ok, i am a definate newbie.. i have mandrake 10 running w/ win xp.. seems pretty desent.,. i read references to things (programs) for kde or gnome.. the os is linux which is the text based portion and the window managers are kde, gnome, etc.. right.. do programs get written for linux & run in graphic mode or is there more to it.. are programs written specifically for kde or gnome..???
also i see xfree i think mentioned as though it's the base for the window managers..?? like i said, i'm a newbie. i really enjoy trying out dif operating systems..
thanks

Yes you have kind have got the structure. On most dists the base is the X-server (xfree86) which handles the hardware like mouse, g-card and monitor. The next layer is the x-windows-system which handles the fonts and display. The next layer the relevant desktop mananger like kde, gnome etc. Most of the desktop managers and gui apps are configured using qt which i suppose is the equivalent of Visual Basic.

Urm, qt isn't quite like Visual Basic. VB is a full programming environment including language. QT is a library for building GUI apps. You'll need it for KDE and if you install other programs which use it. Don't worry if you want to use Gnome, KDE programs will still work under Gnome as long as they have been installed successfully.

You are well on the right track to understanding Linux. Well done!

Alex

I don't agree, sorry. While M$ uses basic as the underlying language qt uses C++ so while the languages are different the outcome is the same; a gui application.

Quote from Trolltech;

Qt in Depth

Qt is a complete C++ application development framework, which includes a class library and tools for cross-platform development and internationalization.
Qt Components

Qt consists of several components: The Qt library itself, applications for GUI design, internationalization and documentation/help file reading, and finally cross-platform build and utility tools.
The Qt Class Library

The Qt Class library is the main component of Qt. The library makes available approximately 400 classes with most of the infrastructure functionality needed to build nontrivial applications. It contains classes for GUI, tools, networking, database handling, XML, and much more. To learn more about the library, please see the online Qt Documentation.
GUI design

Qt Designer is a full-fledged GUI builder. Using Qt Designer, application designers can lay out and preview the GUI of their applications.

Exactly, qt uses c++ which is a separate language from qt. Visual basic is a part and parcel deal. You have the visual and the basic in the same package. Qt isn't part of c++ that was what I was getting at.

QT is a library. Visual Basic is a mix of library and the language BASIC (same way Visual C++ is a mix of library and language. You could if you wanted write out the MFC GUI stuff separately if you wanted. Its also analogous with Delphi. You can code the GUI parts of Delphi yourself if you really wanted, it'd just take a while).

Same way GTK isn't part of C even though it was made for C. You also get python extensions and c++ as well.

Alex

P.S. QT designer is a separate program which is like the Interface Builder on Macs OS X. It makes the code for a GUI but on its own it does nothing. You need code to go with it to make it be anything more than a GUI shell.

I thnk what's trying to be said in a sort of politically overblown sort of way is VB is a language.Ccomparing a langugae to gtk and qt is not the way to go. qt and gtk are more or less libraries for you to use in your coding reguardless of what language you use. The guys here are big on C/C++, but you can use the gtk and qt libs in any language GCC will compile AFAIK. and that's a hefty list to be honest.

C
C++
C@
Pascal
Fortran
Ada
Java
Cobol
Modula-2


There might even be, and probably is, a basic front end for the GCC compiler suite.

Alex you are nit picking. The guy wanted to know how things worked and I felt that a comparison with what he probably knew would be fair. We do not want to get into a full blown brawl over something as trivial as this. See you.

ok, you guys went right over my head w/ the programing stuff.. so, are apps written for just kde ro just gnome.. kde, gnome etc are part of xwindows or an xwindows appp right..?? xfree handle the graphical hardware..?? i think i have a start on it.. i like the layers desc.. sounds kinda like dos & windows (early 3).. dos was the actual os & windows was the frontend..
ok, now for users... when setting up users, they each have their own "home" directory and everything else is under it.. are they all parallel to each other..?? do they all reside under a "user" directory..??
is there a place where i can read more..?? overviews of dir structures etc...
thanks again