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Date:      Sat, 1 Nov 1997 16:20:39 +1030
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        "John S. Dyson" <toor@dyson.iquest.net>
Cc:        FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Prefered X Window Manager?
Message-ID:  <19971101162039.65195@lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <199711010525.AAA09128@dyson.iquest.net>; from John S. Dyson on Sat, Nov 01, 1997 at 12:25:53AM -0500
References:  <19971101154510.10913@lemis.com> <199711010525.AAA09128@dyson.iquest.net>

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On Sat, Nov 01, 1997 at 12:25:53AM -0500, John S. Dyson wrote:
> 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.

That was exactly my consideration.  After looking at my configuration,
which has "just growed" over the last 7 years or so, I discovered an
amazing amount of grunge and stuff that didn't work, but which I never
tried to use.  I hope I have it mostly cleaned up now :-)  But I say
that in the chapter, and point out that it's only a starting point.

> 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.

Exactly.  If I had given fvwm95, the users would probably never have
thought to change anything.

> 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 :-).

Right.  I wish I had more time to play with these things.

Greg



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