FreeBSD vs. window managers

Garrett Cooper youshi10 at u.washington.edu
Fri Sep 2 19:44:40 PDT 2005


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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