Re: Request for window manager recommendations
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 09:07:34 +0100
Adam Funk <a24061@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Jochen Schulz wrote:
>
> > A window manager is a program that just "manages windows". It gives
> > applications an area on the screen where they can be displayed and most
> > often the WM draws a border around it, gives it a nice title and enables
> > the user to do things with these windows - put one on the foreground,
> > minimize another one etc.
> >
> > Very often window managers come with some kind of a panel, virtual
> > desktop support and some kind of application launcher (a "start menu" or
> > icons on the panel), but strictly speaking, this is exceeding the task
> > of a minimal WM.
> >
> > Desktop environments (KDE, Gnome. Xfce) do far more than that. They come
> > with a file manager, draw the background with pixmaps and icons, they do
> > some work behind your back to easily handle removable storage or enable
> > drag'n drop. They come with "control centers" to do system
> > administration and generally give the user a simplified, cleaned up view
> > on their system. Applications supporting the DE all look the same and
> > share a lot of routines to do common tasks. DEs also provide
> > applications with a way to register themselves for a filetype which they
> > can handle, which is then reflected when using the DE's file manager and
> > so on... Of course, this list is not complete.
>
Actually thats not completly true.
File type registration is done through /etc/mailcap and ~/.mailcap. Drawing
background with pixmap and/or color can be done using xsetroot (or a bunch of
others also) through .xsession for example. Icons on the desktop can be handled
by most window managers, but if you want a desktop environment with folders,
drag and drop and such you can always use rox filer. There are several stand
alone toolbars and docks that can handle KDE, Gnome and other dock applets
(which use a standard interface) and the window manager contacts the desktop
environment through a standard interface nowadays (you can switch the gnome
standard window manager with a bunch of others, and even KDE). There are even
several daemons that can handle removable storage.
I've heard of people running both gnome and kde over fvwm among others.
What I don't like about gnome and kde is that they both start a setting daemon,
file polling daemon and a few others in the background and they don't die
easily (some stay after you log out). Too much overhead.
Personally I am a fvwm fan, it can take some time to setup to your liking but
can be setup to do just about anything. The only thing that its a bit
problematic with is window tabs (grouping several unrelated windows together).
It has a plugin thats not bad but it requires perl which bumps up the memory
requirements.
My fvwm setup takes about 2.5 megs of memory (thats right) and the whole
machine with X, urxvt and screen comes up at a bit under 30 megs (compare that
to about 120 for win2k and 180 for winxp ;-)
> Interesting, thanks.
>
>
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