One of the many puzzling things about Linux, at least if you're a typical end-user (like me), is figuring out what the difference is between a desktop environment and a window manager.
But puzzle no longer after you read this: Flipping the Linux switch: Desktop environments vs. window managers. Kristin Shoemaker wrote this succinct essay for Download Squad. Now I know that a desktop environment is kind of like Windows: it's not just handling the windows and applications running therein, but a desktop environment includes all the fancy little utilities and applets as well as providing lots of user-friendly knobs and switches for configuring everything. Window managers just manage windows.
Why would you want a window manager? With fewer features and less eye-candy, they run faster and leaner, and work better on stripped down or older hardware, especially hardware being used for a single purpose application (e.g., firewall, video appliance, etc).
Why would you want a desktop environment? If you've got enough RAM and CPU power, and if you need a user-friendly GUI that will be useful for doing all kinds of computation.
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