From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Oct 31 21:28:57 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id VAA01967 for chat-outgoing; Fri, 31 Oct 1997 21:28:57 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat) Received: from dyson.iquest.net (dyson.iquest.net [198.70.144.127]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id VAA01959 for ; Fri, 31 Oct 1997 21:28:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from toor@dyson.iquest.net) Received: (from root@localhost) by dyson.iquest.net (8.8.7/8.8.5) id AAA09128; Sat, 1 Nov 1997 00:25:53 -0500 (EST) From: "John S. Dyson" Message-Id: <199711010525.AAA09128@dyson.iquest.net> Subject: Re: Prefered X Window Manager? In-Reply-To: <19971101154510.10913@lemis.com> from Greg Lehey at "Nov 1, 97 03:45:10 pm" To: grog@lemis.com (Greg Lehey) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 00:25:53 -0500 (EST) Cc: toor@dyson.iquest.net, chuckr@Glue.umd.edu, stephane@cybersurf.net, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL31 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Greg Lehey said: > > Yes, there are plenty of interesting wms, and I thought a lot before > choosing it. A good alternative would be something like fvwm95, but I > decided that if I was going to plunge newbies into FreeBSD, I didn't > want to make it look like Windoze 95%. The main reason for the > chapter was to give enough perspective to make it interesting for > people to install X and do something halfway interesting with it. > *Then*, if they have any curiosity, they'll go and do their own thing > (and probably think me strange for the defaults I suggested :-) > I agree -- the WM is relatively easy to change for a beginner (once someone has created a work environment, the window manager becomes more embedded on ones system.) I think that in your book, directing someone to something that *works* is the best thing. It is probably a very good strategy to distinguish FBSD from W95. As I know that you know one of the distinguishing things about X is that you can really change the look and feel significantly. X is hyper-flexible. All of the Free U**X systems are like a vast stack of Christmas presents to open. Too many toys, and eventually one settles on a few of the toys that one likes!!! There aren't very many really bad choices :-). -- John dyson@freebsd.org jdyson@nc.com