On Sat, 2007-04-07 at 16:47 -0500, Randy Patterson wrote: > Thanks for taking to time to post all that information. I have installed > Gnome, just haven't figured out how to get it going yet! After reading your > post one of the things that I think I need to do first is read some good > articles/overviews of the WMs that are out there and how they work. I have a > backlog of reading to do but will do some googling to read up on this.
As your Google search will probably indicate, [1] Matt Chapman's site is one of the most popular overviews of desktop environments and window managers around. It's a good place to start. Be warned that a lot of the links are outdated. In some cases, it's because the project is defunct; in others, it's just because the link hasn't been updated. You can search or browse Debian's repository to see how many WMs are available through apt. As far as WMs go, you'll find that many are variations on a theme and fit into broad categories. 1) The *boxes: These include Blackbox, Fluxbox, and Openbox. They all share a similar design philosophy. Blackbox, I believe, was the first. Fluxbox is the most popular. Openbox is my favorite, not least because of its pipe menus. You'll have to read up on that feature as I can't really explain it properly. 2) Tiling WMs: These include ion3, PekWM, PWM and others. They especially excel at managing terminals and can be really cool to use if you find yourself doing lots of work in the shell. That's not to say they can't run graphical apps too, though. I would recommend checking out at least one of these, just for the experience of seeing how they work. They are very different from anything I ever encountered in MS Windows. 3) Minimalist: Even more barebones than the tiling WMs, these include Ratpoison and EvilWM. They are for people who *really* don't like reaching for the mouse! 4) Maximalist/traditional: WMs that provide some familiarity to anyone who's been using computers for a while. They often seem like DEs, but they aren't. They vary pretty widely in their design, so there's a lot to look at. Among the most popular or useful are WindowMaker, IceWM, Enlightenment, AfterStep, and FVWM (which has been discussed quite a bit on this list recently). One thing you might want to keep in mind is standards compliance. Another reason Openbox is my favorite of all the stand-alone WMs is that it aims for (and achieves) 100% [2] ICCCM compliance. WM developers vary in their adherence to [3] xdg specs; some are downright contemptuous of them and they have their reasons for that attitude. Using a WM that is good on standards compliance means you'll be able to use a wide range of apps and tools out there that are designed to work with any standards-compliant DE or WM. See, for example, [4] Devil's Pie. Using a WM that isn't standards-compliant means that many of these types of apps won't work well (or at all) in that environment. Just something else to consider. [1] http://xwinman.org/ [2] http://tronche.com/gui/x/icccm/ [3] http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications [4] http://burtonini.com/blog/computers/devilspie -- Michael M. ++ Portland, OR ++ USA "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." --S. Jackson -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
