[ILUG] Windowmanagers...

[jplooney at compapp.dcu.ie]

 I think happiness with your windowmanager is just behind your editor as
the singlemost important application you run these days. You work faster
while working in a pretty environment. You work faster when you can set
things up to work they way you like it.

 Six years ago, no one could say a word agains OLVM - the OpenLook
windowmanager that came with SunOS (and slackware). Four or five years ago,
I was introduced to FVWM. Damn, it was good, if you didn't mind the few
hours you could spend configuring it the way you wanted it. I was always
playing around with other ones...enlightenment for a while, but it was far
too ... flimsey ... I didn't like the way when you grabbed a window edge,
it felt ethereal. And the configuration was horrendous.

 I reverted to FVWM2 for a while. Even more configurable than FVWM. Played
with KWM for a while, and didn't like it. It was like the MotifWM -
more sluggish and babyish than most others. Then I moved to Windowmaker -
very pretty, simple themes, and it worked the way it should. Few bells, few
whistles. Then they added the WPrefs configuration program. Wow. After a
while, it's good not to have borders on the sides, and I really, really
liked it.

 Yesterday, for the first time in over a year, I tried out Enlightenment
again. I'm not one for all the bells and whistles, so I use TigerT's
"Brushmetal" theme, to go well with the simple "Gradient" theme I use for
the rest of GNOME. It looks well. Real well. It feels good. Real good. It's
configurable. Ridiculously so. I'm not big into playing with things, so I
didn't look into too much of it, bar what the configuration tool offers. It
offers a lot, but not as much as WindowMaker's WPrefs. I did like the "Move
Windows translucently" option. This has to be seen to be believed, but big
windows start moving really slowly.

 The window layout (where it puts windows) is really really smart. Small
windows are arranged so they don't overlap ones already there. Big ones
don't go down the bottom of the screen like they sometimes did on
WindowMaker.

 People, try Enlightenment 0.15.5. You will not be disappointed. It kicks
ass.

Kate

-- 
Is PIRACY killing the Amiga?" bravely ponders AMIGA FORMAT -
well, either that or someone's stopped manufacturing the hardware.
                                        -- www.ntk.net (30.04.99)