Best and coolest gui?

krajzega · 03-09-2004, 04:09 PM

My favourite window manager since I have installed Linux is IceWM...fast, nice and has usable toolbar.

dslboy · 03-09-2004, 07:04 PM

Just finished with dropline gnome installation...
It looks really cool. Thanx for all suggestions, but I dont think i'm ready to run blackbox/fluxbox ATM...

Kovacs · 03-09-2004, 07:09 PM

Fluxbox both owns and rules.

It is a little tricky at first if you're used to the full desktop environment thing, but once you're used to it you can't go back... I find KDE quite claustrophobic in comparison, and as for Gnome... well, let's just not go there.

And flux is purty too - see screenshot!

kev^ · 03-09-2004, 08:26 PM

fluxbox. easy to configure cause when you read the files, it actually makes sense so you can edit easily.

if not, DropLine Gnome (specifically for slack but it's still gnome)

Greyweather · 03-09-2004, 09:09 PM

I've primarily used Dropline Gnome for a while now, and it's nice enough and certainly has plenty of usefull tools. However, Gnome is a lot of things, but easy to tweak isn't one of them.

I recently tried XFCE4 for the sake of comparison, and I'm impressed enough by the clean, simple interface and speed that I'm switching to XFCE full time. It's just that nice. It is a wonderfull compromise between a light window manager like Fluxbox and a full-blown desktop like KDE.

Ninja Cow · 03-09-2004, 11:27 PM

I personally use Dropline Gnome myself (for about two months), but I've also heard the majority say they didn't like it. Like picking your distro, it all depends on your tastes.

Edit: I suggested Gnome with the themes because it was the easiest option. Welcome to the dropline world, btw. :>

Crazy Travis · 03-09-2004, 11:54 PM

I use Fluxbox 0.9.8 because it absolutely smokes on my p4-2.4 w/ 512 meg ram. Sometimes I switch back to the tried and true Dropline gnome. Both run great and look great if set right. Most any gui can look good if you know how to do it. However not every gui will run as fast or as integrated. Dropline gnome is about the best in integration in my opinion, and fluxbox is about the best in speed.

gnashley · 03-10-2004, 12:37 AM

Window maker is the best in the middle camp. Fow people who can't work without windows-like behaviour kde or gnome are best. For those unafraid of manually editing config files fluxbox works fine.
window maker is pretty, easy to configure with its' GUI configuration tool, has enough features that are understandable to windows users and yet still has a refeshing, non-windows way of doing things. fluxbox is just 1MB and has no depends. windowmaker is about 8MB and also needs libungif, Still windowmaker runs nearly as fast as backbox/fluxbox.
kde or gnome need 30-40MB minimum. most of the others are not worth even talking about. ICE looks most like windows but needs lots of gnome libs- just as well run gnome. XFCE the supposedly low-cholesterol window manager is actually slower even than KDE.
dropline is a flavor of gnome that many like, but it does a lot of it's own thinking so I don't like that.

Crazy Travis · 03-10-2004, 12:43 AM

Quote:

For those unafraid of manually editing config files fluxbox works fine.

fluxconf and fluxmenu are very easy to use if you are skeered about editting config files.

slakmagik · 03-10-2004, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gnashley
ICE looks most like windows but needs lots of gnome libs- just as well run gnome.

What Gnome libs? I run ice and don't even have Gnome installed.

Code:

~
1002>> ldd `which icewm`                                                       
        libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x40020000)
        libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x4002a000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x40041000)
        libXrandr.so.2 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrandr.so.2 (0x40108000)
        libXrender.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrender.so.1 (0x4010c000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x40114000)
        libXft.so.2 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXft.so.2 (0x40122000)
        libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0x40135000)
        libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x40199000)
        libImlib.so.1 => /usr/lib/libImlib.so.1 (0x401c0000)
        libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62 (0x401eb000)
        libtiff.so.3 => /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3 (0x40208000)
        libungif.so.4 => /usr/lib/libungif.so.4 (0x40249000)
        libpng.so.3 => /usr/lib/libpng.so.3 (0x40252000)
        libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x4027c000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x40289000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x402ac000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x403e2000)
        libexpat.so.0 => /usr/lib/libexpat.so.0 (0x403e5000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

~
1003>> ldd `which fluxbox`                                                     
        libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x40016000)
        libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x40020000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x40037000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x400fe000)
        libXft.so.2 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXft.so.2 (0x4010c000)
        libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x4011e000)
        libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0x4014f000)
        libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x401b4000)
        libexpat.so.0 => /usr/lib/libexpat.so.0 (0x401c1000)
        libXrender.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrender.so.1 (0x401e0000)
        libXpm.so.4 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4 (0x401e8000)
        libXrandr.so.2 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrandr.so.2 (0x401f7000)
        libstdc++.so.5 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 (0x401fb000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x402ad000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x402d0000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x402d8000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x4040e000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

I used to love blackbox and then fluxbox but then I got tired of not having a usable taskbar. As soon as flux started trying to finally give me one, they also introduced all kinds of icons and transparency and silly stuff. If I'm going to have to screw with icons, might as well screw with them in Ice. And flux got flakier and flakier whereas Ice is a rock. Ice has a few text files you need to edit to configure it - so does flux. Ice has a popup menu just like flux. If you want, you can disable the taskbar just like flux can disable its toolbar. They're both pretty light and fast. Ice is just more usable and stable to me and puts the emphasis on that rather than eyecandy. But that's just me - they both still rock, especially compared to most others.

And Ice doesn't have to look like Windows(9x/2K). I guess mine usually does because anything with a gray taskbar looks like Windows, apparently. (Highly modified Infadel2 theme.) But try the 'future-tech' theme - that don't look like Windows.

Anyway - to each their own, but Ice as a Gnome Windows just didn't sound right to me.

Crazy Travis · 03-10-2004, 01:05 AM

If you like fluxbox and black box try using openbox as gnomes window manager. If you turn off nautilus as the desktop manager you get a very good rating with mem. With gnome the panel and nautilus take up most the memory. By turning off nautilus as the desktop manager you gain a very good speed increase, and you can still use nautilus as the file manager if you set it up right...I prefer rox though. If you set the openbox menu good you can trim down the taskbar and cut some of the memory from teh panel.

Rodrin · 03-10-2004, 11:59 AM

I might as well add my 2 cents. I like Crazy Travis' suggestions, although that is not exactly what I am doing at the moment (I'm going through an experimentation phase right now, however, after using primarily Fluxbox for quite some time; I haven't yet settled again on exactly what I want to use). Currently, I'm using Openbox with fbpanel (not related in any way to Fluxbox) as a taskbar/panel and ROX as my file manager along with a couple of dockapps that I like (dockapps are applets designed for NextStep syle GUI's like Windowmaker).

It is also possible to use ROX for a panel as well as a desktop manager. You can also use combinations of ROX panels and fbpanels. Rox doesn't provide a taskbar function for its panels, however, so that they show running apps. Instead, the ROX Desktop iconifies running apps to the desktop when they are minimized (which you can turn off). Essentially it is the reverse of Windows like function, where it puts shortcuts in the panel and minimized apps on the desktop. XFce 3 worked in a similar fashion (now everthing is in a panel in XFce 4).

Windowmaker is also nice (along with GNUstep). If you want eye candy and still want to keep a lot of speed, Enlightenment is still a very viable option. It would probably work well in combination with ROX as a desktop/icon manager. And of course IceWM works very nicely with ROX as well.

When it comes right down to it, as far as window managers go, you have all kinds of choices. Some things do everything (or at least try), but they tend not to be the quickest; others are very lightweight and speedy, but you may have to piece together the functionality you want from different parts. It's all about choice. This is one of the things that appeals most to me about using Linux.

trey85stang · 03-10-2004, 12:25 PM

im just curious.. so i would like to add this... what do hardcore linux/unix people out there use for a WM (if they had to use one that is)??? I've been going the rounds with WM's myself... Trying to get away from KDE & Gnome... I've been using XFce... i like it.. but I wont something even smaller.. I think I will start with FluxBox tonight. but my question still remains what do hardcore life-time (someone who has really never used windows before) linux users use??

dslboy · 03-10-2004, 01:55 PM

We'll, Im pretty proud to have everything working right with gnome and dropline, cuz I've only used linux for a couple of months, and I need to get into the physical change from windows.
I will certainly check out fluxbox and window manger later, but right now I need something I can rely on, when I encounter problems and that's why I think gnome will be easiest(am i right?).
My plan, and I guess everyone who'd used windows is, to convert most of the tasks you did in win, to linux, and after that, start to explore the real world with linux! Right now, everything is ROCKS as it is! hehe

trey85stang · 03-10-2004, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dslboy
We'll, Im pretty proud to have everything working right with gnome and dropline, cuz I've only used linux for a couple of months, and I need to get into the physical change from windows.
I will certainly check out fluxbox and window manger later, but right now I need something I can rely on, when I encounter problems and that's why I think gnome will be easiest(am i right?).
My plan, and I guess everyone who'd used windows is, to convert most of the tasks you did in win, to linux, and after that, start to explore the real world with linux! Right now, everything is ROCKS as it is! hehe

That is exactly what i did.. Ive been using linux for about 8 or so months now.. I started with mandrake for a a couple months using KDE.. getting used to the terminal.. made the switch to slack and have been using gnome for about the last 2-3 months... But I'm ready to move on and have started exploring... currently im using XFce.. but I think i will start using fluxbox tonight....