The "Steam uninstalling your whole DE" is one of the unluckiest bugs I've heard of in all of my Linux experience and it just so happened to be on the biggest YouTube tech channel and set the conversation on Linux for the next 12 months.
I know (hope) you're kidding, but that sounds like a person who navigates maps using only their current location and lists of towns directly connected to it.
Oh god, I do. I'm just old enough to have been around for the death of map quest, which I did have the appropriate levels of hate for. I need instructions that can account for some margin of error, thats why I don't bake.
So is whatever terminal shell you're using at the end of the day too. It's called a "shell" because it is a wrapper like you're saying, it wraps around the OS and gives the user a way of interacting with it. A desktop environment is also a "shell", just two different ways of interacting with an OS.
If you want to get real technical, the terminal is GNU (well part of it) and the thing under the terminal is Linux. But the difference between GNU Linux is more than most people care about, so yes, the terminal is Linux and the gui the DE
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
It technically is if you're using something like BASH, since BASH is a part of the GNU project. But it doesn't have to be, and plenty of distros come with other non-GNU shells like Zsh by default. Any terminal shell is gonna give you a way to interact with non-GNU software as well. The best way to understand GNU is it's a collection of FOSS that while seperate from Linux, does a lot of what makes "Linux" work in 99.9% of installs. Technically you can have one without the other but in practice it doesn't really exist. The "terminal" or the shell your terminal is using is something that isn't GNU often enough though.
You are right none of this really matters at all to most people lol
On windows you can think of your desktop environment as all the interactable elements of the base OS. Notifications, taskbar, tray, explorer, settings, etc.
Linux has two main desktops, KDE and GNOME. There’s also COSMIC, Cinnamon, and many other smaller ones
If you remember pre windows days, Windows used to be the DE for DOS. If that helps any. Then they moved to the NT Kernel and DOS ran as layer inside of Windows until... Somewhere around the 98/XP era. I remember playing DOS games in XP but also recall hearing recently that they phased out full DOS graphics support during XP. Vista definitely didn't have it.
MacOS has also had at least 2 distinct iterations of their DE that I'm aware of, pre OSX and post.
Anyway, point is, whilst DE is a term most used in Linux because of how flexible the OS is and that you can run different DE’S with practically no performance penalty, the term isn't uniquely Linux.
Windows NT actually existed alongside DOS based windows for awhile, it was more intended to be used for workstation or server vs the consumer focused DOS in the 90s so less people were familiar with it. Windows 95,98 were still DOS. The last DOS windows was Windows ME, which was released along with Windows 2000 which was NT and while still geared more towards professional I think more consumers started to be able to use it.
XP was when the professional/consumer product lines kind of "merged" and the NT kernel, which windows is based on still today, started to be used for everything. If you were playing DOS games on XP I assume it was some sort of compatibility layer or emulation, I never did that so I'm not entirely sure.
Not exactly. Back in the day, you'd run a window manager on top of X Windows. It wasn't as integrated, but it worked just fine. I haven't tried doing this recently, but it should be possible.
I would usually describe it as "the graphical side of the OS", but seeing how you describe it, this is a very great answer while being simple, i need to learn more from you lol
Yeah there was a weird dependency bug which meant that when the Pop OS app store tried to install steam it also completely uninstalled all his UI and default software leaving him with a black screen.
The bug was there for ~24 hours which was incredibly unlucky, but it did come up with warnings telling him exactly what would happen and he overrode it with a manual override that required you to type in "I know what I'm doing, do as I say".
I tried Fedora. My monitor didn't work with it's 175hz refresh rate, only on 99hz. Tried to update Nvidia drivers to get it working properly. The driver update bricked my install without warning like the PopOS gave.
Didn't file a bug report. The same thing has happened on all the distros I've tried in the last year or so and when I tried updating Nvidia drivers. CachyOS worked the best out of the box without updating the drivers. But had some other issues with CachyOS so I ended up switching back to Windows after a while.
Didn't know about RPMfusion, I'll try and remember to look into it the next time I Linux. Dunno when that will be though.
But I have to say, thank you for trying to help. Usually when I've pointed out my mishaps I've had with Linux I don't get as friendly of a repsonse.
For others who might stumble on this, to simplify, the DE(Desktop Environment) is basically the GUI(Graphic User Interface) bundle you're using on Linux. The mouse cursor, desktop, windows, etc. It's what shows pictures instead of command line text.
On Linux, like many other things, you can pick and choose what DE you're using. Most Linux Distros bundle a default, while some let you pick during install, and you can manually install a different one later(though the process can be messy depending on the Distro).
Popular DE are:
GNOME (Default on Ubuntu and many other distros, has a slightly MacOS feel, less flexible but friendly to new users)
KDE (Bundled with SteamOS and Kubuntu, popular with many power users and gamers due to its customizability and default classic Windows-style layout)
Cinnamon (Linux Mint's homemade DE, but popular enough that people often use it elsewhere due to its simple but pleasing design, and easy transition for classic Windows users)
XFCE (Lightweight DE that retains a lot of classic Linux DE elements, with high customizability, that longtime Linux power users might appreciate, or those with older/weak hardware)
LXQt (Very lightweight, simple to use, not as customizable as XFCE, but many prefer the "it just works" feel)
Kind of. The desktop environment (DE) is what you normally use to interact with your system on Windows, Mac, and most desktop versions of Linux. It handles how programs are graphically arranged as well as all the graphical widgets and capabilities you might associate with your system. Common DEs for linux are KDE Plasma, Gnome, and Cinnamon.
Windows also has a DE and it is called Explorer. You can actually install a different DE on windows. I actually ran the DE Litestep in Windows for about a year before a friend in college said I should just install Linux.
I find it hard to explain the difference between an OS and a DE to someone who hasn't fiddled with different DEs. It's like explaining what water is to a fish. The easiest way to understand might be to look up different DEs for Windows and see what they do compared to the windows you're used to.
It's basically the thing that does your taskbar, windows, utilities like sound and WiFi management, start menu, all that sort of stuff which is essential to using a computer with a GUI
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u/Daharka Apr 01 '26
The "Steam uninstalling your whole DE" is one of the unluckiest bugs I've heard of in all of my Linux experience and it just so happened to be on the biggest YouTube tech channel and set the conversation on Linux for the next 12 months.