What desktop options do I have?

[rcrummett]

Okay, I downloaded and installed fluxbox, enlightenment, and xfce. But when I use fluxbox I don't see anything. I have been able to tinker around a little bit and change the basic color layout, but what else can I do with it and how? I noticed that enlightenment isn't an option to log in (I am using the Gnome login manager, don't know how to change that but one thing at a time) but I did manage to change the window manager to enlightenment once I was running fluxbox. Still, I hear about all these options and these cool possibilities, yet I don't know where to start.

I tried IceWM for a little bit but tired of it quickly.

[oz]

But when I use fluxbox I don't see anything. I have been able to tinker around a little bit and change the basic color layout, but what else can I do with it and how?

Fluxbox is definitely one of my favorites. You right click the desktop to get a menu in fluxbox. There are some tools that can help set it up, but it's really better (in my opinion) to just edit all the config files by hand.

Look here for Fluxbox documentation:

http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docbook.php

Just about anything you could need to know is there. Be sure to check out the FAQ, too.

[Cabhan]

To elaborate a little bit:

KDE and Gnome are the big ones obviously. They provide a suite of applications as well as a complex and fully-encompassing Desktop Environment.

XFCE is a fairly lightweight one that I personally don't like. It's similar to KDE or Gnome, but it's not quite as slow. Still reliant on GUI-editors, though, unless I missed something.

Enlightenment 16 is a very nice and stable one. It has a very nice look, with minimalization happening to an iconbox that is easily navigated. My only problems (that may be solvable) were the lack of a system tray and the lack of a taskbar (I like seeing window titles, especially for things like Gaim message notification).

Enlightenment 17 is the sexiest WM I have ever lain my eyes upon. However, it's not particularly stable and well-supported yet. It does have a system tray, but still no taskbar. Has an interesting thing where minimizing actually deactivates the window and makes it invisible, but can be restored through middle-clicking the dekstop.

Fluxbox is my current WM, and I love it. It's a minimalist WM, and comes with nothing except a WM. It has a system tray and taskbar, and allows for customization and all that junk. It's very functional and customizable, and I really like it.

For the Enlightenments and Fluxbox, an important feature is the menu. It is user-defined, and obtained by right-clicking the desktop. In Fluxbox at least, the syntax is very simple and easy to change. The menu is, I feel, one of the key features of Fluxbox.


So as you can tell, my recommendation is Fluxbox. I love it. But I recommend doing what I did, and just try every WM you can. It's helpful, and provides the most opportunities.

[Weedman]

maybe i should have added more to my post

IMO, i find xfce,enlightenment and iceWM alright, with xfce the best.

IMO again, i dont like fluxbox or blackbox. its just not 'me'. the same can be said for kde. i find it too buggy & slow.

[borromini]

i'll add one to the xfce vote....it's very fast

i use it on my computer (see sig) and love how it runs....and there's some you can customize in it too

So do I .

[borromini]

maybe i should have added more to my post

IMO, i find xfce,enlightenment and iceWM alright, with xfce the best.

IMO again, i dont like fluxbox or blackbox. its just not 'me'. the same can be said for kde. i find it too buggy & slow.

I second that (although I like the layout of fluxbox & blackbox, but they are WM's, not DE's). KDE works fine in general, but I had some irritating SIGSEV errors when accessing USB drives from within Konqueror... Didn't please me. I like KDE's features, but it's a bit overcrowded imo.

[Ethyriel]

Cabhan, you can always use something like fbpanel or pypanel, or even gnome-panel or kicker if you can stand the resource black hole.

IIRC, Enlightenment also has a window list menu somewhere, though I haven't had it installed in a couple months, maybe that was an iconified window list. If that memory is accurate, you can always bind it to a key combination, like say evilkey-tab.