[Techtalk] Window managers and desktops (LONG)

caitlynmaire at earthlink.net caitlynmaire at earthlink.net
Fri Jun 21 12:24:39 EST 2002


Hi, Matt,

> Each desktop 'system' requires a window manager to enable it to work
> A window manager like Sawfish, FVWM etc creates, places, keeps track
> of, and draws borders around the windows on the screen. It can't
> actually do any work without a desktop 'system'.

To quote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, that's "a load of
dingoes kidneys".  I have more colorful language I'd prefer to use, but
not on list.  You need a window manager, not a "desktop system".  What
KDE and Gnome do that WindowMaker, to use your example, doesn't do, is
provide additional libraries for their integrated applications and
applets.  So long as those libraries are in place you can use their
apps.  Without them, you can't.

An example of this would be gnumeric, the spreadsheet.  Try installing
it on a system without Gnome using rpm.  You will find that there are a
bunch of things missing that are required to make it run, but all of
Gnome is not required.  You can have a system (this one is an example)
which does not have a functional or complete copy of Gnome, but runs
gnumeric just fine.  However, I needed pieces of the Gnome "system", if
you will.

OTOH, if you install the GTK based version of AbiWord, it doesn't
require anything at all from Gnome or KDE.  Neither does Sylpheed, the
mail client I am running, or xpdf, or Mozilla, or Opera, or gvim, to
pick some from your list.  No Gnome, no KDE, and these apps are just
fine.

Lightweight window managers are preferable on systems where every last
ounce of performance needs to be marshalled, meaning systems under heavy
load or with very limited resources.  I run Red Hat Linux 7.3 on a
Toshiba Libretto 50CT (Pentium 75, 32MB of RAM maximum) and it's
performing reasonably well, largely because I do not run either Gnome or
KDE.  KDE, in particular, is very resource intensive, and many of it's
apps (i.e.: KOffice) invoke enough of KDE that a system like the old
Libretto 50 just can't handle them.  OTOH, gnumeric, AbiWord, and most
everything else you use run happily on that box.

The choice of defaut window manager (or desktop system) is made in
/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients on a Red Hat system and in many other distros as
well.  You can edit this file to allow for other choices than Gnome,
KDE, The Next Level, FVWM, or failsafe (twm), which are the only ones
provided for.  The stock RedHat file reads /etc/sysconfig/desktop to
determine your preference.  This is a one line file which just contains
the name of the window manager/desktop system: (i.e.: KDE, GNOME).  I've
changed my /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients by copying some of the existing lines
to allow  one more choice, IceWM:   

#!/bin/bash
# Copyright 1999 - 2001 Red Hat, Inc.
# License:  GNU General Public License v2

# check to see if the user has a preferred desktop
PREFERRED=
if [ -f /etc/sysconfig/desktop ]; then
    if [ -n "`grep -i GNOME /etc/sysconfig/desktop`" ]; then
        PREFERRED=gnome-session
    elif [ -n "`grep -i KDE /etc/sysconfig/desktop`" ]; then
        PREFERRED=startkde
    elif [ -n "`grep -i ICEWM /etc/sysconfig/desktop`" ]; then
        PREFERRED=icewm
    fi
fi

if [ -n "$PREFERRED" ] && which $PREFERRED >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    PREFERRED=`which $PREFERRED`
    exec $PREFERRED
fi


I then changed my /etc/sysconfig/desktop file accordingly.

Note that this changes the default for all users of the system.  If you
want to just change your chosen environment you need to create a
.Xclients file in your home directory.

Also note that FVWM, The Next Level, and twm are only available if Gnome
and KDE are not installed the way the stock Xclients file is written. 
If you want one of them (or WindowMaker, if you prefer) to be the
default, you do want to add them to the section above.

Unfortunately, switchdesk doesn't know from IceWM, and I haven't taken
the time to hack it to add that choice.  However, I have added other
window managers to my selection in my IceWM menu, and once X boots I can
actually switch to any of them.

All the best,
Caity



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