|
|
|
|
<chapter id="what-is-tde">
|
|
|
|
|
<chapterinfo>
|
|
|
|
|
<date>&tde-release-date;</date>
|
|
|
|
|
<releaseinfo>&tde-release-version;</releaseinfo>
|
|
|
|
|
</chapterinfo>
|
|
|
|
|
<title>What is the Trinity Desktop Environment?</title>
|
|
|
|
|
<anchor id="whatistde"/>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect1 id="what-is-tde-introduction">
|
|
|
|
|
<title>What is the Trinity Desktop Environment?</title>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>&tde; is a desktop environment. In other words, &tde; is a
|
|
|
|
|
collection of programs, technologies and documentation that attempt to
|
|
|
|
|
make life easier for computer users. &tde; is targeted at &UNIX;
|
|
|
|
|
workstations. &tde; features network transparency and a contemporary work
|
|
|
|
|
flow philosophy.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>Historically, the Trinity Desktop Environment is a fork of the K Desktop Environment
|
|
|
|
|
version 3.5, originally written by the KDE Team, a world-wide network of
|
|
|
|
|
software engineers committed to Free Software development. This group's
|
|
|
|
|
major goal in free software development is to provide high quality software
|
|
|
|
|
that empowers the user with easy control of his computer's resources.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>The &tde; developers continue the tradition of KDE 3.5.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>&tde; seeks to fill the need for an easy to use desktop for
|
|
|
|
|
&UNIX; workstations, similar to the desktop environments found under
|
|
|
|
|
&MacOS; or &Windows;. &tde; meets the requirement
|
|
|
|
|
of users for an easy to use work environment. Tools used to reach
|
|
|
|
|
this goal are: enhanced inter-application communication, component
|
|
|
|
|
reuse, generalized drag and drop, uniform look and feel and many
|
|
|
|
|
more. Thus, &tde; offers much more than the traditional &UNIX; window
|
|
|
|
|
managers.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>Stability, scalability and openness are qualities which have
|
|
|
|
|
made &UNIX; the undisputed choice for the information technology
|
|
|
|
|
professional for many years. &tde; builds on top of this excellent
|
|
|
|
|
base framework and brings new, much needed qualities: usability, user
|
|
|
|
|
friendliness and beauty! &tde; remains as a forefront
|
|
|
|
|
player in bringing these qualities to &UNIX; systems, which constituted for
|
|
|
|
|
years, the premier platform for server computers and scientific
|
|
|
|
|
institutions, but wasn't very attractive for desktop users.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>Without Unix the Internet would not exist, or at least would
|
|
|
|
|
have a vastly different form. Unix has not, until recent years, addressed the
|
|
|
|
|
needs of the average computer user. This fact is particularly
|
|
|
|
|
unfortunate, since a number of implementations of &UNIX; systems (<ulink
|
|
|
|
|
url="http://www.linux.org">&Linux;</ulink>, <ulink
|
|
|
|
|
url="http://www.freebsd.org">FreeBSD</ulink>, <ulink
|
|
|
|
|
url="http://www.netbsd.org">NetBSD</ulink>, &etc;) are freely
|
|
|
|
|
available on the Internet, all of which are of exceptional quality and
|
|
|
|
|
stability.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect1 id="what-is-tde-the-desktop">
|
|
|
|
|
<title>&tde; The Desktop Environment</title>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>In combination with a free implementation of &UNIX; systems, &tde;
|
|
|
|
|
provides to the world an open and completely free desktop computing
|
|
|
|
|
platform either at home or at work.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para> This platform is available to anyone free of charge including
|
|
|
|
|
its source code for anyone to modify.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>While there will always be room for improvement we believe we
|
|
|
|
|
provide a viable alternative to some of the more commonly
|
|
|
|
|
found and commercial operating systems/desktops combinations available
|
|
|
|
|
today. It is our hope that the combination of &UNIX; systems and &tde; will
|
|
|
|
|
finally bring the same open, reliable, stable, and monopoly free
|
|
|
|
|
computing to the average computer user that scientists and computing
|
|
|
|
|
professionals world-wide have enjoyed for years.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect1 id="what-is-tde-the-development-framework">
|
|
|
|
|
<title>&tde; The Application Development Framework</title>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>&tde; focuses on the user's needs, but it's obvious that this
|
|
|
|
|
focus is more easily achieved by also giving developers the best
|
|
|
|
|
tools. &tde; code contains, and comes with, some of the best
|
|
|
|
|
development technologies of the modern computing age.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>Authoring applications under &UNIX;/X11 systems used to be an extremely
|
|
|
|
|
tedious and labor intensive process. &tde; developers recognize the fact that a
|
|
|
|
|
computing platform is only as good as the number of first class
|
|
|
|
|
applications available to the users of that particular
|
|
|
|
|
platform.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>&tde; includes technologies such as &DCOP; and KParts, created to
|
|
|
|
|
offer a component document model and technology. Together with the
|
|
|
|
|
complete &tde; libraries programming interface, &DCOP;/KParts are set
|
|
|
|
|
in direct competition with other similar technologies like &Microsoft;
|
|
|
|
|
<abbrev>MFC</abbrev>/<abbrev>COM</abbrev>/ActiveX technologies. The
|
|
|
|
|
excellent quality and the high level of refinement of &tde;'s
|
|
|
|
|
application programming interface (<acronym>API</acronym>) enables
|
|
|
|
|
developers to focus on original and interesting issues and avoid
|
|
|
|
|
reinventing the wheel.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect1 id="what-is-tde-the-office-suite">
|
|
|
|
|
<title>&tde; The Office Application Suite</title>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>In its current form, &tde; provides, apart from the essential desktop
|
|
|
|
|
component applications, a suite of office programs known as &koffice;.</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>&koffice; is based on the &tde; &DCOP;/KParts
|
|
|
|
|
technologies. It contains: a word processor with desktop
|
|
|
|
|
publishing capabilities (&kword;), a spreadsheet application (&kspread;)
|
|
|
|
|
and accompanying charting program (&kchart;), a presentation program
|
|
|
|
|
(&kpresenter;) and a vector drawing program (&karbon14;). Tying things
|
|
|
|
|
together is the <application>KOffice Workspace</application>, an
|
|
|
|
|
integrated shell to ease the use of the &koffice; components in
|
|
|
|
|
conjunction with each other. Additional components include an email
|
|
|
|
|
client, a news reader, and a powerful <abbrev>PIM</abbrev> (Personal
|
|
|
|
|
Information Manager - an organizer).</para>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
|
</chapter>
|
