4-decade long MS command line and Windows user learning Ubuntu. Please ELI actually 5: GNOME. I’m yet to find a Linux person who explain it simply.

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Terminal and all that other shit, I follow you. Command lines. Fine. I don’t know what the Linux terms mean, but I understand command lines etc… But GNOME… what the fuck is it? Is it a suite? an environment? Every Linux user explains things like I’ve already been a user for a few years and all of them have forgotten what being NEW actually is.

Ironically, the WORST place to find Linux environments explained simply and clearly from the bottom up: The Internet.

This is where I remind and beg: Like. I’m. FIVE.

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27 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s already a lot of comments here that explain it better than I will, but you might find it useful to check out other flavors of Ubuntu. The standard Ubuntu has the GNOME desktop environment, Kubuntu has KDE and the Plasma Desktop, Lubuntu has the LXQt Desktop Environment, etc. Check ’em out [here](https://ubuntu.com/desktop/flavours). It’s simply a different way to interact with your operating system (“Start” menu, taskbar, settings, file explorer, default apps, etc.)

ETA

Different Linux distributions (distros) have different release schedules for their apps. Some distros offer more up-to-date software, but they might have untested issues. Some prefer to wait longer before releasing an app to the user in order to ensure compatibility.

Some distros are even based off of *other* distros. Because Ubuntu is the most generally supported distribution, a lot of other distributions use it as a base e.g. Linux Mint or Elementary OS. They can then customize their own desktop environment over the top.

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