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by AdamW on Thu 25th Nov 2004 05:37 UTC

Well, strictly speaking, WM with all the add-ons you describe would be a DE. I normally think of it as a DE, albeit a light one. IMO the distinction is pretty simple - a window manager manages windows. It controls their rendering, their interaction with each other, their priority, their borders and the user's interaction with them. Anything that does anything else is a DE. Got a panel? It's a DE. Got its own file dialog? DE. Got a file manager? DE. Don't see how the distinction is workable any other way.