After several years of development, SymphonyOS this month released SymphonyOne 2008.1, the first stable version of its distribution. When SymphonyOS first emerged three years ago, it offered a Linux desktop experience unlike any ever seen before by structuring the computer desktop to function more like a real-life desk instead of just another system folder.

"The SymphonyOS Project is pleased to announce the release of SymphonyOne 2008.1, our first major release in almost a year..." -- via http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=04836

Desktop customization in Linux is very flexible; from the ultra-modern KDE and GNOME window managers to with the likes of Fluxbox and AfterStep, there's a Linux desktop to suit everyone. Jack Wallen covers some of your Linux desktop options.

dxTop is an alternative to the Android home interface. When you install dxTop it will install as an alternative to the default Home interface allowing you to choose which on to use. Pressing the Home button on the phone prompts you to choose which Home interface to use and you can set dxTop as the default so you won't have to choose anymore.

In the Linux world, you can choose pretty much any GUI for your desktop. GNOME is one of the most popular desktops available, although you've probably heard of other ones such as KDE or Enlightenment.

Some time ago I looked at GNOME and KDE, discussing their origins and differences, and I got a lot of great feedback. In particular, many readers mentioned that they’d love to see some coverage of some of the less-known alternative desktops available.

It takes money and it takes new ideas to build a better desktop, both of which are being raised by the open source GNOME Foundation. GNOME is one of the most popular Linux desktop GUIs and is included in nearly every Linux distribution.

This may come as a surprise to some, but there are several Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and desktop environments out there. The most commonly known ones are:

Some distributions make it very easy to add a complete alternative desktop with a single selection. Two that I have been looking at today are Fedora 13 and Linux Mint 9. Both of those are best known for their Gnome distributions, and both have alternative "spins" for KDE, Xfce and Lxde...