Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 11:45:24 +0900 From: Garrett Cooper <youshi10@u.washington.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. window managers Message-ID: <292F9E38-E7CB-4F6E-BC16-F02AED7D5FB5@u.washington.edu> In-Reply-To: <20050903015658.GB99371@keyslapper.net> References: <90056E03-651E-431A-9D87-5F89C5F6CCE7@cc.usu.edu> <20050903015658.GB99371@keyslapper.net>
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On Sep 3, 2005, at 10:56 AM, Louis LeBlanc wrote:
> None of the window managers are difficult to install on FreeBSD, but
> some may be tricky to configure. Maybe most.
>
> If you want a window manager, not a desktop, you don't want KDE.
> That's a desktop/WM. My personal favorite for more than 6 years now
> is FVWM2. Flexible, fast, supports all kinds of cool things, like
> fancy key and mouse bindings, Xinerama, etc.
>
> Still, lot's of people like KDE, enlightenment(?), IceWM, the Gnome
> Desktop, etc.
>
> My advice is try a few different ones before deciding. See how
> intiutive or simple you find configuration (I like FVWM2 because it's
> simple text file configuration, and manpages are quite thorough).
> Just remember, you will probably get a basic configuration set up the
> way you want and not really touch it for a long time. Then one day,
> you'll look at it to tweak some behavior. My config has only changed
> a little over the last 6 years, and only one or two small tweaks at a
> time. Lots of times, I have to go back to reread documentation or
> commentary in the config to figure out what it's doing.
>
> So, two things that are important: ease of configuration and
> flexibility. You want those small tweaks to be painless, but you also
> want the WM to be able to do what you want it to. So far, I've not
> found anything I wanted that FVWM2 couldn't do. Documentation (man
> pages) are well written enough that tweaks are pretty easy to manage
> now too.
>
> BTW, I'm fairly mouse averse, so I have my config set up to allow me
> to keep my hands on the keys until I go into a browser, unless I
> decide to exercise the mouse for some reason. This includes switching
> pages on the desktop, switching desktops, switching apps, etc.. If I
> go to the mouse, it all works pretty much the same. Key bindings
> allow me to use the fancy buttons on my fancy keyboard to control
> audio and video playback, volume - including mute, and window layering
> (move to top, bottom, etc.) among many other things.
>
> Good luck.
> Lou
> --
> Louis LeBlanc FreeBSD-at-keyslapper-DOT-net
> Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :)
> Please send off-list email to: leblanc at keyslapper d.t net
> Key fingerprint = C5E7 4762 F071 CE3B ED51 4FB8 AF85 A2FE 80C8 D9A2
>
> VMS, n.:
> The world's foremost multi-user adventure game.
All depends on your taste, like Louis and others have been saying.
If you want a complete desktop system (has a variety of tools,
etc), try straight Gnome or KDE. As you've discovered though,
compiling them takes quite a while as they are quite large.
If you just want a WM (a means to view X programs), there are a
variety of different choices: TWM (prepackaged, ugly), FVWM2, IceWM,
Enlightenment, Fluxbox, XFCE4.2, and quite a few others exist for
your X use. No one can really say which is best, I think, as it all
depends on your choice and preference in terms of interfacing with X
and programs, as well as how much resources you want to use, etc.
There are also lighter versions of the KDE and-I think it's in
the ports tree-Gnome meta builds which come with a lot less programs
if you wish to only install needed and certain components to your
system.
-Garrett
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