Hi all,

I've been playing around with Window Maker on my Slackware 11 box and I'm pleasantly surprised with the interface and performance of that window manager.

I still haven't figured out an easy way to import my KDE menu into Window Maker, so if anyone has any tips, I'd appreciate them.

Otherwise, it's very fast and I find it more attractive than Fluxbox.

Is anyone else using it?

Has there been any recent development on Window Maker? The web site seems not to have been updated since 2005.

Regards,

-Drew

I've seen someone who loves WM (on fedoraforum.org) who says it is still being developed.

I think it's great, and it was my favorite window manager when I first started using Linux, 2 years ago. I still use it from time to time, but I'm also concerned it is dead.

I've been using wmaker since the first and still don't find anything to compare. I use a patched version that provides a command history for the RunBox (as well as a few other things. I have an extensive collection of related items including about 40-50 DockApps and a the gtk-based configuration tool wmakerconf whcih provides the same functionality as the built-in one but with a little different interface. Give me a couple of days and I'll re-populate that section of my website so you can take advantage of some of it if you like.

Over the years, development has been pretty slow but deliberate and timely when needed. The folks at ALT linux do a good job of keeping things running(like patches for gcc4, etc) as well as providing a large collection of patches.

If compiled with --enable-kde it is able to deal with kde menus. You can also have it generate menus for you(also gnome-compatible). I run wmaker in such a way that it produces *no* mini-windows or desktop icons while still allowing DockApps to show. I also use a panel with it(taskbar or fbpanel are the best). Then I use ROX-Filer to provide desktop icons and AppDirs which provide a really cool, useful and blistering fast desktop -even if you just have a PII. Most folks recommend fluxbox for light machines, but I've always found windowmaker to be just as responsive(faster to start, in fact) on anything 233MhZ or above. I also use the related wdm display manager which completes the look. Great stuff! I have no need for any qt, kde, gnome, python or even gtk2 apps -I've collected close to 600 GTK-1.2 apps that cover a lot of area without all that bloat and constant upgrades and API changes. Long live wmaker! Dont' worry too much about the lack of activity on their website -when something just works there's not much need to make changes.

i've played with it a few times but just can't get the hang of it. very robust and very fast. if only i could take the time to figure out all of it's bells and whistles..

somehow i keep going back to gnome

- perry

perry, you use gnome? I had absolutely no idea![/sarcasm]

Gnashley,

I'd be very interested in taking a look at your WM-related stuff. I'll be checking your web site for WM stuff.

So, where's your web site?

Do I understand you correctly that you're running Slackware without KDE and its libraries?

Regards,

-Drew

I rushed around this morning and cleaned up the directories abit. here's the link to the windowmaker stuff:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...s/WindowMaker/

And here's the link to the DockApps:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...load/DockApps/

Note that nearly all the DockApps use a patch which simply makes sure that they can be used as described in the post above -namely that will run and show as DockApps ecven if you have all shared-icon and miniwindows truned off. There was achange in libdockapp when it was incorporated into the wmaker sources that mase many older apps not work correctly -hence the patch.
To achieve this behaviour you need to edit your $HOME/GNUstep/Defaults/WMWindowAttributes file and put this in there:

Be sure to do this while wmaker is *not* running -otherwise it will be overwritten.
I also turn of the Dock and clip, but that's amatter of preference. If you want certain DockApps to always start and show on the desktop then you'll want to use either the Dock or the Clip for that.

I'm going to look into the matter of using the kde menus -do you mean so that it creates menus that include all apps that have a desktop file? Or just the ones in your particular menu?
The menu editor included with WPrefs is fairly easy to use -with drag-n-drop addition and rearranging of items. But you may find the wmakerconf system easier to use. (Note that if you are using Slack-12.0 you'll probably need to add the gdk-pixbuf package for some of the programs I have there -just use the package from Slack-11.0)

I'm pretty sure you won't find as much wmaker stuff in one place as on my site! I even got the desktop sounds working! There's a pretty good selection of DockApps there, but honestly there are very few that are really worth the space on the desktop fulltime. I could have gotten more of them working, but come on -who cares about the weather on Mars or about having little fishes swimming aimlessly in a 64x64 window? However, if you find something that interests you and can't get it to work, I'll try to get it going.

I haven't re-compiled the wmaker package lately, after finding some gcc4 and x86_64 patches, but I'll work on that soon. Meanwhile, enjoy and don't hesitate to ask me for help -either here on the forum or by e-mail. I recently started looking at the debian version to see about getting XDG menus to work. If I understand correctly, getting this working means gnome and kde apps would be added to the menu automatically. The menu configuration section of WPrefs will let you create menus, even on-the-fly, by calling a script or program which produces a list of programs.

Please share anything you find useful as there is a real lack of recent documentation for wmaker.

For me wmaker is also the favourite pick-up among window managers. Works fast, looks good. The only downsides are, that
a) most programs (gtk, qt) look ugly on it, and besides images and videos -- that I can play without wmaker too -- I therefore don't really understand why I'd be using an ugly-looking graphical thing, when I can get the job done without a graphical user interface at all
b) it's mostly dead, or paralyzed, or whatever; I haven't heard of updates or big plans for a long time anywhere. Who's this Fedora guy who said it's still developed?

Apart from those..it's just great. Fluxbox is somewhat nice too, but when it comes to actually using something (as in using a window manager), it's definitely wmaker. Step backward means console, step forward (for boasting etc.) means definitely either KDE or Gnome, depending on the purpose. Mostly console, though.

It was on a fedoraforum.org thread, but I don't think anyone there are major Fedora developers. I didn't save the link, but found it now: http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/pri...2&page=5&pp=15

Window Maker was my first Linux Desktop on a Pentium 166MMX (Debian Potato) and I still come back to it from time to time.

Two things that disturb me currently is that (and correctly if I'm wrong here) the icons don't scale well (64x64 max?) and many of the links to DockApps are either broken or the app doesn't work any longer. WmWeather didn't load the local weather stations (KSDL & KPHX) last time I tried it.

Window Maker itself seems to be doing fine and I remember they even released a nice Live CD recently.

Add a Digital Blasphemy background and Window Maker looks great!

Dennisk

I've never been much of a fan of eye-candy sort of things, but I recently started working with some gtk themes and found I could improve my usability a lot by carefully choosing among them. There is a lack of wmaker-adapted themes to match the gtk themes though.
Most DockApps were developed long ago so their owners have abandoned them. As stated, most of them are not worth the trouble or space -mostly apps which have a couple of controls with a monitor or such. Most other applications are better handles by a windowed application.

Scalability of icons mostly works okay, but not for DockApps -they are nearly all written to be used at 64x64 and won't scale properly. On the upside, most DockApps have fairly simple code and use one of a couple of standard 'templates' which draw the square for you. I have had good luck patching and updating quite a few.

Basically I just love it for the great way it handles windows and can be configured without manually editing the config files. My standard setup starts with a blank desktop.

Here's the relevant quote from the above referenced fedora forum:
Heh, it's not dead. Those people in linuxquestions.org never actually contacted anyone from the WindowMaker project, they're just guessing (and wrongly, at that). The website had some server problems and had to change their domain name because of a conflict with some company, but WindowMaker is still being worked on. I have to say, the last release (0.92) has been rock solid, so there hasn't been much of a hurry to add things. If it ain't broke don't fix it! Though there is a CVS snapshot from last year, and the mailing lists and IRC channel are still active. There'll be an update sometime, eventually. We WindowMaker users aren't as obsessed with constant updates as users of some other, less robust, desktop environments that shall go unnamed.

As I said before, there's really not much to do to improve wmaker that hasn't already been done. All the patches that I use date from long ago and have been hosted at times on the official website. They have never been incorporated into the main code in order to not increase the bloat. I'd like to point out that wmaker was one of the first window managers to be fully NETWM compliant.
I've used it for millions of hours and never found any sort of bugs at all -well maybe a pixel or text misalignment or two. It just does what it's supposed to. If you want a panel add whatever you like. Want desktop icons? -use idesk, fbdesktop, rox or whatever.

gnashley, that was it. Sorry, but I didn't have time to read through the thread fully.

If it isn't dead, I would like to use WindowMaker. Installing dockapps from dockapps.org is a mystery to me, though. Is there a guide? I haven't been able to find one at the site.

Edit: syntax

Add me to the list, now. I honestly never got around to setting it up before this week, and now I know why I loved it so much before. It really is quite peppy, and I've always found that the "Dock" concept agrees with me.

Very light and fast:-) Much faster than my favourite, XFce:-)

Whether Windowmaker will be updated remains to be seen, but I hope they will. IMO, it's a stretch to say that it simply isn't as concerned with updates as other environments. That statement sounds hollow to me.

dockapps.org's About page has one link -http://www.bensinclair.com/dockapps/ - and that link is dead. Many of the dockapps listed haven't been updated in years.