Re: Very slim Desktop Manager
On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:28:23 +0100
NN_il_Confusionario <pinkof.pallus@tiscalinet.it> wrote:
> I usually have no need for switching between X and console. Infact I
> have usually no need to run X at all, since svgalib/framebuffer
> programs are faster than their X counterparts.
Well, I never figured out what the framebuffer is for. If I want a GUI,
I use X, if I want a console, I use a console --- or an X terminal.
> But there is no
> console analogue for dememo, and there is the need to occasionally
> show someone the pratical proof of the basic web principle "If you
> cannot see it with lynx, then it is not worth seeing".
That's not true --- and lynx is very awkward to use. And what if
you want to see the pictures? I eventually read forums, and
people post pictures I want to see. And browsing a forum with
lynx? Bleh ... But I'll have to see if I can go away from mozilla
(which is currently called iceape). I don't need its mail client anymore
--- I tried claws and I like it much better --- and mozilla is a memory
eater.
Another thing is how you can see something, like the difference between
seeing a few characters or the whole thing. Try to use mutt on a
console: the display is too small. If you want to use it for IMAP, it
becomes so awkward that it is unusable.
> Moreover I find the keyboard-based switching of workspalces in evilwm
> and in gnu screen easier and better than a mouse based switching.
I'm using a trackball --- mice drive me crazy because you have to
constantly pick them up and put them back to keep the pointer on the
screen. To switch, I just move the mouse pointer over the edge. If I
want to, I can use the keyboard to switch. Alt-space opens a terminal,
Alt-ESC and Ctrl-ESC resize windows to full screen/full length. Icons
or buttons to click on are pretty useless --- if they are on the
desktop, there will be a window over them, and even if they are not
covered, I have opened a terminal and entered the command I want before
I could find the icon or button to click on. But consoles, there are
only 6. Desktops, there are 16 --- or as much as I want.
> Finally, when I run X then I *must* switch to console (where i can
> start X programs if needed: env DISPLAY=:1 XAUTHORITY=~/.Xauthority
> xpdf) since, as we are discussing, no satisfactory
> font/terminal/whatever exist for my eyes.
Yeah, that is really a problem. Things could be a lot easier if you
could use a terminal.
> And in any case I never found a user interfce intrinsecally more
> anti-intuitive and broken (for the way my brain works) than the GUI
> concept.
It has its advantages. There are some things that a GUI makes easier to
do, and there are many things that are easier to do from a
terminal/console. I need both.
> well, Linux is not OpenBSD which is limited to 80x25 and 80x50
> consoles. Try vga=ask and see how many possibilities Linux has for
> text consoles.
That's what I tried. I couldn't find any mode that would have been
better than the default 80x25.
> Then, after Linux has booted,
> there is fbset svgatextmode and so on.
Like I said, I never used the frambuffer stuff. I don't know why I
would.
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