Favorite WM/Desktop
 

IN YOUR OPINION: I realize there is alot of different views out there, and I am in no way trying to start a flame war or anything. I was wondering what desktop/window manager is your personal favorite to use with Debian. I just ordered Debian and I am thinking of using Enlightenment. I would like other suggestions though. I think GNOME and KDE are too bloated and run too slow. Anyone have any ideas for a good alternative?

Xfce is pretty nice, its pretty light, very fast and eye-candy'ish

i simply like kde
and i have configured my system upto some extent so it just goes fine with me

regards

i have been using gnome for years formerly on RH but now on debian sid and never had any problems that were not resolved quickly....:)

Check out this page to see what window managers there are available:
http://xwinman.org/

Popularity of DE's & WM's among the geeks here at LinuxQuestions.org:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=272100
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=272101

KDE & Gnome:
+ These are the most complete desktop solutions available on GNU/Linux. KDE is the most popular, with Gnome coming right after.
- Both of these require lots of system resources (RAM and disk space).

*** KDE and Gnome have their own menus but if you use something else, make sure that you've got the "menu" package (that adds Debian's application menu to window managers) installed***

XFCE4:
+ This is a "lightweight desktop" that is very actively developed. It has less features and associated programs than KDE and Gnome but it's easy to use and it has a GUI configuration utility, it's fast and requires less system resources than KDE and Gnome.
- I cannot think of any minuses at the moment. (Well, the simpler window managers listed below tend to require even LESS system resources than XFCE4.)

Fluxbox:
+ This seems to be the most popular window manager among the geek population. IMO fluxbox is absolutely the coolest looking window manager (but this is very much a matter of taste). It has a "slit" that allows you to use dockapps.
- You can configure the basic behaviour via right-click menu but you need to edit config files quite a lot to make fluxbox really usable. Apparently people define keyboard shortcuts (by editing config files) to quick-launch applications, but IMO fluxbox needs desktop icons to become useful (this can be done by installing ROX-Filer or idesk, but it requires quite a bit of additional tweaking).

IceWM:
+ This has the Windows95-style panel (with a start button to open the application menu) that many people will find familiar. Depending on the packages you choose to install, icewm can be VERY lightweight and easy on the resources or it can be quite a memory hog.
- There are some third-party GUI utilities for configuration, but I ended up doing most of the configuration by editing config files (which isn't really fun). And IMO it needs desktop icons, just like fluxbox (although you can alternatively add quick-launch icons to the panel).

Window Maker:
+ This is the window manager of my choice. :) It has a GUI configuration utility and dockable "appicons" that function like desktop icons. It supports dockapps. It is good-looking, fast and easy on the resources.
- Window Maker lacks a panel that most people expect a window manager to have. (However, you can very easily add this feature by installing PerlPanel.)

EDIT:
I've edited this post by removing my comment on Enlightenment.

Openbox is my favorit of the ones I've tried (XFCE, KDE, Gnome, fluxbox, fvwm, windowmaker, blackbox, icewm, ...).
Because it is the cleanest windowmanager in my opinion. It's very easy to use, good looking default theme, ... I use it in combination with these slit apps (like fluxbox):
wmnet, asmem, wmcpuload, wmix, mount.app, obpager (nicest pager I tried). I could also use wmdrawer to launch applications (which is really good), but I prefer wmbutton.

I don't have desktop icons, and the slit disappears automatically so I can focus on the applications.

I lke fluxbox : very fast, very clean. I just like having one task bar and that'sall. I hate icons..

gnome as desktop environment
sawfish as window manager => lines theme very lean :)

I like enlightenment and xfce, enlightenment is aging, and not so well. it's going to be a while until the next version. you can still find a good looking theme and make it be very nice, only the default skins are "butt ugly"

look here for some decent ones.

there's a star-trek one that's amazingly cool, but, unfortunately, not all that functional.

It all depends on your hardware (if it's able to move heavy desktop environments, on your OS savvy (if you know what to do without the help of apps that do the job), on your technological maturity (if you're impressed with eye-candy, and birds flying on the desktop), and finally, on what you really like, which nobody can criticise, due to the fact that you're the one that has to live with it, day after day.

Whatever you choose, that makes your life easier, that you don't have to think, but do automatically, is the best DE/wm in the world.

I have old hardware, and mouse intensive window managers tend to tire me. So i use IceWM, i launch my apps with the Fn keys, it comes with 70 themes (icewm-themes), and move around the screen with keys combos, so to me, IceWM is the best. What can i tell ya?

later,

IceWM

To different degrees I've used : Fluxbox, Blackbox, Gnome, KDE, XFCE and a few other '2nd tier' WMs.

KDE for me.
It's configurability and range of features means there's no need to install additional hacks to have it just the way I like.

I'm a little surprised no one mentioned FVWM. I've used KDE and Gnome extensively, and IceWM for a short while (hated it). Typically I've been trying out a new WM with every new machine I install Linux onto (this is my third) and I picked FVWM after a friend recommended it to me.


My thoughts on FVWM:

+ You can make it do virtually anything you want it to do, which is awesome
+ Light and incredibly fast
- Configuration all has to be done via editing a text file, and to really be able to get things the way you want, you have to spend a lot of time reading the docs.
- Although you can download other's config files and get an easy "starting point" for making your own, chances are you don't have half the programs/options installed and it can be a pain in the ass to set everything right.


After using it and it's various themes for a couple months now, I just don't have the time to learn how to effectively utilize it, so I'm going to seek out something else. I recommend this WM for someone who wants complete control of their desktop and is willing to spend a lot of time setting it up. However, if you're like me and want to spend time on your WM doing productive things (and not spending countless hours tweaking with it), then this isn't the WM for you.

I use KDE on modern hardware that can handle it, because I love the versatile functionality of konqueror, but tend to use Fluxbox on older stuff not only because of it's light weight, but also because it is easy on desktop real estate. Often older hardware also lacks high resolution screens.

I also add docapps to an auto-hiding slit to make things more usable.

I should look into other blackbox variations, but I simply assume Fluxbox's popularity is deserved.

I actually liked the older Xfce better then the current one because it was even lighter on resources. I think the new one is getting better or maybe I'm just gradually updating aging hardware. One other gripe with it and many other WM's as it relates to Debian is how well the Debian "menu" system integrates to it. If I have to go about manually configuring launch bars and such, they aren't as useful to me.

I use to play around with Enlightenment because I liked to freak people out with all those those wild themes, sound events and special effects. Even in it's old age, it's not bad.

I love most Gnome apps (except am I the only one that doesn't like nautilus?), but never got into the current version of Gnome, it's probably good, I'm just not used to it.

I might get into Icewm more as a few minor issues with fluxbox (like you can only resize windows from the bottom edge) annoy me. Also it would sure be nice if someone would build some good GUI config tools for some of these light-weight wm's.

It is great to have the choices. On M$ systems I often feel trapped and confined. I did see someone running blackbox on W2k, it was interesting.

You know what also might be useful is if people post how to add the Debian menu to all the different WMs, because not all of them have it conveniently setup for you like gnome does. I'm trying out FluxBox and WindowMaker right now and I can't seem to do anything with Fluxbox. I'm liking WindowMaker though, enough that I might stick with it if I can configure it the way I like. :D

Anyway, for fvwm2 it is usually setup in the menu for you already (as long as you installed it via apt-get). But if you ever overwrite your .fvwm2rc file with someone else's, you'll lose the menu unless that person also had it setup. The command you need to put into your .fvwm2rc file to get the Debian menu is located in here:

I hope that helps someone. If I would have found that then I wouldn't have had to remove and re-install FVWM once before. :rolleyes: