Rating window/desktop managers

[Wolfger]

Total newbie here. I know better than to ask "which is best", so instead I'm asking for ratings of the various managers on:
Compatibility (or should I say "Support"?)
Appearance
Configurability
Size
Speed

[littleman]

Sounds like fun...
I'm going to add a category, functionality. All just my opinion, and it is about the WMs at default settings.

KDE
Compatibility 9
Appearance 8
Configurability 8
Size 4 (very 8ig)
Speed 3
Functionality 9

Gnome
Compatibility 9
Appearance 9
Configurability 7
Size 5 (big)
Speed 4
Functionality 8

Enlightenment
Compatibility 8
Appearance 9
Configurability 9
Size 8
Speed 7
Functionality 7

IceWM
Compatibility 8
Appearance 7
Configurability 6-
Size 9
Speed 9
Functionality 8.5

WindowMaker
Compatibility 9
Appearance 9
Configurability 9
Size 8.5
Speed 7.5
Functionality 7.5

PWM
Compatibility 7
Appearance 6
Configurability 6
Size 10
Speed 10
Functionality 8

BlackBox
Compatibility 8
Appearance 9
Configurability 7
Size 10
Speed 10
Functionality 8

FluxBox
Compatibility 9
Appearance 9
Configurability 8.5
Size 10
Speed 10
Functionality 10

[ 28 March 2002: Message edited by: littleman ]

[ 29 March 2002: Message edited by: littleman ]

[scanez]

Bah, this is still going to be mostly subjective and biased ;)

[Ludootje]

I don't feel like giving points, partly because not everyone wont understand (eg: littleman: no idea of what you give to those wm's for configurability etc, since here we don't use A's etc, we use points. 1/10 is the lowest while 10/10 is the highest) and partly because points don't say everything, while a comment about each of those categories for every wm is much more clear

I will only comment icewm here, although i used kde and bb quite a lot too, but since i'm much better with configuring icewm i'll only give an opinion about that

icewm:
Compatibility/support: no idea what you mean by this
Appearance: wonderful, you can get it look exactly like you want since it's extremly configurable
Configurability: great
Size: not too big
Speed: really fast
functionality: that depend what you like and what not, but since there's really a lot to configure it's functional for most people

But still, I think this is useful.
For example functionality, this depends from what you like, as for configurability, this is mostly the same with every wm.

And littleman: I don't understand how you can give such a different rating for bb & fb.

The guy who asked this: go look on xwinman.org

[littleman]

Of course it is completely subjective. I should have done 1-10 instead, to make the rating more international. I'll go edit it some time today.

And littleman: I don't understand how you can give such a different rating for bb & fb.

Fluxbox offers greater 'on the fly' configurability, it has the built in mouse wheel shortcuts, and it has tabs. That combo plus all the good stuff inherited from blackbox makes for a very efficient work environment.

[Wolfger]

Originally posted by Ludootje:
<STRONG>
Compatibility/support: no idea what you mean by this
</STRONG>

Well, many apps out there are written for KDE or Gnome... Can those apps be run on other WM's?

[flippantfig]

Originally posted by Wolfger:
<STRONG>Well, many apps out there are written for KDE or Gnome... Can those apps be run on other WM's?</STRONG>


if you got them installed on your system then you can run them regardless of WM (I think, but there is always an exception to the rule
:D )

[Ludootje]

Originally posted by Wolfger:
<STRONG>Well, many apps out there are written for KDE or Gnome... Can those apps be run on other WM's?</STRONG>
Yes. Theoractically this is no problem, though I have to say with older versions of KDE&kdeapps I had some problems letting K-apps run on gnome, but I never had that with "newer" kde stuff (with older versions I mean 1.x).

[Mnemonic]

Originally posted by Wolfger:
<STRONG>Well, many apps out there are written for KDE or Gnome... Can those apps be run on other WM's?</STRONG>

Just an informational note on symantics...KDE and Gnome are not window managers. For quite a while Mandrake was packaging things such that Gnome ran under Enlightenement and has since been switched to Sawfish. KDE has its own window manager. However, other window managers can be used. I think I recall running KDE with blackbox as the window manager. I might be wrong on this one. It has been a while. In any event, I personally do not run an environment on top of my window manager, but I do use KDE and Gnome apps under either Enlightenemt, IceWM, or Blackbox. Perhaps I am just lucky, but I have not yet had any problems doing so.

[George Kilroy]

Here's one to add to the list, I might be back later to add some more...

Oroborus

Compatibility
Works with Gnome's panel for the most part, I read it has some KDE support...both of those are bloated though so I use fspanel.

Appearance
Really a matter of opinion, it is themeable. If you have time you can easily make your own themes.

Configurability
Edit .oroborusrc, .deskmenurc, .desklaunchrc, and .keylaunch in your favorite text editor. This is really really easy. There is also OTC for changing themes quickly.

Size
Really really small.

Speed
Runs about same pace as Blackbox...fast.

Functionality
IMHO the only problem with functionality is window placement.

[hetman]

when youre just starting kde is probably best since it works like windows (sorta) and it looks pretty good.
lately, i've moved to gnome, its faster, you can control how things look better and some apps i need only work in gnome. although you'll find that kde has some cool apps that dont always work under gnome.
anyways,
the coolest looking desktops i've seen were with fluxbox, enlightenment or those types. personally i dont use them because i think they are not practical (for me at least)

[Mnemonic]

Originally posted by George Kilroy:
<STRONG>Here's one to add to the list, I might be back later to add some more...

Oroborus

</STRONG>

I did a quick search on Oroborus and found that homepage is no longer present. Do you have a URL that I can use to gather more information on this WM? Thanks.

-M

[uriah.k]

Wolfger, seriously, start with
window maker. It looks nice and is quick and small. One of my favorite features of it is if you push Mod1(the alt button) you can left click on a window and move it around from grabbing it by anywhere.
Then try fluxbox, it's blackbox, but
with more features. Actually good features too! fluxbox is small and quick and you can easily set up your right click menu how you want it. it's usually looked for/located in /usr/local/share/fluxbox/menu
and the file /usr/local/share/fluxbox/keys lets you set up keybindings. Keybindings let you push just 2 buttons to start up an app of your choice. I have a few set up to start an email client and xchat and opera etc.

[NyteMask]

You can run KDE and GNOME apps up any window manager (e.g Blackbox,Fluxbox,Enlightenment) as long as you have the core for each installed. You must have gnome-core and possibly some other libraries installed, but you dont have to have gnome running. I use gkrellm in blackbox, but I had to install parts of gnome to get it running. :D