GDM

GDM

GDM (GNOME Display Manager) is a display manager, used in GNOME desktop environments to start the graphical session and allow users to log in. It provides a graphical login screen and launches the user's chosen desktop environment after authentication.
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display-manager gnome graphical-login

GDM (GNOME Display Manager)s

GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is a display manager used in GNOME desktop environments to start the graphical session and allow users to log in, providing a graphical login screen and launching the chosen desktop environment after authentication.

What is GDM?

GDM (GNOME Display Manager) is a display manager used in Linux desktop environments running the GNOME stack. It provides a graphical login interface that users see when they first start up their computer, allowing them to enter their user credentials and launch their chosen desktop environment or window manager.

Some key features and capabilities of GDM include:

  • Provides a visually attractive graphical login screen with the GNOME look and feel
  • Allows users to log in by entering their username and password
  • Supports setting an user profile picture which is displayed on the login screen
  • Secure authentication integrates with Linux PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)
  • Stores user credentials safely using shadow passwords
  • Supports automatic and manual user login, password changing, remote login, etc.
  • Highly customizable greeter theme using GNOME theming system
  • Advanced configuration options via dconf database editor
  • Displays session menu allowing users to choose GNOME desktop environment, window manager etc.
  • Set as the default display manager on major GNOME-based Linux distributions

In summary, GDM provides essential login screen and session launching capabilities for the GNOME desktop experience with ample security, customization and integration features.

GDM Features

Features

  1. Graphical login screen
  2. User authentication
  3. Session management
  4. Theme support
  5. Accessibility features

Pricing

  • Free
  • Open Source

Pros

Familiar interface for GNOME users

Highly customizable and themable

Stable and lightweight

Good accessibility support

Cons

Limited configuration options compared to alternatives

Tightly coupled with GNOME desktop

Less flexible than other display managers


The Best GDM Alternatives

Top Os & Utilities and Login Managers and other similar apps like GDM

Here are some alternatives to GDM:

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LightDM icon

LightDM

LightDM is a display manager developed by Robert Ancell to be a lightweight, extensible, and standards-compliant graphical login solution for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Some key features and goals of LightDM include:Speed - LightDM is designed to have a small memory footprint and minimal CPU usage for high...
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SDDM icon

SDDM

SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager) is a lightweight display manager designed for speed and simplicity. Here is an overview:It provides a graphical login screen to enter user credentials and start the desktop sessionSDDM is optimized for minimal resource usage - it has lower overhead compared to display managers like GDM...
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 SLiM icon

SLiM

SLiM (Simple Login Manager) is a lightweight and user-friendly graphical login manager for Linux systems. It provides a simple interface that allows users to log into their desktop environments without unnecessary complexity.Some key features of SLiM include:Very low memory and CPU usage, making it well-suited for older or low-powered hardwareSupport...
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XDM icon

XDM

XDM is a powerful cross-platform open source download manager and accelerator originally created in Java, but now available in C++ as well. It offers an intuitive graphical user interface and a wide range of advanced download management features.Some key features of XDM include:High-speed file downloading using multiple connectionsResume ability for...
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