30 Window Managers in 30 days

sqlpython · 2012-04-02 01:25:36

I am going to miss this series.. Great Job

The last 5 especially interesting to me..

PackRat · 2012-04-02 01:49:55

2ManyDogs wrote:

Anybody used either of these? ...

Echinus was the first tiling wm I tried. I actually liked it, but never went back to it. Cwm and evilwm didn't really thrill me.

One thing to note, for any of these minimal and tiling wm's that do not have a native status bar, dzen2 works really well. There are plenty of examples on various forums of scripts and conky being piped to dzen2 for system status. If complied from source/git, dzen2 comes with a couple scripts, and has a dock mode.

Good work 2manydogs.

2ManyDogs · 2012-04-02 01:50:09

gensym wrote:

I once tried using larswm for a while... it came too alien to me.

It's a little weird, that's for sure. "alien" is a good way to describe it...

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-04-02 02:03:09)

falldown · 2012-04-02 02:15:57

How did I miss this thread??
WOW 2ManyDogs.. What I have read was very detailed..
I'm going to have to read through this sometime this week..

m5 · 2012-04-02 04:58:30

PackRat wrote:

@m5 -
Fixed the link; now goes to the version I was using with the OpenBSD features. It compiles, but still 2010 is latest. There is a README file that has the information for getting sources using cvs; I've never attempted it.

Thanks.

jens · 2012-04-02 16:37:05

cJones wrote:

i3 and scrotwm look sweet 2Many, thanks for the reviews! I think jens was saying he prefers i3, lets see if he comes in and says anything

sorry guys, i'm a bit late... big_smile
as fate would have it, i am using i3 next to my beloved xfce.

IMHO i3 is really great for development work. it is fun, quite configurable and very fast while having a small footprint.
(i tend to hack around in python and opengl a bit, for the visualization of GPS data via gpsd).

once i got used to i3's concept (what took me about an afternoon), i found the window control keys to be very intuitive.
i use the default config simply because i like it.

2ManyDogs · 2012-04-02 16:45:48

Day 29. Today, by popular demand, we are going to look at xmonad and awesome. And when I say "look at" I mean just that. These two are big and powerful, and I know people can do incredible things with both of them, but I can't get a grip on them in a short time. I'm afraid that people will be disappointed with today's offering, and I will apologize in advance to experienced user of these window managers. Luckily, both xmonad and awesome have a lot of online documentation, so I'm just going to show you a few screenshots and point at some other resources where people do a much better job of explaining how to use them than I ever could.

Xmonad

Xmonad is in the repos. Thanks to el_koraco, I know that if you just want to try it out you should install it without all the extra libraries:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xmonad

Xmonad creates its own .desktop file, so it shows up in the GDM sessions list after you install it. You should read the man page or consult the excellent xmonad web site before you start it. Start it up, and you get a black screen. The default mod key is alt, and alt+shift+return starts a terminal. Alt+p start dmenu, and with a few more apps running it looks like a basic tiling window manager in side-stack mode:

Alt+space cycles through the available layouts; here's bottom stack:

And it does full screen and floating windows. Alt+h and alt+k increase and decrease the size of the master area, alt+j and alt+k move the focus. Alt+return moves a selected window into the master area. If all this sounds familiar from spectrwm and dwm, it's because spectrwm was "inspired" by xmonad and dwm, and according to wikipedia

While originally a clone of dwm (derivative in areas such as default keybindings), xmonad now supports features not available to dwm users

Configuration

Xmonad was written in, and is configured in Haskell. According to the Haskell web site,

Haskell is a computer programming language. In particular, it is a polymorphically statically typed, lazy, purely functional language, quite different from most other programming languages.

Xmonad looks for its config file at ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs. If there is no file there, it uses its defaults. The config file can be simple, and override just a few of the defaults, or it can be very complex and add considerable functionality to the window manager.

Xmonad does not provide a default config file; both the xmonad wiki and the arch wiki (links at the end) have examples of large and small config files. Copy one of them to your ~/.xmonad folder and modify it as necessary.

Xmonad can provide space for a status bar, and the wiki recommends the use of xmobar, a status bar app designed for xmonad. It is relatively easy to incorporate by following instructions on the wiki ("relatively easy" here means that I could do it). Here is xmonad running with xmobar:

I also changed the mod key to mod4 and added a few custom key bindings for apps without too much difficulty. The config file can be reloaded by restarting xmonad with mod+q, and an error screen pops up if there are problems with the file. There are many examples on the xmonad wiki and elsewhere on the web where people have done some amazing things with this window manager.

What I Like About It

It feels like spectrwm when you start it up -- all the keybindings and behavior are what I'm used to from spectrwm and dwm, so it's not hard to use, even without modifying the default configuration.

What I Don't Like About It

Its extensibility makes even the simplest configuration changes difficult for someone (like me) who doesn't know Haskell.

Awesome

Awesome is another powerful and very extensible window manager. It's in the repos, and it creates its own .desktop file so it shows up in the GDM sessions list. Start it up, and it looks like this:

If you left-click on the logo at the top left corner, you get a menu:

Awesome starts in floating mode, so if you start a few apps it looks like this:

Notice that the workspace numbers indicate which workspaces have apps running in them (I'm using the second workspace to take the screen shots). Also notice the indicator at the right corner of the status bar -- this tells you the current window mode. Awesome can arrange windows in a variety of ways, including floating, several tiling variants, and full screen.

The default mod key is mod4, and mod+return starts a terminal. Awesome also has default bound keys for window moving and resizing, and it works well with the mouse. Trust me, all this is explained in the man page and the web resources I have listed below.

Configuration

Awesome is configured in Lua. From wikipedia:

Lua is a lightweight multi-paradigm programming language designed as a scripting language with "extensible semantics" as a primary goal.

Awesome's default config file is at ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua. All of the default configuration information is included in the file. I also don't know Lua, so I was only able to make some very basic changes to the default configuration. The config file can be reloaded with mod+r while awesome is running.

I know this is a very brief (and rather lame) "review" for a very powerful window manager, but there are so many good resources on the web (and right here in our forum) that I think just showing a few basic pictures is all I'm going to do. There are great shots in the screen shots thread from awesome users every month. I also hope a few users will chime in with their favorite features after this review.

What I Like About It

It has a very nice default interface. It's not ugly. It works well with the mouse. I'm sure it can do many things I'm not even aware of.

What I Don't Like About It

It's very difficult (for me) to configure. It does a lot more than I need from a window manager.

Links

awesome home page
awesome tutorial
awesome wiki
awesome config thread on #!
awesome on #!
awesome on the Arch wiki
awesome on wikipedia

tomorrow: tinywm
back to the top

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-04-03 15:09:31)

ivanovnegro · 2012-04-02 17:14:13

@2Many: Thank you for Xmonad. smile I see it is not that difficult to configure but all of this Haskell, pretty evil. cool
But the defaults are great.

2ManyDogs · 2012-04-02 17:28:58

ivanovnegro wrote:

But the defaults are great.

The defaults are spectrwm! smile

gutterslob · 2012-04-02 18:48:08

^Xmonad's stock keybinds are the sanest and most natural feeling of any tiler, imho. Even more so than dwm which it borrowed from. The only reason why I even bothered installing scrotwm back in the day was because it had most of xmonad's defaults.

Congrats on another set of mini-reviews, 2MD. Looking forward to the finale.

Last edited by gutterslob (2012-04-02 18:49:14)

user77 · 2012-04-03 02:47:26

I've been waiting for your awesome review - it's not a lame review, man wink I finally installed awesome tonight and I'm surprised to be getting along with it fine so far, I'd been hesitant to try it out for a while. Thanks for all the great reviews, I've been checking everyday!

servingwater · 2012-04-03 13:30:17

So what will your Grande Finale?????? big_smile

SabreWolfy · 2012-04-03 13:42:14

servingwater wrote:

So what will your Grande Finale??????

KWin!

2ManyDogs · 2012-04-03 14:00:42

Just finishing it up now... you'll have to wait. smile

rhowaldt · 2012-04-03 14:11:34

i hope the grand finale will be something stupid, like Metacity wink

2ManyDogs · 2012-04-03 15:06:00

Day 30 -- the end of the series. Today we are going to look at one more stacking window manager and then I'll have a little bit to say in conclusion.

I saved this one for last -- it's called tinywm, and it's in the repos, so apt-get install works. It does not create a .desktop file, so if you don't already know how to do this, refer to the flwm review for more information. You will also want to have xbindkeys running for this one, so refer to the lwm (or "man xbindkeys") and set up some keys to start a terminal and dmenu.

Start up tinywm, and it's just another black screen. Start a terminal, and it's still mostly black, because tinywm doesn't do borders or titlebars:

Yes, that's the xsessions folder on my test box, and yes there are 46 .desktop files in it. Back to tinywm; let's use xsetroot to set a background color and start a few more apps:

More undecorated windows, and if we look at the man page for tinywm, we see it does just three things: move, resize, and raise. The default mod key is alt (mod1). Focus follows mouse, but even moving or resizing a window does not raise it to the top of the stack -- it must be explicitly raised with mod+F1. But try it for yourself -- I think you will be surprised at how usable it is even with just these three commands.

Configuration

Tinywm has no command-line options and no runtime config file. If you want to make changes, you have to modify the code. Because it's in the repos, you can get the code with apt-get source. There's only one code file, tinywm.c, and it's just around 50 lines of code. But with the base code you also get a version written in python, and a fully annotated version of tinywm.c. The annotated version is about four times the size of the unannotated copy. In the first part of the comments, the developer writes:

much of tinywm's purpose is to serve as a very basic example of how to do X stuff and/or understand window managers

And when I say heavily annotated, I mean it:

So I tried modifying the code, and it's very easy. First I changed the mod key to mod4, and changed the key used for raising windows from F1 to Tab. Then I changed mod+Tab to lower the active window rather than raise it, and added one line to the move and resize functions so that mod+left or right click on a window raises it to the top of the stack.

With these minor modifications, I think tinywm is even easier to use. I may go back and study the code (and code from some of the other simple window managers) to see what else I can come up with.

Tinywm works with conky, but not with the panels. If you build a startup file for it, you can make something that looks pretty nice (at least in my opinion):

The point I'm trying to make is that all a window manager really needs to do is let you move, resize, and raise and lower windows. Anything else may be nice, and it may improve "usability" (or at least the perception of usability) but it's all just modifications on a basic theme.

What I Like About It

It serves as an excellent example of just how minimal a window manager can be and still be usable. It comes with heavily annotated code that is easy to modify.

What I Don't Like About It

Other people probably won't like it.

Links

"man tinywm"
tinywm home page
Xlib programming manual

Conclusion

So that's actually 36 window managers in 30 days. When I started this series, my main goal was just to show people some of what was out there and how interesting it could be to try something new. From the increase in threads about different window managers while I've been writing this it seems I achieved that goal.

I had a secondary more personal goal. I've always been interested in minimalism; I try to keep my life simple, and when I worked as a technical writer I always wanted to document the low-level workings of the software, rather than the glossy user interface. I hate software that thinks it's smarter than I am. As I worked on this series I wondered just how small a window manager could be and still be usable. I think I found out, and I also found out just how small and simple the code could be. Now even fluxbox and openbox seem like more than I want from my window manager.

I also wanted to have a little fun, and to occupy my brain for a little while. It's obvious that people here have been interested in the series (more than 21,000 views as of this morning), and it's been fun (but also quite a bit of work at times). I'm not sorry it's over, but I think I'll never stop playing with different window managers. I'm done distro hopping for now, but why should I use only one window manager?

People have wondered what window manager I would end up with. That's a hard question to answer. On my main machine before I started the series I had scrotwm and jwm (I like to use a tiler most of the time but every once in a while I need a stacker). Now the main machine has dwm and sithwm as its default tiler and stacker, but sithwm is in a contest with wm2, and I still have scrotwm and jwm, and I might add flwm and musca. The test box has 46 WMs on it. I may delete a few of them, but I was also thinking I might write a script to randomly choose a different window manager every time I log in, until that gets annoying. On my sid box I think I will remove all the window managers and just use the console. On my Arch box I'll probably use an Arch WM like monsterwm or snapwm. And I'll still keep my stable #! Openbox install as unmodified as possible so I can see what other people are using.

So that's it. Now I think it's time to get outside and work in my garden a little. It's starting to get warmer here (finally) and the rain has mostly stopped. Thanks for reading.

back to the top

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-04-03 15:08:10)

SabreWolfy · 2012-04-03 15:13:52

@2ManyDogs: 36 WMs in 30 days smile This thread will live on for a long time. Thanks for all your efforts! smile

anticapitalista · 2012-04-03 15:43:53

@2ManyDogs:

Absolutely brilliant work! An enjoyable read from start to finish.

mahatman2 · 2012-04-03 15:55:01

Wonderful work 2ManyDogs. I switched my windowmanager twice because of this thread! i3 -> herbstluft ! cool Thanks!

kri5 · 2012-04-03 15:58:01

Excellent work, I shall miss these daily reviews. There's nothing to do now but go back and read them all again. lol

Still trying the odd one here and there to see how they fit but so far haven't really found anything that's tempted me away from Openbox not sure I will after all the effort I've put in configuring it to my liking but as you've demonstrated, why be tied down to just one WM. wink

Last edited by kri5 (2012-04-03 16:47:26)

SabreWolfy · 2012-04-03 16:14:12

^ Why be tied to just one WM? smile I liked 2ManyDog's idea of a script which chooses one of the 46 WMs he has installed randomly at login. That could become quite challenging to use and will definitely test brain and muscle memory smile

ivanovnegro · 2012-04-03 16:21:48

@2MWMs:

Epic journey, you sure have opened my mind for some WMs I would maybe not use without this thread. It was one of the best threads here. Thank you for the effort and the hard work!

...but I think I'll never stop playing with different window managers. I'm done distro hopping for now, but why should I use only one window manager?

That is so true and it is fun. A new WM is like a new distro but much easier, if you do not like it, apt-get remove is your friend, easier than all distro hopping. Of course it is highly addictive.

The test box has 46 WMs on it.

That is truly incredible! smile

You definitely pushed this forum in a whole new direction what people use and try. I was once a normal Gnome user and that was still until the beginning of last year. That changed obviously, I am sure the #! Forum is also the culprit. Then I used almost a year Xfce and still like it as a DE but now I cannot go back to a DE. Though I never tried Openbox, that is really interesting.

One thing is so true for this community, I will paraphrase it, "came for the distro stayed for the community".

SabreWolfy · 2012-04-03 16:23:50

^ Which WM are you using now?

ivanovnegro · 2012-04-03 16:52:17

^ big_smile . I still have Spectrer installed but at the moment I use DWM, never thought I would set up that one in serious, but I did and I am still tweaking it a bit.

el_koraco · 2012-04-03 17:04:27

spectrwm is for BSD girls.

CrunchBang Linux

SEARCH

#551 2012-04-02 01:25:36

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#552 2012-04-02 01:49:55

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#553 2012-04-02 01:50:09

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#554 2012-04-02 02:15:57

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#555 2012-04-02 04:58:30

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#556 2012-04-02 16:37:05

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#557 2012-04-02 16:45:48

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#558 2012-04-02 17:14:13

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#559 2012-04-02 17:28:58

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#560 2012-04-02 18:48:08

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#561 2012-04-03 02:47:26

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#562 2012-04-03 13:30:17

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#563 2012-04-03 13:42:14

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#564 2012-04-03 14:00:42

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#565 2012-04-03 14:11:34

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#566 2012-04-03 15:06:00

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#567 2012-04-03 15:13:52

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#568 2012-04-03 15:43:53

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#569 2012-04-03 15:55:01

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#570 2012-04-03 15:58:01

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#571 2012-04-03 16:14:12

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#572 2012-04-03 16:21:48

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#573 2012-04-03 16:23:50

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#574 2012-04-03 16:52:17

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

#575 2012-04-03 17:04:27

Re: 30 Window Managers in 30 days

Board footer