2009/Linux

From SIPB Cluedumps

Jump to: navigation, search

[edit] The Modern Linux Desktop

Date: October 27, 2009, at 4:30 PM
Presenters: Geoffrey Thomas (geofft)
Location: 4-231
Notes: The Modern Linux Desktop (slides)
Abstract: The modern Linux desktop has grown significantly since Project Athena decided (in the mid-80's) that it needed a graphical environment and wrote the X Window System. While X is still as important as ever, many other layers of important desktop infrastructure have recently been added. I'll give an overview of a number of these projects, including D-Bus, HAL, udev, PolicyKit, ConsoleKit, DeviceKit, XDG, Avahi, GNOME, and related projects. We'll look at the architecture of these systems as well as ways you might configure them on your own desktop or laptop.

This talk is intended for anyone who's used a modern Linux desktop and is curious how the system works; people who have perhaps heard of a couple of the projects I mentioned, but haven't really used them, will get the most out of this talk.

Bio: Geoffrey Thomas '10 is a SIPB member and developer on the scripts.mit.edu and Debathena projects. The latter has just seen its biggest deployment shift from a single SSH server to several hundred graphical desktops.
Personal tools