Terms used in the personal computer world that begin with the letter “D”

Desktop

The screen “real estate” that coveres a monitor on which icons may be placed, and which is generally covered up when an application is open.

Desktop

A type of computer which usually includes a “box” containing a CPU, hard drives, and other hardware, a separate keyboard, separate monitor, and so on. Sometimes the monitor and the “box” are integrated.

Desktop

Also called a “Desktop environment,” the main all encompassing user interface associated with a specific distribution of Linux. Examples are “Gnome Desktop” and “KDE” (note that the “K” in KDE originally stood for “kool” so that KDE meant Kool Desktop Environment.” This is a wordplay on the “Common Desktop Environment” or CDE, which was a unix system based on x11 technology. Soon after the name first went into use the meaning “kool” was dropped and everyone tried to forget about it. Some have suggested that KDE is a typical recursive term, like GNU (GNU = “GNU is Not Unix”), and would thus mean “KDE Desktop Environment.”)

Desktop

The surface of a piece of furniture typically with a legwell, drawers, etc., on which one puts a computer for normal use. See also “Lap” and “Laptop”

Desktop

An individual “workspace” consisting of a virtual desktop, icons and other things that go on a desktop, which may or may not be part of a particular desktop environment’s capabilities, allowing a user to expand screen real estate by a factor of how many separate virtual desktops are defined.

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