Re: Desktop environments

[davidson <davidson@freevolt.org>]

On Fri, 10 Apr 2020, mick crane wrote:

> Well I was thinking is a valid question.
> What's the deal with these desktop environments ?

I wonder this too.

> I thought is like a desktop with pictures so you know where
> everything is and then you click and start a program that does
> something

They're visual metaphors, of uncertain faithfulness, founded on the
assumption that the user would rather point at pictures like Koko the
gorilla, instead of learn

 1. what things really are there to manipulate,

and

 2. language(s) with which to manipulate them.

So it seems to me.

> and the desktop gets out of the way ?

If the assumption fails to suit you, or if the metaphors are otherwise
getting in the way, then you can use just a window manager.

I like ratpoison:

ratpoison - keyboard-only window manager
 ratpoison is a simple window manager with no fancy graphics,
 no window decorations, and no rodent dependence.
 It is largely modelled after GNU Screen.
 .
 The screen can be split into non-overlapping frames. All
 windows are kept maximized inside their frames to take
 full advantage of your precious screen real estate.
 .
 All interaction with the window manager is done through
 keystrokes. ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize
 key clobbering.
Homepage: http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/

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