Which window maker and why?

sniggit · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 4:19 pm Post subject: Which window maker and why?

Hi!

I`ver reached the part of my gentoo install where it`s time to choose a windowmaker. Think im going to go with KDE, since I used it in my first linux experience under Mandreke 9.0
Sad to say the only reason i choose kde over gnome is the fancy clock

My question is: What are U using and do U have a better reason for choosing it than a fancy clock? If so, please tell me. Maybe I`ll change my mind if I knew a sensible reason to go for another windowmaker.
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ralph · Advocate Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Posts: 2001 Location: Hamburg

What is so fancy about the clock in kde?

Anyway, I'm right now playing around with xfce4 and I have to say I'm impressed.
It's a nice Desktop and takes up a lot less recources than gnome or kde (and it takes a lot less time to emerge it

).
So, just give it a try.

progster · Apprentice Joined: 16 Jul 2002 Posts: 271

fluxbox

pro's:it's simple, no bloat, minimum resource usage...
cons: doesn't support desktop icons, butI don't like those anyway

~Progster

sniggit · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 6:28 pm Post subject:

I know it`s not fancy, the clock in KDE, but i`ve been a steady win user since forever and when i first saw it i thought "oh, fancy. its like a digital wristwatch or something! Neat-O!!"

BTW i know its a really really bad reason

I know its against what a serious linux user would say, but im really into eye candy stuff. Looking forward to having a desktop looking something like this:

http://images.mandrakesoft.com/img/screenshots/mdk91-scr2.jpg

I know its mandrake and everything but i really like the look.

Does xfce4 and/or funbox support transparrent effects like that?
I dont think the loss of icons will bother me all that much, learning to use console only. But fancy transparrent effects (or whatever the hell it is) looks cool if u ask me

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lamaistres · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 7:08 pm Post subject:

Corporal Dan · n00b Joined: 29 Jul 2003 Posts: 32

sniggit, the Mandrake screenshot you posted is of a desktop running KDE.

sniggit · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 9:00 pm Post subject:

Yeah i know its mandrake.

maybe i fraised the post badly, but what i ment to ask was if the less resource demanding window makers like fluxbox and xfce4 supported the things that KDE does.

Accourding to lamaistres they do.

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Sargonas · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 9:27 pm Post subject:

If you are looking for good eye candy support right away I would say go with kde, it has all of the things that you would want ( look and feel ) right away ( well once the hours/days of compiling are over ) but I have always found Window Managers better in the long run, they take longer to make look right but you will have total control over them.

I have never tried Xfce4 but FluxBox and Enlightenment are awesome. I use those 2 fully after getting tired of KDE's bloat. You can add Icons and transparencies to Flux but why? They are made to be simple/light, why fatten them up?

Granted I liked KDE but it just used too much stuff that I didnt want. So I would say install KDE, and Flux and play around with both, see which you like better.
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Curious · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 10:55 pm Post subject: Re: Which window maker and why?

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20093

Moved from Installing Gentoo
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thnogueira · n00b Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 41 Location: Sao Paulo, BR

What works for me is having 2 WM: the fancy clock one and the quickly.

If I'm gonna run a program that loads ton of double values in the stack, of course i'll need a lot of memory and than the quickly option is the best. what's more there are 2 more points:
1 - Theese ligths WM doesen't follows necessarily the "Windows Way" of how a desktop should be and sometimes you'll just discover some amazing features in ligth desktops
2 - Have you ever thougth about how many tons of stuped bytes do you have installed? I'd never since I've installed fluxbox. Then I attempt that what I use in a WM is just fell applications and when I'm surfing the Internet or playng a video doesn't matter what VM I'm logged.

On the other hand...

Of course that every tons of bytes aren't just trash. So I have the Fancy clock one. Sftp, smb, file browser, ftp , ... in the same window is just perfect. So when I'm gonna to make a lot of things using the network, there is nothing better. Since last month (my last gentoo installation) I'm avoiding kde because of qt. With some masked packages of Gnome I think that I won't need QT anymore (I really hope)

So, that's my opinion.

joshdr77 · Apprentice Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 180

pekwm

http://www.pekwm.org

NuclearFusi0n · Apprentice Joined: 20 Jun 2003 Posts: 297

Kahakai https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=80746
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asph · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2003 8:18 am Post subject:

after trying almost all of them, i use xfce4
kde is great, but i just want something lighter (not for the computer, i have a pentium4) and simpler.

xfce4 has gtk2 support, and it rules! just trying to use idesk or fbdesk with it, as someone suggested in the post

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MatzeOne · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 4:02 am Post subject:

shm · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 4:56 am Post subject:

I would say start with KDE.. it's a good base to start off with. Once you get comfortable, start exploring!

I started with fvwm, switched to kde 1.2, then played with various window managers for two years, and then switched back to kde 3.x.

It's mostly about user perference.
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xfjsx · n00b Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 40

xfce4 to me is fluxbox, but better. but that is just to me.

xfce4:
seems to open/run progs faster
has a much more refined look/themes
has a standard working taskbar unlike the boxes

xfce4 has the right click anywhere on the desktop menu just like fluxbox, with no icons on the desktop

to me xfce4 is where its at. the beauty of gnome with the speed/simplicity of the boxes

but then again this is just my opinion, as you will find there are many more *box users here than xfce users

jondkent · Apprentice Joined: 26 Jul 2002 Posts: 289 Location: London

Has to be Fluxbox for me. KDE is nice 'n' all, but has way more than I need. I like Fluxbox's minimalistic approach without going as far as Blackbox (which it is based on).

XFCE is a good alternative, but I'm not a big fan. Too much like CDE (I know, it trying to copy that), and I hated that on Sun/HP kit. It is fast though and a good half way between KDE and something like Flux

TheWart · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 12:40 pm Post subject:

Give Gnome 2.4 a shot.

It is very snappy feeling, and I am hard pressed to tell a difference between it and XFCE4 once it is loaded on my AXP2000+.
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The Mountain Man · l33t Joined: 03 Sep 2003 Posts: 643

The nice thing about Linux is that you can try different windows managers until you find one you like. Personally, I like KDE because I think it looks nice and has a lot of really great features, plus it's the one I'm most familiar with.

Go ahead and emerge a few different X environments, find the one you like, then unmerge the rest.

KiTaSuMbA · Guru Joined: 28 Jun 2002 Posts: 430 Location: Naples Italy

Eye-candyness is not an exclusive matter of the major Desktop Environments.
- icons: idesk works great if you are into them. I prefer the background to be empty...
- transparency on
1) menus, windows decorations etc.: kahakai/waimea are great at it.
2) terminal application: Eterm.
- antialiased true-type fonts: fluxbox, waimea, kahakai... almost everything by now.
Now, if you are not prone to editing text files and spending a week to get everything to perfection, I suppose KDE _is_ the best choice. I myself go for the lighter window managers of the *box family (currently kahakai) for series of reasons:
- smaller resource-burning (although since I'm using so many kde apps that kdeinit beast is more often than not running and chewing RAM)
- configuration flexibility to its maximum
- I hate loosing 1/3 of my desktop to panels and other parafernalia: a good personalised desktop menu along with a slit featuring a pager and a clock is up to the job anyway - currently running wampager, wmclockmon and bbrun.
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