[LUNI] KDE vs. GNOME (vs. IceWM vs. FluxBox)

[Steve Litt]

On Wednesday 06 November 2002 11:13 pm, lists at redboy.cx wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Nov 2002 20:48:32 -0500
>
> Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
> > I see a couple things I don't like about FluxBox:
> >
> > * The tab attached to each window consumes more space than would a
> > legitimate taskbar. I couldn't find a way to get rid of these tabs.
>
> in your ~/.fluxbox/init, add this line:
>
> session.tabs:   false
>
> I never got into the tabs eihter :P
>
> > * Without a taskbar, it's time consuming to switch from one app to
> > another. What's the secret for fast, accurate switches?.
>
> Um, alt-tab? I guess that's not accurate. If you go into the menu, look at
> fluxbox -> workspaces. It will show a list of open windows. I've never
> tried, but you could probably edit ~/.fluxbox/fluxbox-menu to put that list
> higher up in the menu hierarchy.


FluxBox is really sweet, but in the end I went back to IceWM for the 
following reasons:

* Easier inter-app navigation
* The taskbar based CPU indicator
* Quick access to the window menu via the Alt+Spacebar combination

That being said, I completely see the attraction of FluxBox. It really does 
load in 3 seconds, as opposed to 7 seconds for IceWM and a redwood's lifetime 
for KDE. The "Minimal" style (theme) for FluxBox is aesthetically beautiful, 
easily readable, and suitable for long sessions. UMENU integration is as 
simple as putting the following in $HOME/.fluxbox/keys:

Control 9 :ExecCommand rxvt -e "mm_startmenu"

I figured out how to get rid of those space consuming "tabs", and then 
lists at redboy.cx gave me a VI method of doing it. It's possible that all the 
IceWM advantages except the CPU indicator could be placed into FluxBox 
without much problem -- I just didn't have the time.

For anybody needing a seriously lightweight, but excellent, window manager, 
I'd highly recommend FluxBox. It's downloadable at http://fluxbox.sf.net.

SteveT