one of the many desktop environments that Linux has. A few others are KDE, LXDE, XFCE, OpenBox, etc

Which one is closest to windows 7 format (if any) ? I'm just curious. I think I am going to retain unity, after all (I had a look at preview of GNOMEUBUNTU.org)

**Frogs Hair** · February 28th, 2015

The menu layout in Kubuntu is similar.

**newb85** · February 28th, 2015

These days, modern DE's are easy to learn, despite their differences from Windows (or whatever you're used to.) The three window control buttons might not be in the same corner you're used to, but they're still obvious. Unity, KDE/plasma, XFCE, Cairo-dock, and many others have keyboard search built into the environment, so all you have to do is open the application menu and start typing what you're looking for, and it comes up. There are, of course, differences in how things work, but if you don't know, you can almost always find the answer with a quick internet search. And, of course, your chances of getting a good answer increase with the popularity of your DE.

I guess what I'm saying is that for most people, trying to set up their DE so that it most closely resembles something else is a bit of a waste of time.

**grahammechanical** · February 28th, 2015

Yes, it is confusing especially when people are not clear on what they mean when using certain terms.

Gnome is a Desktop Environment. Unity is a user interface. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution. It is built on software from many Free and Open Source projects. From the beginning Ubuntu was built on the Gnome desktop environment (DE) and used Gnome panel as the user interface (UI). And as the Gnome developers improved Gnome DE and Gnome panel then Ubuntu received the improvements as well.

A few years ago the Gnome developers made a change. They switched desktop environments from what they called Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 and they stopped developing Gnome 2 panel UI and brought out Gnome 3 shell UI. It was at this time that the Ubuntu developers choose to use the Gnome 3 DE but not the Gnome 3 shell UI. Instead the Ubuntu developers choose to use their own creation called Unity.

There are similarities between Unity and Gnome 3 shell.

http://www.gnome.org/

As all this code is Free and Open source it is possible for developers to take the Ubuntu code and replace Gnome DE with another desktop environment and user interface from other open source software projects. And so we have Kubuntu (Ubuntu with the K desktop environment - KDE) and Xubuntu (Ubuntu with the Xfce desktop environment) and Lubuntu (Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop environment) and Ubuntu Gnome (Ubuntu with the Gnome 3 shell) and we can now add to this family Ubuntu Mate (Ubuntu with the Mate desktop environment).

https://www.kde.org/

http://www.xfce.org/

http://lxde.org/

http://mate-desktop.org/

Each of these family members are Linux distributions and can be downloaded and installed as we do for Ubuntu. Just do a google search for the name and we can have a live session DVD or USB stick and see the differences for ourself.

Look at the video in this Ubuntu Mate blog and see that it has a UI that has many alternative ways of working. There is even a method called Redmond which seems very similar with how Windows used to look.

https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/

Regards.

**XfJrkK8** · March 1st, 2015

Originally Posted by mandarpowale

Sorry , but I am a newbie to UBUNTU . I keep hearing the term GNOME on edx.org (during learning linux basics). I want to know if the GNOME is inbuilt into UBUNTU, or if it has to be downloaded?

I do like the default layout, but I want to know what GNOME is.

Kindly reply,
Mandar.

Like the others stated, it's a desktop environment included in a Linux distro. What I find odd is that the edx.org course isn't telling you what GNOME is. I thought about taking that course, but now I probably won't. What kind of Linux basic course is that?

**jimmy-frydkaer** · March 1st, 2015

UNIX/Linux = One program that does one thing, and does that thing well. This does, in my opinion not hold true for any graphical user interface on the planet.

That said, before you learn what GNOME, or GNU Network Object Model Environment is, you need to know what a Desktop Environment is:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment

Otherwise it make no sense to talk about GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Unity and the lot.

Most important of all: DO NOT listen to people recommending any specific graphical user interface to you. Your GUI is like your wife: You chose her - You live with her.

Teach yourself ONE GUI and learn it well.