confused about window managers

[Gertrude]

What I was wondering is does fluxbox need gnome or kde to run? I thought that fluxbox was a window manager like kde and gnome or does it run on top of it? I have seen things saying support for kde and support for gnome.. could someone please correct me. thanks

[viperlin]

fluxbox is a window manager, it creates the borders around your windows, Gnome is not technically a window manager, it's a full desktop package,( i beleve that metacity is the gnome 2 window manager)

i use fluxbox, if u check my site there are a few screendumps of gnome 2 and of me taking my first steps in fluxbox (and i havn't moved back to gnome)

(fluxbox does not require gnome or KDE to run basicly, but if i didn't explain it could confuse u)

hope i helped

[ssjf]

They do not run on top of KDE or gnome. In fact, i believe but am not sure; gnome runs on top of enlightenment. I don't actually use gnome, so I don't know.

Gnome and KDE are just popular Window Managers; there are tons more. Things like fluxbox are just alternitives. As for the support, KDE and Gnome have their own specialized libraries because they are so complex - things can be written specifically for gnome or KDE. These programs are still available in the alternities, as long as the libraries are installed. (READ: You need part of the Gnome or KDE project to run specialized programs, not the entire thing). Many people like the *boxes because they are substantally faster.

Hope that clears some stuff up.

[lazarus777]

it's actually sort of the other way from what you described... GNOME uses the Sawfish window manager, and KDE uses the WM window manager. GNOME and KDE are both desktop environments; more pretty GUI tools and stuff, but use way more resources than just a window manager, which simply interfaces with X to draw windows; you do most of the actual work of putting menus, backgrounds, etc. into it (usually by messing with config files, but there are some GUI tools for most wms; they're just not very good, imo). I use fluxbox (and sometimes icewm when I'm feeling lazy), but I started using linux with KDE; there are still things that I like about KDE (it's really, really, really easy) but, while my system isn't bad, I can do quite a few more things, and quicker, in flux or ice. I'm working on rebuilding a laptop, and the biggest reason I'm working with flux now is because I intend to install it on that laptop, with either SuSE6.3 or OpenLinux2.4 (it's really old) because I really don't know of anything else that will run decently on a slow system; KDE is almost as bad as some versions of windoze (it's still quite a bit faster than XP, from what I've seen).