Christian Dysthe [cdysthe@bigfoot.com] wrote:
> After a while I found Windowmaker, and set up a desktop with several handy dock
> apps. A refreshingly approach to a personal desktop environment. Also,
> Windowmaker looks good! So different from MS, and yet very easy to configure
> and use.
>
> Then I see that the big hype these days is KDE and Gnome. I have tried them
> both and felt I was taking one step back towards what I left. I just do not
> undetstand why the Linux community are working against a wm "standard" that is
> not based on what seems truly unique and well layed out: The nextish look.
It's all about choice, my friend :) You like WM, more power to you... so
does my best friend, though he recently switched to E. Me, I prefer KDE's
kwm. The great thing about Linux is that we can both have our own
environments and still run the same programs/etc (or different ones) and
get to the important thing -- getting our work done. The true thing that
makes MS what it is and sets Linux apart is not menus/etc, it's their "one
size fits all" mentality.
As for specifics, I don't want to get into a holy war, but I'll name a few
things. These are just what I like/dislike personally! If you think I'm
saying everyone should think this, read the last paragraph again :)
Mostly I don't like the "frameless" feel of WM or the huge icons (yes I
know you can resize them some). The menu stuff is cool, but I prefer the
way KWM lets me just type and run command names, etc. I prefer a framed
desktop with just a thin border of buttons/etc and keybindings to do
everything. KWM isn't perfectly that, but it's the best I've found so far
for me. Also, kpanel is much more powerful than people realize... I've got
mine set up sort of like WM's "dock", with different applets, but they are
all custom width (instead of all the same) and in general just what I want.
Also, as someone else noted, KDE/GNOME aren't even about the WM, they are
about the other stuff like look and feel and application framework, etc.
Both are theoretically supposed to work with any window manager. Do they?
Not perfectly. But they're both very young :)
--
Jeremy Blosser | jblosser@firinn.org | http://jblosser.firinn.org/
-----------------+-------------------------+------------------------------
"Would you fight to the death, for that which you love?
In a cause surely hopeless ...for that which you love?"
-- D. McKiernan, _Dragondoom_
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