X Windows Managers and Themes
There are a plethora of X Windows Managers out there that have differing capabilities, eye candy, system requirements and flexibility. First this column will briefly discuss a few of the more popular Window managers (and perhaps some not so popular ones). Then a discussion on Free Themes and other window manager enhancements.
One really great thing about a lot of window managers is they work on more than just GNU/Linux. Although all UNIX vendors deploy window managers, installing a similar window manager across differing platforms can add a sense of interface standardization.
Quick List of Some X Window Managers
Following is a list of window managers - not all of them just the more popular ones - with a brief description of each:
- Kewl Desktop Environment (KDE): Another very popular window manager and applications based window manager, KDE has a lot of inherent configuration tools within the X interface itself (very much like Microsoft's two main platforms the Windows 95 & 98 families and Windows NT. There are two little problems I had with KDE, however, first; it was difficult for me (as a long time UNIX user) to understand the GUI. I quickly became lost and frustrated with it. Second; it is also very resource intensive.
- AfterStep: This window manager was deployed in a variety of GNU/Linux distros and has caught the attention of many hobbyists. AfterStep is easily configurable within the config files and not very resource intensive until one starts piling themes onto it.
- F?? Virtual Window Manager (FVWM): The creator of FVWM (Rob Nation) has long since forgotten what the F stood for with this popular window manager. FVWM is relatively light and fast but sacrifices some eye candy other managers come with by default.
- Window Maker (WM): Another theme which is fast, has a fair amount of eye candy but can become bogged down by themes. WM is also easy to configure and very ergonomic.
- Enlightenment: A window manager that ranks up there with GNOME and KDE in popularity, Enlightenment is also resource intensive and somewhat non intuitive (remember to take non intuitive with a grain of salt since most UNIX power users simply find out how stuff works regardless of the UI's difficulty).
- Blackbox: This Window manager is by far my personal favorite. it sports an incredible amount of eye candy without any graphics at all. It is extremely small (the source distro tarred and gzipped is only around 140k), a cinch to configure and very user friendly. The only problem I have ever had with it is I would like to see some sort of text icons instead of the icon hiding. I use Blackbox on a P75 system with linux simply because any other manager is too resource intensive (except perhaps FVWM)
There are More
These are just a few of the window managers I have used. There are several more out there which can be found from Themes.Org which lists themes and window manager web sites.
Window Manager Themes & Eye Candy
Many window managers and utilities are pretty boring. The monotony of the job can sometimes be taken away by little simple eye candy on the desktop to make life a little more fun. There are two forms of eye candy:
- Themes
- GUI Utils
Themes Web Sites
All of these Theme Sites can be found at Themes.Org.
Themes do come in a variety of packages, some easier to manage and others more difficult. There are two types of themes websites:
- Window Manager Centered
- Enhancement Centered
Window Manager Centered Themes Sites
Enhancement & Window manager Centered Sites
The interesting thing about GTK and KDE is that they can interact with most other window managers. For example, a Blackbox window manager can use many GTK utilities or KDE desktop enhancements.
GUI Utils and Other Eye Candy
There are also little things one can do to make the desktop a little more attractive looking. Following are some little things I have done or used:
- E Term is a very nice terminal that one can make have a transparent background with tints, an image as the background, no image, an image and tint etc. It can be a little resource intensive when starting up but runs smoothly once it is in memory.
- I also use the xiterm and nxterm with -ls option embedded within my manager's desktop rc file. This makes my session support GNU colors for files. This is not a good option with the rxvt since it creates ghosts all over the terminal screen.
- Another little item I like to use on occasion are the little applets for AfterStep which are widely supported. AS's mini monitors and utilities are tiny and still very usable.
- Everyone knows XV, but I should mention it anyway, XV can be used to use a background image under any window manager. Some managers don't support background images but using XV commands one can easily incorporate them into the manager at startup.
There is Much More
This column only touched on a few items about managers and themes. There is great deal more information out there to help UNIX and GNU/Linux users have a better desktop experience. As I have mentioned before, one of the best places to start is Themes.Org which lists a variety of managers, themes sites and utilities.
So what Does Mine Look Like?
Not that anyone should care but it depends on which UNIX system I am using. On my home PC which is a P75 with 32MB of RAM I use Blackbox with some eye candy enhancements. I really don't have much of a choice since most other managers eat up resources so much. At work I use a P166 wit 64MB of RAM running GNU/Linux and I haven't really found a particular window manager for it yet. I do have KDE, GNOME, AfterStep, Blackbox, FVWM, FVWM2 and Window Maker Loaded on it. The UNIX Systems I maintain all use CDE.
Here is a screen-shot of my work system with AfterStep running and here is one of my home system running the minimalist Blackbox manager.
(C) Copyright 1999, 2000 OutRider
See OutRider Policies Document for more Information.
Modified on $Date: 1999/08/14 03:36:21 $
by Jason Fink ( jrf@diverge.org
)
