On Thu, Jul 07, 2005 at 07:20:04PM -0700, Andy Streich wrote: > Hi, > > Based on advice on this list to maestro I'm considering switching to > windowmaker: > > > I no longer have time to spend hours tweaking config files, and thus > > prefer an integrated desktop environment, but GNOME and KDE are too > > bulky for my PIII-650 / 320MB workstation > > I'm even resource-poorer with a PII-400/128MB workstation. I tried KDE, > switched to GNOME, and now am investigating windowmaker. Can anyone give me > pointers to information about what to expect? Specifically, > > 1. resources to learn/understand windowmaker Not much to learn/understand. It is very lightweight, has a decent GUI configuration tool and is very easy to use. > 2. email client that works well (and lightly) in that environment (love KMail, > but the overhead is too much on my system) I formerly used T-bird, but have since switched to mutt-ng, since it is now (or very soon will be) in Debian and provides all the features I need, including some that T-bird lacked. > 3. package manager, I've been using Synaptic. Am I right in assuming that > aptitude is the way to go in a windowmaker environment or am I reduced to the > command line? Synaptic works just fine. In fact, WindowMaker integrates GNOME, KDE, GTK, Motif, Qt, etc apps very well. Personally, I like aptitude better since I can use from any place I can get shell access (which is more places than from where I can get VNC/XForwarding). > 4. am I just too optimistic that my old system is adequate to run some kind of > GUI on linux? The GUI is not really the issue. It is the apps. Heavy apps (Moz suite, OpenOffice, etc) will tax your system. A lean GUI will help that by freeing up more resources for the apps. > 5. where do I learn about how to change from booting into a GNOME dm to login > to a windowmaker dm? > If you install wmaker, it will setup the option to log into WindowMaker from GDM. This happens automatically. > FYI I'm a dinosaur that learned programming in FORTRAN with punch cards in the > '70s. Even in the '80s 128MB of RAM was a supercomputer and people (from HP > if I recall correctly) were writing papers claiming that 50Mhz CPUs were > impossible. I had a neighbor that worked at IBM back when a bunch of kooks claimed that were going to make random access storage media (today we call them hard drives) that were faster and more reliable than tapes :-) I am slowly convincing this former neighbor of the virutes of F/OSS. -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://familiasanchez.net/~sanchezr
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