i am in the process of compiling lfs 6.1 and i want to add gui to it later. mine is an old pc(read low on resources and processor power) and right now kde on RHEL4 runs real slow sometimes. i love kde but cannot install on lfs due to the same reason. anybody has any suggestions as what what window managers are best to be installed? i dont mind sacrificing the ease of use that kde gives. i would try them out on RHEL4 before actually compiling on LFS.
P.S. i had used Mandrake a long time back and found IceWM really good. And xfce..well i havn't used it, but i dont want to get anywhere near XP, so not intrested in that either. let your suggestions pour in...

LF

I like xfce! It's a medium-sized interface with some functionality, but fast load times. Also very customizeable! I suggest you take another look and decide for yourself if it's for you!

http://www.xfce.org/

If you would like to look at more choices, here's a good link:

http://xwinman.org/

Good luck, and congrads on building an LFS system! I never got mine to work properly; I'm using old hardware too!

Let me know how it turns out!

sax

My favourite are fluxbox and enlightenment.

I second Fluxbox. Very fast and light. In fact, I now like it better than KDE.

Try blackbox (http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net). Get bbkeys alongwith this. For file manager, I suggest xplore.

i went thru a lot of window managers at xwinman.org, but fluxbox is awsome..... and fast too. so is xplore. but what do the blackbox guys mean when they say any more suggestions for a file manager ?

PS:
This is the link i googled. but want some suggestion before finalizing

I *think* that means you cannot have desktop icons in blackbox (who needs them anyway when you have bbkeys running where your fav progs are launched through your own set of key strokes) or any embellishments on the windows (who needs them anyway!). The most likeable feature of blackbox is its simplicity. You can have "flat" windows withouth any "3d" effects like gradients/blending/shading etc. Note that fluxbox is derived from blackbox. I would have suggested mwm (motif window manager). But then, it doesnt have multiple screens.

As for file managers, anything is pretty much ok. Hell...download everything, try it and keep the one that you like (AND is secure/bug free).

Fluxbox!

I use it on a PII 300Mhz laptop and a PIII 400Mhz desktop. I have used it on Debian From Scratch, not LFS but should work fine.

Nicely written manual to help setting it up and adding extras (hot keys, desktop, etc.) available at... http://www.fluxbox.org/docbook.php Play with the different styles until you find one you like. I use "merley kay" as it is simple and easy on the eyes.

I always run Fluxbox as my night lite WM.

Windowmaker, enlightenment or any *box wm can be good on older PCs. Icewm is also good but since the thread author said he didn't want a 'Doze like experience, it's excluded (Icewm looks like windoze).

Here's another happy fluxbox user.

+1 for Fluxbox

+1 more for fluxbox. I like Fluxbox becuase its different from the Windows GUI rip.

Gees, no FVWM (fvwm.org) fans here?

- Mark

+1 Fluxbox
I didnt like how slow Gnome and KDE are / can become, and I didnt like that
they were hiding complexity from the user (i.e. can you tell me in which file you define shortcuts
so you only can backup this file in order to use the same shortcuts everywhere? And why is it that Gnome doesnt seem to easily allow arbitrary keybindings?)

The easy config for Fluxbox totally sold me for it.
I am not 100% happy with Fluxbox, but I am happier using Fluxbox than any other WM/DE so
I will recommend it.

Go with Fluxbox.

PS: In fact, most small windowmanagers are pretty good.
PSS: Enlightenment is very cool, but its slower compared to Fluxbox, and its hiding complexity. I dont like this...
PSSS: Ion may be an interesting choice but I feel that the need for Lua as scripting language is a bad choice, I find both Python and Ruby better than Lua. This is of course only my opinion, and you can use Ion without Lua too