Looking for a new window manager

Firepower · 2009-12-31 07:31:27

Like most posts, I would say the *box WM's or Pekwm. IMHO, the right-click menu interface is much better.

If you want eye-candy, I would consider using Xcompmgr and tint2 as the panel. Of the lightweight panels, tint2 has the most eye-candy with transparency etc.

EDIT: Just realized my post made Xcompmgr sound like a WM. It isn't. It runs on top of a WM to give it transparency, drop shadows etc.

Last edited by Firepower (2010-01-02 06:37:41)

m4co · 2009-12-31 15:19:06

Firepower wrote:

Like most posts, I would say the *box WM's or Pekwm. IMHO, the right-click menu interface is much better.
If you want eye-candy, I would consider using Xcompmgr and tint2 as the panel. Of the lightweight panels, tint2 has the most eye-candy with transparency etc.

Thanks, I will take a look into Xcompmgr and tint2.

The problem is that I got so used with compiz. I hope I can manage to use some things like:
- Alt+N goes to desktop N
- Ctrl+shift+arrow moves window to desktop N
- dark window when it's not responding
- transparency when it's not active
etc etc..

pogeymanz · 2009-12-31 16:03:53

m4co wrote:

Firepower wrote:
Like most posts, I would say the *box WM's or Pekwm. IMHO, the right-click menu interface is much better.
If you want eye-candy, I would consider using Xcompmgr and tint2 as the panel. Of the lightweight panels, tint2 has the most eye-candy with transparency etc.
Thanks, I will take a look into Xcompmgr and tint2.
The problem is that I got so used with compiz. I hope I can manage to use some things like:
- Alt+N goes to desktop N
- Ctrl+shift+arrow moves window to desktop N
- dark window when it's not responding
- transparency when it's not active
etc etc..

Well, you can get the first two with just about any WM. The third one is probably only possible in Compiz and the last one might be possible with Xcompmgr and some weird script or something.

jstadler · 2010-01-04 01:38:21

yea sounds like a *box is a good thing for u to try. I've been playing around with open/fluxbox alot the last while, i was looking for similar things as yourself and its working well for me. In my experience though openbox is handling the trnasparency issue a little better. Transparency when a window isn't active isnt much of a problem. My only issue im having with the *box 's is true transparent backgrounds for urxvt or aterm. I can get pseudo transparencies but not the proper. Its such a minor issue though and transparencies arent a must have for me. I'd recommend you give them a go. Try fluxbox out first though to see if u like the *box style, the menu's a little easier to make in my opinion.

Edricson · 2010-01-04 08:32:20

jstadler wrote:

My only issue im having with the *box 's is true transparent backgrounds for urxvt or aterm. I can get pseudo transparencies but not the proper.

Transparent terminal background works for me with Terminator (which I can otherwise recommend) on Openbox + xcompmgr

jstadler · 2010-01-04 13:24:35

Edricson wrote:

jstadler wrote:
My only issue im having with the *box 's is true transparent backgrounds for urxvt or aterm. I can get pseudo transparencies but not the proper.
Transparent terminal background works for me with Terminator (which I can otherwise recommend) on Openbox + xcompmgr

Cool, I love terminator, I thought it was more of a gnome thing but thats cool. I had it working in kde4 so i guess it makes sense that it would work. Thanks for the tip.

h_al · 2010-01-04 13:36:59

Try KDE or Awesome3.

m4co · 2010-01-05 21:50:31

Thanks for sharing your opinion too jstadler, . It is interesting to me when I hear from people that share this same view for a perfect desktop.
I chose to go for openbox as a start. I thought I would give openbox a try and head for pekwm later.
But now that I fixed this I really don't think I need to try pekwm or anything else
And I don't miss compiz.

I can switch desktop with shortcuts, I have great eye candy with xcompmgr (that works really well and better for me), I can pull windows to desktop N and etc..
And all that with less than 10% of my RAM (2GB).
Tint2 is also fantastic with this "multi_desktop" mode. I love this feature.

And to check the screenshots thread is a great tip. I will second that in case someone else looking for a wm reaches this thread.
Here is mine that I just posted (last one in that page).

Wicd is great. It's not much lighter than networkmanager (I thought it was) and I still don't know if it's better but just by being written in python is a plus for me
Also needed to try something new.

Even making the menus, which I thought it would take time, was pretty fun

So my settings here now are:
-----------------------------------------------
WM: openbox
panel: tint2
image viewer/bg changer: feh
xcompmgr for eye candy
conky for some monitoring
tilda for terminal
gmrun for "alt+f2" like programs
patience and configuration to make it very productive and pleasant.

Guake is a much better sliding terminal than Tilda and gnome-do is THE best to open programs with keyboard but both require many gnome dependencies and that is a big no for me.

I always got interested in Arch but never had the time try it out. Now that I got my vacation I thought I would migrate (and for some extra reasons).

I should have done this way before. And man this thing is flying

Thank you all for the suggestions!

Arch Linux

#26 2009-12-31 07:31:27

Re: Looking for a new window manager

#27 2009-12-31 15:19:06

Re: Looking for a new window manager

#28 2009-12-31 16:03:53

Re: Looking for a new window manager

#29 2010-01-04 01:38:21

Re: Looking for a new window manager

#30 2010-01-04 08:32:20

Re: Looking for a new window manager

#31 2010-01-04 13:24:35

Re: Looking for a new window manager

#32 2010-01-04 13:36:59

Re: Looking for a new window manager

#33 2010-01-05 21:50:31

Re: Looking for a new window manager

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