I have been using fluxbox for a few months now exclusively as my WM. I have had my eye turned to a couple like XFCE, openbox, or blackbox. Fluxbox seems to be the most popular light WM, and it is so addictive. Everything about fluxbox is meant to increase my productivity.

What are some other non KDE/Gnome WM's that you use, and what advantages do they offer?

If you don't mind, include your hardware specs, so we can see what you are working with.

I run fluxbox on my slack-current box with an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and 1 GB of RAM.

I started on KDE, then went to Enlightenment. I am now trying Fluxbox and loving it (since I use BB4Win/bbLean when using Windows.) So I guess my suggestion is to give Enlightenment a try.

Home PC: P4 2.4 w/ 512 (Slack 10.1/FluxBox & WinXP/bbLean)
Work PC: P4 1.5 w/ 768 (Win2k/bbLean)
Work PC 2: P3 800 w/ 128 (Slack 10.1/FluxBox)

I've been a Linux user for just over a year, but during that time I've sampled a number of window-managers and desktop environments, ranging from the heavyweight (KDE) to the lightweight (fluxbox, pekwm). For the last few years under Windows I've used blackbox for Windows exclusively, so I was already familiar with lean WMs.

A good middle-of-the-road choice is XFCE, which offers a lot of nice features but without as much drag as KDE or Gnome. The latest version (4.2.x) is much slower to launch than its predecessors, but once it's loaded it's very responsive.

A couple of old favorites like IceWM and WindowMaker are also excellent. After several months of WindowMaker, I've been in xfce for a while now, though I still go with fluxbox to remind myself how responsive my old system can seem.

There's some cool stuff ahead with Enlightenment DR17, but I don't know when it will all be available. It's neat to play around with, though.

If I were you, I'd try them all. I keep several WMs on hand to use depending on my needs -- or my mood. If you're a tweaker, it's fun to learn to set up the different WMs and see how far you can go with customization.

I used fluxbox for a long time, but eventaully I found it to be limiting.

I then tried all of them and settled on fvwm. The first thing that drew me to it was the ability to take snapshots of a window and then use that as the mimized icon, pretty much making the taskbar obsolete. Eye candy that is very usefull. I then relized how customizable it was. Anything your imagination can come up with, right down to the smallest of detail is doable. It's actually quite refreshing to make my window manager look and act exactly the way I want. Took me about two weeks to learn how to do it though.

My current setup actually takes up less memory than fluxbox becuase fvwm has a modular design. It also feels quite snapy on my pentium 2. I'm using fvwm 2.5 by the way because it has so much more stuff to play with then 2.4. Technically it's the developement branch but I havn't had a single problem with it.

Also, if you download themes from the internet sometimes they are poorly written and are laggy. But the general ideas and images you can use to make you own. Better of making your own from scratch and using refresh to test each change. There are a ridiculous number of options to play with and I find this method to work nice.

Double on the fvwm. It is the most versatile wm I've ever seen. Some of my favorite things to do:

1 get rid of the task bar
2 "start menu" can be a click on the desktop or on the title bar
3 as chbin said, minize to snapshots of the program (I have mine set up to minimize all with a right click to the minimize button"
4 my favorite: resize windows be scrolling in the title bar
5 ability to use multiple desktops easily

the list goes on as far as you want to make it

fvwm is small, fast and works very well. I suggest you get the latest version (in beta) and compile it yourself. The slackware package is the stable version but lacks a few new features. You can use the build script from the slackware source.

If you want a fast drop it a go setup you can get a good setup at
http://www.headthirst.com/fvwm.shtml

There is a tarball on the page that is good to go with a nice simple OS X like set of decorations.

I used Blackbox a few years ago and I love it. To my surprise (i missed some years on the linux world) when I come back there was Fluxbox, I kind like it, but it was being used by all the people and I hate that
Then I tried Enlightenment, very nice, but poorly configurable for my taste (there's been a lot of activity on a new version these days, keep an eye).
So after researching I stayed a time with Fvwm2, very nice, but I'm a bad designer so I did a couple of configs that worked, but were UGLY!
I keep searching and found what I loved, now I can't live without Ion3 ( http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/ ), it let's you build a desktop where you don't have to move a window, every window is open in a frame you choose, and if you need a "floating workspace" you can have it to within Ion (but you won't use it anyway ).

I'm using blackbox, its the only window manager I've ever really gotten on with, back when I was just starting out with linux I used gnome. My system is an Athlon64 2800+ with 1Gb of PC3200 memory on an MSI Neo2 Platinum motherboard

I'm a KDE fan.. i like my interface to look as good and heavy as it can ever be.. and i have the machine for it.. But 2 months ago i found XFCE, which is more or less as beautiful as KDE, but without the bloat.. so i've made the switch.

I still use konqueror as the file manager .. I can't stand that FM which comes with xfce.. confusing as hell.

To be honest, the file manager i'm most happy and comfortable with is the simple one you find in Windows 98, or Windows XP when you view --> List.

The files are scrolled horizontally, not vertically, even when you use the middle mouse roller.

If i can find something similar in linux (away from konqueror), i'd be happy.

I'm not sure if to keep fluxbox or IceWM....
please help me decide between the two!!!

Try them both. See which one you like, or is better for you (speed, ease of use, etc...), then keep it and delete the second one.

Another vote here for FVWM2. And I wasn't even attracted to it for eyecandy like icons that could replace the taskbar - I don't have minimised icons, I don't have a taskbar.

It's the minimal & highly configurable aspect that gets me. There is absolutely no clutter on my screen, just the windows I want, with the menus I want, and the window decorations I want.

FVWM - the choice for control freaks

Just use whatever you like and works for you.

xushi

Wow - for a second, I thought you were writting about me!

Here is the FM I settled on as a replacment - its a bit different the konqueror, but it "lists"
like win. explor. , and it has some cool options once you get use to it.

homepage - http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/
sourceforge page - http://sourceforge.net/projects/xfe

maybe you'll like it
-tw

Thanks tw001_tw. The screenshots seem very nice.

I've installed it, but the problem is when i start it through Eterm with xfe, i get a small warning box saying "Running Xfe as root!" with an OK button.. but i can't click on it.. (as if it crashed).

Yes i'm a root person on the laptop.. Does xfe run as root ?

edit: Hmm, i had to leave it for half a minute, and then the message went and the FM came up.. heh, time to explore it =) so far so good.

Again, Thanks alot =))

There is a reason why is warned you that you are running it as root.........bad idea.