Editing X Window System (section)

==User interfaces==
{{One source|section|date=May 2024}}
{{Stack|[[File:GNOME Shell 41 with GNOME Web (released in 2021-09).png|thumb|[[GNOME]] graphical user interface]]}}
[[File:XFCE-4.12-Desktop-standard.png|thumb|left|[[Xfce]] graphical user interface]]

X primarily defines protocol and graphics primitives{{snd}}it deliberately contains no specification for application user-interface design, such as button, menu, or window title-bar styles.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Scheifler |first1=Robert W. |last2=Gettys |first2=Jim |date=April 1986 |title=The X window system |journal=ACM Transactions on Graphics |language=en |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=79–109 |doi=10.1145/22949.24053 |issn=0730-0301|doi-access=free }}</ref> Instead, application software{{snd}}such as window managers, GUI widget toolkits and desktop environments, or application-specific graphical user interfaces{{snd}}define and provide such details. As a result, there is no ''typical'' X interface and several different desktop environments have become popular among users.

A window manager controls the placement and appearance of application windows. This may result in desktop interfaces reminiscent of those of Microsoft Windows or of the Apple Macintosh (examples include GNOME 2, KDE Plasma, Xfce) or have radically different controls (such as a tiling window manager, like wmii or [[Ratpoison]]). Some interfaces such as [[Sugar (software)|Sugar]] or [[ChromeOS]] eschew the desktop metaphor altogether, simplifying their interfaces for specialized applications. Window managers range in sophistication and complexity from the bare-bones (''e.g.'', twm, the basic window manager supplied with X, or evilwm, an extremely light window manager) to the more comprehensive desktop environments such as Enlightenment and even to application-specific window managers for vertical markets such as point-of-sale.

Many users use X with a desktop environment, which, aside from the window manager, includes various applications using a consistent user interface. Popular desktop environments include [[GNOME]], [[KDE Plasma]] and [[Xfce]]. The UNIX 98 standard environment is the [[Common Desktop Environment]] (CDE). The freedesktop.org initiative addresses interoperability between desktops and the components needed for a competitive X desktop.