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Desktop Recommendations ??
Hello,
I am not really having any problems yet, but I do have a question. In trying to keep a "thin" system, I did not load KDE or Gnome. All that I have installed and gotten to work is windowmaker...which I understand is a pretty good windowing program. Can you give me some suggestions for a fairly clean and useable desktop. I have tried both KDE and Gnome, but am looking for something a little less bloated. What I would like to have are some system utilities access. The OS loaded is FreBSD 5.4 with a current install of WindowMaker. One of the desktops I cam across is ROX. Got any opinions about this desktop ?? Thanks, Don |
fluxbox all the way. The point of soemthing like rox is to add all the "bloat" onto a lightweight wm. sure it does it in a reasonably lightweight way, but essentially puts all the junk back on. if you'er looking for a light DE in the first place, maybe xfce is more up your street. really heavy as far as WM's go, but it's technically a DE these days.
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I'll second that. FluxBox is really slick, and does everything that you're likely to want a WM to do (and it doesn't get in your way doing it). I prefer ratpoison or evilwm or ion2, but I'm a bit more "minimalist" than most.
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So let me ask you this then. I am still somewhat new to *nix, so please forgive my ignorance.
There 's really no reason to have a desktop. Having a WM should allow you to do most anything needed . Is this a fair statement ? |
if your computer is new enough(fast enough) go for a desktop, else go for a WM.
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pointy / clicky is what I am trying to get away from.
I guess I need to spend sometime with just a WM for now. Thanks |
I'm using Openbox with pypanel on OpenBSD, it looks good and doesnt't need much resources.
http://ope.khk.tartu.ee/~alari/s05.jpeg |
xfce4 is a decent alternative too(/usr/ports/x11-wm/xfce4).
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I'd suggest you to get used to Ion or Ratpoison and get rid of the rat!
I'm using Ion on any computer. I don't think there's any reason to run Gnome or KDE even if you'd had a brand new fancy computer, those clicketypoint DE's are simply not worth your cpu time (and your own!). If your still addicted to the rodent I'd suggest you try a light wm like fluxbox (very messy but fast wm) or icewm (terrible look in my opnion) if you have a very slow computer (like +- 166mhz). Openbox is way nicer to click point trough it, but it runs a little bit slower then fluxbox or icewm. It's a very clean window manager, really easy to click trough. You can add anything to it like obpager (best pager I've seen), pypanel, idesk (icons), ... Openbox was my favorite in the clickpoint era. But that ended after I started using a real man's window manager : Ion3. I haven't tried Ratpoison but it has to be good too from what I hear. My favorit keyboard binds in Ion3: Pause : start email app F2 : aterm F3 : run (type a cmd) KP_ENTER + . : links2 -g KP_ENTER + 0 : dillo "+1 : irssi and so on, i start all my favorit apps like that, really easy. KP_enter is never used anyway! KP_/ : desktop 1 KP_* : desktop2 KP_- : desktop 3 KP_+ : desktop 4 kp_4 and kp_6 to switch between applications (or alt+tab) Basically I use my keypad to navigate trough all running apps and to launch all my favorit apps. The rest of the apps I always start from the commandline. Have a look at some websites about mousless computing: http://modeemi.fi/~tuomov/ion/ http://ratpoison.sourceforge.net/ http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwork...y/l-cpion.html Definately read the last one! grtz grtz |
Another vote for fluxbox. Editing the menu is pretty simple and you can also enable keyboard shortcuts to start apps. I used it for like two weeks and I can now use the terminal solely for file management. Think I can deinstall rox now ;)
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All right. I'll admit I'm another fluxbox user here. What can I say. It's light and fast. Hotkeys are great, and tabs are awesome. Some of the themes are very very sleek as well. Give it a try.
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I use Blackbox, and bbkeys to edit configs and give me hotkey capibility.
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