Changing Desktop Environment/Window manager
The main difference between a Desktop Environment (DE) and a Window Manager (WM) is that while
DEs are a totally integrated environment with integrated applications, WMs are just a basic shell
which provide a dock to switch between different applications and an optional launcher to launch
already-installed applications.
This is something which varies from person to person. While some prefer minimal WMs, others would
rather have a full blown DE. It's just a matter of taste, and thankfully, with Gentoo, you can easily switch
to whatever you prefer. Here's a small list of the popular DEs/WMs: Desktop Environments:
● KDE - K Desktop Environment
● GNOME - GNU Object Model Environment
Window Managers:
● Fluxbox (Installed by default)
● Xfce
● Enlightenment
While it would be possible to write how-tos for each of those and maybe more, I'm constrained by time
right now, so you'll have to install them on your own if you wish.
Installing applications
The magic word to install any application in Gentoo is emerge. Gentoo's package manager, known as
Portage, stores information for over 25,000 applications. At any point of time, if you want to install
an application, all you have to do is:
emerge <name of application>
So for example, if you want to install mplayer, all you have to type is
emerge mplayer
While this will install mplayer and all of its dependencies automatically, there are a few things which
you should do before actually installing it.
emerge -p <app>
What this will do is pretend to install the application. What it means is that it will show you the list
of dependencies it will install when you install that specific application. Go ahead, try emerge -p mplayer.
It will show you a list of dependencies for mplayer. Similarly, emerge -p openoffice will show you the list
of dependencies which it will install before installing OpenOffice itself.
emerge -v <app>
Verbose output.
emerge -G/g <app>
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