Re: XDM, GDM, KDM, WDM shootout :-)

[Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2004 at 07:39:46PM -0400, Noah Meyerhans wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 26, 2004 at 01:11:32AM +0200, Osamu Aoki wrote:
> > * General
> >   It looks like auto listing of available WM are tricky.  Despite some
> >   glitches I saw, it was usable.  I think if there is a standard way to
> >   list available session manager / display manager, it can be better, I
> >   think.
> 
> I'm the wdm maintainer.  

Thanks for nice and light application. 

(The lack of locale choice is major negative for me though,... hint...)

> I use the alternatives system to figure out
> what window managers and session managers are available.  IMO, if a
> window manager is useless on its own, then it should not provide an
> option for the x-window-manager alternative.

You are quite right.  That is bad.

> This same basic issue came up in bug 194195, which is filed against wdm
> but I claim is a problem with xfce4.  xfce4 provides an x-window-manger
> alternative, but doesn't actually work if you start it on its own; it
> needs some kind of session manager to work.

I do not know which way (alternative or freedesktop framework) is the
best but 2 things matters for the user:

 * No false display.  (well maintained)
 * Use of consistent framework acress different but similar apps.
   (This makes a bit more maintainable)

After all, except XDM, once you install (G|W|K)DM, these
x-window-manager or x-session-manager slternative seems to be less of an
importance these days. 

I vaguely recall funny/missing choice entry of these window/session
manager may have existed for KDM/GDM too.  This is a area we can improve
for post sarge.

Regards,

Osamu