Not sure why this Karsten Self person is being so hard on you. I encourage you to patiently and humbly persist and suggest we both ignore the whining noise. 8)
Anyway, I think you'll find in researching this that in a very superficial sense Linux + X is analagous (although *not* equivalent) to DOS + Windows. However with the further abstraction X provides of the window manager layer versus the underlying window management system, you as a user have much more freedom and flexibility. I use Enlightenment as a window manager. Other people use other window managers they like. We are all running X underneath. Windows has no notion of this, as everything is all rolled into one. No choices, no flexibility, no true customization. It is true that X is not lightweight. I'm not aware of a window environment that is. You gotta have a lot of stuff in there. I do feel that X is more lightweight than Windows 2000, FWIW. And like folks have said, it's extremely powerful and flexible, which implies complexity. Now, if you're looking for something truly lightweight, I would consider curses-based text mode. You can't get much more lightweight than that, and you can still create what could be considered GUI, it'd be mouse-driven, and it'd run snappily on just about anything. This is of course another strength of a Linux environment. Don't want a full-blown window system? Fine--don't run one. *You* put the pieces together depending on what you need. You may be interested in http://packages.debian.org/stable/base/libncurses5.html , http://packages.debian.org/stable/libs/libcurses-perl.html , http://packages.debian.org/stable/libs/perlmenu.html . If you do decide to go the X route, Tcl/Tk is extremely cool and so is the Tk family of modules for Perl, although I wouldn't necessarily characterize the latter as lightweight. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joris Lambrecht" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Karsten M. Self'" <kmself@ix.netcom.com>; <debian-user@lists.debian.org> Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2001 4:24 AM Subject: RE: FW: OT : GUI Interfaces > Thanks, i'll look into that so i won't be the dumb ass i'm now > > -----Original Message----- > From: Karsten M. Self [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: donderdag 12 april 2001 1:44 > To: 'debian-user@lists.debian.org' > Subject: Re: FW: OT : GUI Interfaces > > > on Wed, Apr 11, 2001 at 05:05:21PM +0200, Joris Lambrecht > ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > > > > hmmm, i don't think you're missing anything, X does indeed provide a > > graphicall shell to run a gui on, i'll have to rephrase my question > > to, does anyone know a GOOD desktop that doesn't weigh a TON on an > > older system. Or more precisely, an environment where you don't have > > to manually configure your menu's, that's a plus in the windows os > > desktop you know > > > > maybe i just need a good read on X and gui's ? any resource would be > > welcome ... > > Debian configures most menus for you. > > WindowMaker, my preference. Gratuitous screenshots at > http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Images/Desktop/ It's running very happily > on my PPro 180MHz/256MB system (at 96MB until November 2000). > > Other good middlin' options include BlackBox, SawFish (formerly > SawMill). Purists often tend toward fvwm2. > > There's a good overview of window managers at the Window Managers for X > page: http://www.plig.org/xwinman/ > > -- > Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ > What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal > http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
