You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
199 lines
6.4 KiB
199 lines
6.4 KiB
<!--
|
|
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
|
|
<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN"
|
|
"dtd/kdex.dtd">
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
<chapter id="introduction">
|
|
<title>Introduction</title>
|
|
|
|
<qandaset>
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>What is &tde;?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>&tde; is the Trinity Desktop Environment. The project was initiated
|
|
by <ulink url="mailto:ettrich@kde.org">Matthias Ettrich</ulink> in
|
|
1996 and originally called the K Desktop Environment. The aim of the &tde; project is to connect the
|
|
power of the &UNIX; operating systems with the comfort of a modern user
|
|
interface.</para>
|
|
<para>For additional information about &tde;, check the Trinity web site at
|
|
<ulink url="http://www.trinitydesktop.org/about.php">About Trinity</ulink></para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question id="platform">
|
|
<para>On which platforms can I expect &tde; to work?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>&tde; is a Desktop Environment for all flavors of &UNIX; systems.
|
|
While most &tde; developers use &Linux; based systems, &tde; should run
|
|
on a wide range of systems. You might need to tweak the
|
|
source code a bit to get &tde; to compile on different variant
|
|
of &UNIX; systems, or when not using the &GNU; development tools, in
|
|
particular the &gcc; compiler.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>Why should I use TDE?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>TDE provides a traditional computer desktop that is snappy and
|
|
responsive. A project goal is to provide a highly customizable
|
|
desktop without forcing any particular feature or effect on users.
|
|
TDE comes with many software tools to provide a productive and enjoyable
|
|
computer desktop system.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>Is &tde; a window manager?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>No, &tde; is not a window manager. While &tde; includes a
|
|
sophisticated window manager (&twin;), &tde; is much more, providing
|
|
a full integrated desktop environment. &tde; includes a web browser,
|
|
a file manager, a window manager, a help system, a
|
|
configuration system, many tools and utilities, and many
|
|
applications, including but not limited to mail
|
|
and news clients, drawing programs, a PDF and a &DVI; viewer
|
|
and so forth.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>Is &tde; a <acronym>CDE</acronym>, &Windows; or &Mac;
|
|
<acronym>OS</acronym> clone?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>&tde; is not a clone. Specifically &tde; is not a
|
|
Common Desktop Environment (<acronym>CDE</acronym>) or &Windows; clone.
|
|
While developers have and will continue to glean the best features from existing
|
|
desktop environments, &tde; is a unique environment that has and
|
|
will continue to go its own way.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>On what platform is TDE based?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>TDE uses C++ and the <link linkend="qt">&Qt; C++ crossplatform toolkit</link>.
|
|
The TDE development team now maintains the Qt3 toolkit, renamed TQt3.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>Is &tde; free software?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>Yes, &tde; is free software according to the &GNU; General
|
|
Public License. All &tde; libraries are available under the
|
|
<acronym>LGPL</acronym> making commercial software development for the
|
|
&tde; desktop possible, but all &tde; applications are licensed under
|
|
the <acronym>GPL</acronym>.</para>
|
|
<para>&tde; uses the <link linkend="qt">&Qt; C++ crossplatform
|
|
toolkit</link>, which, since version 2.2, is released under the
|
|
<acronym>GPL</acronym>.</para>
|
|
<para>Both &tde; and &Qt; can be made available on
|
|
&CD-ROM; free of charge. No runtime fees of any kind are
|
|
incurred.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>Why the rebranding and renaming efforts? Why not continue calling the software KDE?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>The "KDE" name, various logos, and related efforts are trademarked by the KDE
|
|
Foundation. Since the Trinity project is not affiliated with the KDE Foundation,
|
|
we can't legally use their trademarks.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
<qandaentry>
|
|
<question>
|
|
<para>How is Trinity different from KDE4?</para>
|
|
</question>
|
|
<answer>
|
|
<para>Both desktop environments share common roots to KDE 3.5.10, which was the last
|
|
official release of KDE in the 3.x series. Many KDE developers wanted to break
|
|
from that code chain and tool sets to start afresh. Thus was born KDE4. In
|
|
addition to moving to the Qt4 tool set, the KDE developers revamped the
|
|
underlying KDE code set.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>KDE4 and Trinity have different philosophies about work flow preferences.
|
|
KDE4 developers want to support certain work flow concepts and techniques.
|
|
Trinity developers want to maintain a "traditional" desktop environment.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>For example, KDE4 offers the following tools:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Semantic desktop through Nepomuk</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>PIM (Personal Information Management) data caching through Akonadi</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Desktop file searching through Strigi</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Activities, a computer desktop metaphor for managing tasks and activities</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<para>Whereas TDE offers the following:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Desktop search through the locate:/ tdeio-slave and Beagle</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Integrated PIM suite with plugins</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Related task management using multiple desktops</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<para>The KDE developers support alternate desktop interfaces, such as those used
|
|
with netbooks, tablets, and smart phones. TDE provides a single interface that is
|
|
optimized for the mouse/keyboard HCI (Human-computer interaction) model.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Both desktop environments provide an excellent choice for various work
|
|
flows but differ in approach. Trinity leans toward user expectations of how
|
|
desktop environments have functioned traditionally. There is a sense of
|
|
familiarity with that environment many people like. Similarly other users prefer
|
|
the work flow features offered by KDE4 because those features match their
|
|
expectations of how they want their computer to behave. The difference between the
|
|
two environments does not mean one is better, buggier, or slower -- mdash; only that
|
|
they are different and appeal to different types of people. Although sharing a
|
|
common heritage, both desktops appeal to different groups of people. As always
|
|
with free/libre software, there is a choice.</para>
|
|
</answer>
|
|
</qandaentry>
|
|
|
|
|
|
</qandaset>
|
|
</chapter>
|
|
|