Gnome and KDE get common interfaces

Jack Writes: THE POSSIBILITY of a Linux desktop to rival Windows got closer after the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and freedesktop.org released a preview of some common interfaces for GNOME and KDE.

The Portland Project's technology preview which can be seen here, uses two sets of interfaces - a suite of command line tools and a library of APIs (application program interfaces) called DAPI.

The Portland Project said that this will simplify porting and integrating applications on GNOME and KDE Linux desktops. Linux developers can use the DAPI APIs to customise services while maintaining a common set of interfaces across different desktops. It makes basic desktop integration tasks simpler.

The first Portland beta will be released in May 2006, with final release of Portland 1.0 expected in June 2006.