the linux window manager debate!

whitecrook · 7 Jul 2006 at 18:23

Gnome and KDE aren't window managers.

They are 'desktop environments', which come with a window manager in the case of gnome, the default window manager is Metacity and KDE's default is Kwin. And yes, this means you can run Gnome or KDE with just about any other window manger you like.

Moredhel · 9 Jul 2006 at 11:52

BillytheImpaler said:
I'm bloody addicted to it. I go to work and use a Mac and a few Windows boxes and I feel cramped in having one desktop and no spinning cube.

http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/ It even gives you the spinning cube...

cb_linus · 9 Jul 2006 at 14:38

e17 (still in development, but freely available) for me, except that I been getting a fair few crashes recently *sniff* It has some lovely eye-candy such as several desktop modules (calander, clock, pager etc) which are kinda built into the wm, giving a nice integrated feel to it (much better than gdesklets methinks).

There's a built in file manager in development but at the moment I use nautilus.

While it doesn't look exactly like OSX it can be made to look a tiny bit similar. Here's a coupla recent-ish screenshots I took which show off a kinda unique style that you can achieve in e17:

e17 with blue eyed theme 1 (slightly out of date) and e17 with blue eyed theme 2

And here's quite an old screenshot before a lot of stuff about how the modules kinda work was changed, just to show off some of the modules

Kaed · 9 Jul 2006 at 16:44

Im currently running a dual boot, but I tend to use Icewm myself when ive booted linux

thelonecrouton · 11 Jul 2006 at 17:21

Currently running Gnome/Metacity/XGL although I have to switch back to regular Xorg to play 3D games. (Ctrl-Alt-F7/F8 the way I've got it set up, can switch between the two in a second or so.)

Every now and then though I have a month or two of Fluxbox, probably some wierd pining from my Gentoo GoFaster Zealot days...

XFCE looks like a nice middle ground but it just hasn't hit that sweet-spot for me quite yet.

BoomAM · 11 Jul 2006 at 18:50

Everyone post screenshots so we can compare them all!

Im running Gnome i asume, as im using Ubuntu.

freebooter · 11 Jul 2006 at 23:28

KDE here on kubuntu. I used to have gome, kde and xfce installed but decided I just wanted one and as I usually find kde programs to be better than the gnome equivelents it made sense to use kde as my de. I also didn't like the limited options in gnome and nautilus was like going backwards to windows explorer which I haven't used for years.