How do I know I'm running my DE with a WM?

stf92 · 07-30-2012, 04:58 AM

How do I know I'm running my DE with a WM? Notice Xfce can be run without a WM. If what I look for is minimum resource eating and maximum speed, what is more convenient. To have a WM installed or not? I can guess the answer is negative, but want to be sure.

TommyC7 · 07-30-2012, 05:25 AM

A window manager provides you with the abilities to move the windows, minimize them, resize them, etc. If your Desktop Environment does not provide these functions, then you are not running a Window Manager.

Xfce's window manager, is known as Xfwm. There are many other window managers available that Xfce can use. A desktop environment usually does provide a window manager and it's better to at least have a window manager, although a full desktop environment is not necessarily required.

I personally run compiz window manager standalone with no desktop environment and only a panel simply for the sake of eye candy. Xfce also has it's own panel called "xfce4panel". A desktop environment usually gives you many of these.

Unless you know the command/shortcut keys to move, resize, minimize, maximize your windows, I highly recommend a window manager.

pixellany · 07-30-2012, 05:29 AM

I was under the impression that the Window Manager (WM) was the minimum functionality needed for any GUI, and that an Desktop Environment (DE) was built on top of a WM.

How would you set up XFCE without the WM? (XFWM is the XFCE Window Manager)

stf92 · 07-30-2012, 05:58 AM

Well, I made a mess of the vocabulary, and the involved concepts too, of course: it is a session manager xfce can be run without. The question, once the mess having been elucidated, I can answer it myself, and is I am running a session manager along with xfce: xfce4-session.

Now for another question:

Code:

semoi@darkstar:~$ v /etc/X11/xinit
total 28
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 321 2003-03-16 18:36 README.Xmodmap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  12 2012-07-09 16:46 xinitrc -> xinitrc.xfce*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 538 2007-05-28 00:57 xinitrc.blackbox*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 542 2007-04-19 20:30 xinitrc.fluxbox*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 539 2007-02-17 23:19 xinitrc.fvwm2*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 516 2007-06-28 22:40 xinitrc.kde*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 733 2007-03-24 00:56 xinitrc.twm*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 788 2005-07-21 15:27 xinitrc.wmaker*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  28 2012-07-07 10:16 xinitrc.xfce -> ../../xfce/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc*
semoi@darkstar:~$

Are all these WMs? Are all of them DEs? I mean the second component of the names. Or both things?

Didier Spaier · 07-30-2012, 06:59 AM

KDE and XFCE are desktops, others are windows managers.

Of course a desktop can do windows management as well.

BTW I use fluxbox and am very happy with it.

PS I do *not* intent to trigger another "Big-endians against Small-endians" war, as Jonathan Swift has already written all that deserve to be read on that topic

stf92 · 07-30-2012, 07:06 AM

Like always, you have been both categorical and exact. Thanks Didier.

By the way, I've always been pro-little-endian, having been educated in an Intel environment.

commandlinegamer · 07-30-2012, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

I was under the impression that the Window Manager (WM) was the minimum functionality needed for any GUI, and that an Desktop Environment (DE) was built on top of a WM.

How would you set up XFCE without the WM? (XFWM is the XFCE Window Manager)

You can run an X session without a window manager, but you might be somewhat limited in what you do.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away I ran StarOffice (I think it was ver. 5.1) in a separate user account with no WM, as the program, even unmaximised was one massive window which filled the whole desktop.