I was a Blackbox user, then I started using Fluxbox when they added new functionality but now it seems Fluxbox is only focused on eye-candy and performance in current releases is a *lot* worse than the original releases.

XFCE4 provides a nice middle-of-the-road solution for me. It is not only a window manager but a full light-weight desktop that is very responsive even though it is using GTK2 (which quite honestly is sluggish at best) on my 366MHz laptop. Plus, it's very pretty.



Håkan

Well, I'd say that if you take everything into consideration, I'd have to say Afterstep 2.00beta. While it is definitely not the fastest in terms of startup time (although it still only takes a few seconds) it is extremely fast considering the fact that it is just packed with eye-candy. It is literally a work of art; anything can be placed anywhere, and better yet, anything can be made transparent. It has customizable ``looks'' and ``feels'' that can be used in different combinations or can be linked together in a theme. Changing looks/feels takes a split second.

In terms of pure speed, then you'll want to go with any of the 'Boxes, FVWM, or TWM. The problem with Fluxbox is that although it is quite customizable in the 0.9.x developer branch, it seems to have sacrifced some of its responsiveness on slower systems -- I've noticed a weird ``fuzzy'' delay as the menu appears (it's hard to explain...) --- I think they have to make up their minds --- is Fluxbox intended to be superfast, or extra customizable? It does have a really nifty feature, tabbed windows, which can really make working with some programs a lot easier.

FVWM used to be the most popular window manager around, but when KDE and GNOME came along, people just sort of forgot about it. I wouldn't steer much into FVWM territory, it just feels so old to me. Afterstep 2.00 is what FVWM 3.0 should have been, IMHO.

TWM is oooooold, and unless you've got a reeeeally old machine, just don't bother with it, it's kinda weird.

WindowMaker is also an excellent window manager, but it's starting to feel out of date, and does not have features such as antialiased text yet. It is, however, the easiest to customize and set up IMHO due to its graphical configuration tool which comes with it.

Enlightenment is a little shaky right now, as their right smack in the middle of a rewrite, and it's a bit hard to recommend its stable 0.16 branch ATM simply because it has not been revamped in 4 years, and it's starting to show a bit. However, Enlightenment is pure eye candy, and it is an extremely cool window manager. It has a very distinct look to it, and it has the best virtual desktops out there --- they're ``stacked'' and you can pull down one of the desktops in front of another to reveal the desktop behind it (it's pretty cool,, but also pretty useless).

Good luck with your decision. I voted for Fluxbox in your poll, simply because I'm sure you meant pure speed. But in terms of the relative speed-to-eye-candy ratio, Afterstep 2.00beta takes the cake.

I like Ion.

Fluxbox is the fastest

I beg to differ. But fluxbox is a happy medium between eyecandy and speed.

Looks like fluxbox is winning... nearly 50 % of the votes...

Don't bother with virtual desktops etc. I have everything maximised and alt tab between apps.

No more rat caused RSI.

i was using gnome 2.2, but after hearing all these compliments about fluxbox, i decided to give it a try. i love the fact its only ONE download around 300k (unlike kde and gnome, tons of megs and tons of packages) and i noticed the speed as well. im still getting icons in, but its great. its got my vote.

PS: how do you get a background image for your framebuffer?

Blackbox is the fastest of the ones I've used for more than 20-30 minutes. I still prefer Fluxbox, as it's a good compromise between speed and functionality.

Well blackbox is faster than fluxbox but there is still a plethora of window managers faster than that.

Wow, flux is running away with it. I've only ever used KDE and fluxbox, and I prefer flux. It's less bloated, faster and I love the look.

I really like fluxbox, it loads really fast. I also like that I can easily customize my menus which hide away. making for an efficient use of space. The only thing I would wish for is a program to randomize the backgrounds. I know about background buddy, but the link forwards to someone's auctions on ebay.

Im guesing you might get a few for gnome, just due to the fact that there are people who havent tried anything else.

Personally I voted for Window Maker because, again...I have only had exp with 4 or 5 WMs.

after reading some of these articles, I think Im definately going to have to take a look at fluxbox...but Im really bit into eyecandy... stuff like superkaramba really toots my horn.

i want flux box

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