1. Introduction

GEX is just another desktop environment. Definitely nothing special. But it has one feature that no other desktop environment could provide: It is mine and get's all the features that I need and nothing else

Another reason for this little desktop environment is my endeavor to create an Mbus profile for desktop environments and applications. It should provide at least the following features:

a dynamic configuration mechanism for applications
a remote control mechanism
a event mechanism for service daemons

2. Thanx

Some of my friends are correctly very brave and use the desktop environment for their daily work. Many thanks to these friends for the courage, ideas and help:

Dirk "Dischi" Meyer
Mark Koch

There are two even more brave friends who also provided some code to the GEX project. Many thanks and the hope for more help.

Sönke "Juergen" Schwardt
Janico Greifenberg

3. Components

GEX consists of several basic components that need to be configured:

Session (gex-session): runs and controls the processes of all other base components
Panel (gex-panel): shows information and provide tool at the borders of the desktop
Wallpaper (gex-wallpaper): draws a solid color or a given image to the root window
Desktop (gex-desktop): provides the same functionality as gex-wallpaper, but will also handle desktop icons

4. Configuration

The configuration of GEX's first generation is completely stored in one single INI like file. This file may be located at several different places in your home directory:

~/.gex
~/gexrc
~/etc/.gex
~/etc/gexrc
~/usr/etc/.gex
~/usr/etc/gexrc

Each of the core components of the GEX desktop environment has its own configuration group in this file. The available keys, their possible values and a description can be found at GEX/Configuration.

5. Screenshots

6. Requirements

7. Installation

8. Download

The current state of development is always available via SVN: svn://svn.bitkipper.net/gex/trunk.

The latest and older releases of GEX can be found in the download area Free Bytes