From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Feb 21 11:31:40 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EFB9F37B401 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 11:31:37 -0800 (PST) Received: from koa.aloha.com (koa.aloha.com [206.127.224.85]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 21A4943FDD for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 11:31:37 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from knowtree@aloha.com) Received: from leahi (leahi.aloha.com [206.127.224.84]) by koa.aloha.com (8.12.2/8.12.2) with ESMTP id h1LJUgiU008672; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 09:30:43 -1000 (HST) Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 09:28:46 -1000 (HST) From: Gary Dunn X-Sender: knowtree@leahi To: John Bleichert Cc: Jud , matrix@altima.net, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: lightweight wm In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, John Bleichert wrote: > On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, Jud wrote: > > Subject: Re: lightweight wm > > On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 20:38:28 -0500 (EST), John Bleichert > > wrote: > > > On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 matrix@altima.net wrote: > > >> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > > >> > > >> im on a pI 233mhz mmx with 64mb of ram > > >> what do u recommend me to install GNOME or KDE > > >> > > > > > > I use Blackbox on a 166 and it runs great (Fluxbox as suggested by > > > somebody else is based on Blackbox I believe) - it's a great window > > > manager. Controlled by a simple text file, multiple desktops, nice > > > graphical styles, etc. mwm is nice too (very unix) but openmotif takes a > > > long time to build. > > > > Though I have the hardware and disk space to run GNOME, KDE, or both if I > > wish, I gravitate to a lightweight ethic, so like John, I run Blackbox (as > > well as bbrun for extra convenience). Very occasionally I also use > > Windowmaker for a bit of variety. > > > > With a fairly lightweight GUI file manager, Rox-filer (not lightweight if > > built from ports, because the FreeBSD port has a bunch of GNOME > > dependencies; I just download it from its home page and install it, and it > > works fine for me - note, I do have Linux emulation installed), browser > > (Opera), mailer (Sylpheed), editor (nedit, though I also play with Xemacs > > and a couple of TeX editors), cd player (ascd or wmcdplay) and system > > monitor (GKrellM2), I feel pretty well set. > > > > These are all GUI applications, because you asked about GNOME and KDE, > > which are big GUI desktop environments. The FreeBSD base system comes with > > command line utilities which will take the places of several of these > > applications quite nicely. > > > > Jud > > > > Actually, just to be clear, I'm a KDE fan. KDE 3.1 is great, and on a > multi-GHz box with 6 cubic yards of RAM who cares about resources? But on > some of the lower-watt boxes I have (at work and at home) I need a > lighterweight WM. Blackbox is great, very clean. Also, the code is very > clean and makes an excellent X/WM tutorial. > > That said, I do run Blackbox for a while every now and again for a break I like things simple and with clean design, and I like using old stuff -- cars, cameras, and computers. A lightweight window manager would seem ideal for me, but I use GNOME because I like drag-n-drop (my typing sucks) and the way copy-paste through the clipboard works, better than the straight X method. And I like a consistent look-and-feel across applications. What features and benefits do you miss when you use Blackbox instead of KDE? Which window managers do you think are best suited for a pen-based system? -- _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Gary Dunn _/ _/ Open Slate Project _/ _/ http://openslate.sourceforge.net/ _/ _/ http://www.aloha.com/~knowtree/ _/ _/ Honolulu _/ _/ registered Linux user #273809 _/ _/ _/ _/ This tagline is umop apisdn. _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message