**OLD/LOCKED***"What Window Mgr. / Desktop Environment?" (rant) Thread

[bdg1983]

Blackbox

It's simple, fast (even on my p233 mhz w/ 40 mb ram), small (< 1 mb download, if I remember correctly), fully functional though it's so small, and damn good looking. I like it because I want something that's fast and simple.

I like Window Maker, too. It has little more features than blackbox, it can be easily configured with a graphical tool, and it's also pretty fast.

I like these two because I don't do anything with the bells and whistles (=bloat) that comes with a desktop environment. But, like already said, there is no best window manager. What's best for you, depends on what you want to do with it.

[nite]

blackbox

fast, simple, nice lookin

[ASCI Blue]

Windowmaker

So far it's fast, clean, and nice to look at. I've messed with KDE and Gnome and couldn't get either of them just the way I liked. Windowmaker is a step closer for me. A lot really depends what you want to be able to use easily. So far I haven't been able to get my Windows drives, CD ROM, and Zip to somewhere easily accessable like in Gnome and KDE. I imagine it's not too hard tho. Another thing to consider is what is pleasing to your eyes, if I were you I'd install a few desktop environs and play with them, see which you like best until you find the one that clicks best with you.

[fallenang3l]

KDE, lil slow on the side (prolly better with 256 megs of ram - it's cheap nowadays =]) but looks darn good with anti-aliased fonts.

[ifred]

Blackbox. It is fast but still manages to look pretty good. Sure it does not have some bells and whistles like oh I dunno . . . umm sounds that go off when you click on certain things . . . but hey its fast. I highly recommend you try it out.

[xs411]

Ok, so I think I'm going to give blackbox a whirl... What do I do to get it working? Obviosly I download it... from where?
I need to install it... from source?
What do I use to install it?
I'll ask questions about playing with it later.

Thanks,
XS411

[ifred]

Try http://blackbox.alug.org/
that's the official Blackbox website. You can get the source code from there. I'm not sure what distro you are using. Slack has it in the contrib section of their FTP site, you can apt-get it if you are using Debian, I'm not sure about RPMs but if you do a search at http://www.google.com/linux you should find loads of Blackbox sites. To run Blackbox the simplest way is, once installed, create a file in your home directory called .xinitrc (do not forget the period) in the file put:

#!/bin/sh
tkdesk &
blackbox

You can leave out the "tkdesk &" line if you don't have (or want) Tkdesk. See http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel...bbinstall.html
for more Blackbox installation hints. Try using the .xinitrc method before following the advice in the NHF . . . good luck!

[Daedra]

agreed

blackbox

[cabu1966]

Windowmaker has been the one for me ... fast, yet still pleasing to the eye.

ASCI...I'm using mountapp for accessing my floppy, CDRom, and windows drives. It's a dockable app that lets you scroll through your drives and double click the icon for the drive you want to bring up in your file manager. I know it works with kruiser and kfm, but I haven't tried any others.

Well, I went to grab the link and it now asks for a password (I downloaded it to disk about 6 months ago). Seems like everything good disappears.

[ASCI Blue]

In the past hour I've managed to successfully install and mount 2 applets, a differant clock and a CPU/MEM monitor. I'm gonna snag the mount applet. Thanx for the info.

[cga]

Blackbox is really pretty neat. I'm running it on my box at work now, and like it.

However, I am still an iceWM fan overall. Here this evening, I got around to setting up gkrellm on my box at home. What a cool little program. Anyway, I turned off the taskbar in ice as I don't need it now- all I really used it for was the cpu monitor, ppp monitor and clock, which gkrellm handles now.

For those who didn't know, ice provides workspace switching and windows lists with mouse clicks (kinda like Blackbox). Left click is the menu, right is the workspace switcher and center is list of all running programs. This means I have full control of my system without the need for space-eating taskbars, icon boxes and so on. And with the motifish theme I use, it is not looking much like windoze.

I am happy. Well, at least until the next time I decide to change things.

[n0thing]

Enlightenment/GNOME for me. Runs pretty well, but nowhere near as fast as Blackbox does.

[WhiskeyBravo]

I've heard both Window manager and desktop manager used, but I'm not really sure what the differnce is.

I've also seen people mention "Stacking" managers...like Gnome on Windowmaker...or vise versa. Can anyone explain how they do this?

I'm still trying to decide whice window manager to use right now. So far, it looks to me like WindowMaker is a winner, but I do miss the "toolbar" at the bottom of KDE and Gnome.

enlightenment is also very nice, but same as WindowMaker, I really need a dock or toolbar.

Anyone have any tips or advice?

[TaeShadow]

Use IceWM. It's very fast and has a taskbar.

[cga]

Desktop environments, like Gnome and KDE, are really frameworks for applications and utilities to work together in an integrated environment and sharing a common toolbox/widget sets and libraries. You have to use a window manager with a desktop. KDE ships with its own, KWM, but Gnome requires a separate window manager, with Sawfish and Enlightenment being popular now.

A window manager is a program that draws the windows and assorted decorations and handles the user interaction via the mouse, keyboard etc. You can run many of the window managers stand alone, without the added overhead of a desktop. Most have their own menu and dock/toolbar.

The advantage to a desktop is the integration of apps, drag and drop functionality, and consistent look and feel. The disadvantage is the resource drain and added complexity of the system.

Solo window managers tend to be lighter on the resources, faster, more stable and easier to use. I run iceWM solo and like it very much. It has a very functional, nicely customizable task bar, and can mimic Windows, OS/2, Mac OS, Motif or be totally unique if you choose.

Try out a few different window managers and desktops to discover what you prefer.