Hi - bit of a newbie (been using linux servers, but not much desktop experience) and am installing (probably mandrake 8.2, as I've already got the disks) on an old 200mmx, currently 64 MBs - i think i can find some dimms to up it a bit.

anyways i don't want to start a war or get overwhemed, but would like some advice on a window manager with a little less overhead than KDE or Gnome.

objectives:
1) easy to install/configure/maintain (the command line and I don't ALWAYS get along)
2) clean but not TOO minimal - I'm not looking for some ugly super-striped-down WM that will run fast on 486; I'm primarily a mac user & would like to see something pleasing on my monitor. On the other hand, I'm not working day in and out on this machine, so multiple virtual desktops and the like just seem like feature bloat to me.
3) faster than KDE


so am i foolish? for ease of use's sake, should i just put up with KDE or GNOME?

thanks for the input

Sawfish, BlackBox, FluxBox, WidowMaker... virtually all of them are lighter than KDE or Gnome. Possibly the ultimate in lightweight would be TWM, but that can be a pain! Lots and lots of people swear by Black/FluxBox (they're basically the same thing, but slightly different). I use SawFish. SF is very bare, but you can do lots with it. The configuration options are nice and easy to access - middle click on the desktop to get the menu. Any programs you want to run upon startup need to be placed in the .xinitrc file, as per usual. It remembers, to some extent, the position of certain windows, but not others. You can have different 'window decorations' (read: borders, menu styles... themes, basically) for all of your windows. It supports multiple virtual windows, but you don't have to have them. The list can go on, but I think it's probably time for someone else.

thanks.

what's the scoop on afterstep. easy to use/configure/maintain? light? (I'm attracted to the NEXT heritage)

Don't forget about XFce, Enlightenment, and many others that are all lighter than KDE and Gnome.

AfterStep is nice, but for me was a pain to configure, so i went for FluxBox.
HTH
-NSKL

IceWM is very nice. I use it on my old laptop.

Try this site for good info on a lot of different wm/GUI/desktop stuff.

Windowmaker is somewhat similar to AfterStep but easier to configure.Running kde with less than 90 mb Ram is definitely not a good idea - I tried.

Window Maker would be the go!

It is fantastic, fast and user-friendly.

Window Maker, blackbox, and IceWM are all already on your 8.2 discs. You can easily install them and do little to no configuring in order to use them.

window maker is the choice desktop in my opinion. It's lighter, faster, cleaner, and easier to configure. wm definitely has a smaller memory footprint and eats up less cpu time than some of the others... and definitely less than enlightenment and gnome/kde.

Ice, XFCE, WindowMaker - like others have said - mid-weight.

Stuff like blackbox and other *boxes are lightweight - probably not what you want, though I like it.

And KDE/Gnome are massive.

You'd probably like Ice or the others along in there. If, as Read_Icculus says, you've already got them, go ahead and plug in Ice or wm.

I like flux. There is a 'pretty' *box out there, waimae which has support for transparency etc, but I've never used it for any length of time. I'll just stick with Fluxbox, but I agree, there should be one out that looks prettier.