Re: FreeBSD vs. window managers

From: Garrett Cooper (youshi10_at_u.washington.edu)
Date: 09/03/05

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    Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 11:45:24 +0900
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org

    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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