In GUTL I found a rather interesting article (especially for new users) where its author, our friend Delio Orozco González, after conducting a small investigation to understand the difference between Desktop Environment and Window Managers.
Specifying concepts: "Desktop environments" and "Window managers".
According to Wikipedia, a desktop environment (DE for short) is a set of software to offer the user of a computer a friendly and comfortable interaction. It is a graphical user interface implementation that offers access and configuration facilities, such as toolbars and integration between applications with skills such as drag and drop.
Desktop environments generally do not allow access to all the features found in an operating system, due to the absence of a graphical interface. Instead, the traditional command line interface (CLI) is still used when full control over the operating system is required in these cases. A desktop environment usually consists of icons, windows, toolbars, folders, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. (1)
In general, each desktop environment is distinguished by its particular appearance and behavior, although some tend to mimic features of existing desktops. The first modern desktop environment to be commercially released was developed by Xerox in the 80s. Currently, the best-known environment is that offered by the Windows family, although others exist, such as those for Macintosh (Classic and Cocoa), or open-source (or free software) environments like GNOME, KDE, CDE, Xfce, or LXDE , commonly used in Linux or BSD distributions . (2)
From this moment the question arises: what then is a "Window Manager"? According to the same source, a window manager is a computer program that controls the location and appearance of windows under a window system in a graphical user interface. (3) The actions associated with the window manager are usually: open, close , minimize, maximize, move, scale and keep a list of open windows. It is also very common for the window manager to integrate elements such as: the window decorator, a panel, a virtual desktop viewer, icons and a wallpaper. (4)
Windows and Mac OS X platforms offer a window manager standardized by their vendors and integrated into the operating system itself. On the other hand, the graphical X Window system, popular in the field of Unix and similar systems, such as GNU / Linux, allows the user to choose between several managers. Window managers differ from each other in many ways, including appearance, memory consumption, customization options, multiple or virtual desktops, and similarity to certain existing desktop environments, among others. (5)
Among the best-known "Window Managers" are AfterStep, FVWM, AmiWM (Amiga Windows Manager), Blackbox, CTWM, Enlightenment, Fluxbox (derived from version 0.61.1 of Blackbox), IceWM, Kwin (the window manager used by KDE), Metacity (the window manager of some versions of Gnome), Openbox (based on Blackbox and is the window manager of LXDE), VTWM, Sawfish and many others.(6)
And to finish a statement. When I started in the world of GNU / Linux I was using, of course, Gnome and KDE. Then, looking for performance, I migrated to XFCE and LXDE; finally, with a little more knowledge about the system and its potential, I have migrated to Enlightenment and I am pleased for a reason: I can create and transform, which are the natural trades of man, according to José MartÃ; Meanwhile, I have been able to customize the UI (User Interface = User Interface) to interact with my operating system: Debian 6.
References:
1.-http: //es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entorno_de_escritorio.
2.-Idem.
3.-http: //es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestor_de_ventanas
4.-Idem.
5.-Idem.