Diff for "WindowManager"

Differences between revisions 12 and 15 (spanning 3 versions)

In the ["X Window System"], the X Server itself does not give the user the capability of managing windows that have been opened. Instead, this job is delegated to a program called a window manager.

The window manager gives windows a border and allows you to move them around and maximize/minimize them. The user interface for these functions is left up to its author.

This proves to be quite confusing for the new user of a X windowing environment because most other environments simply use one window manager and give the user no choice. In this sense, X is much more versatile and allows more tailoring of the environment to whatever the user wants. It allows the creation of an ["xterminal"], a diskless workstation which runs only an X server (out of ROM) and leaves all user interface implementation to a central compute server.

Common Linux window managers are:

AmiWM (Amiga Lookalike)
Sawfish [http://sawmill.sourceforge.net/]
Windowmaker [http://www.windowmaker.org/]
Metacity [http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/metacity] (for DebianGnome ).
Blackbox [http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/]
Fluxbox [http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/]
JWM (A footprint efficient window manager)
Openbox [http://www.icculus.org/openbox/]
Enlightenment [http://www.enlightenment.org/]
XFCE [http://www.xfce.org/]
Kwm (The window manager used for the KDE desktop)
Twm (an old window manager dating back to the beginnings of X windows)
Fvwm [http://www.fvwm.org/] (an old but useful window manager - still in constant development!)

see x-window-manager packages descriptions

If you use startx rather than a login manager, you'll probably want to choose a default Window Manager. To change the default window manager use

  update-alternatives --config x-window-manager

( See update-alternatives manpage).

Window Managers must not be confused with ["Desktop environment"]s such as GNOME, KDE, XFce. These three environments use a window manager as a single part of a much larger system. And to make things much more complicated, GNOME doesn't force you to use any one window manager. They have a list of "supported" window managers that you can choose from.

Afterstep should be mentioned - (and fvwm is actually fvwm2 whereas fvwm1 already had/has lots of "functionality" and lives on a smaller foot-print)

-  ⇤ ← Revision 12 as of 2007-08-07 22:08:40 → 
  Size: 2629
  Editor: FranklinPiat
  Comment: moved "window manager" here.
+   ← Revision 15 as of 2007-12-23 12:58:20 → ⇥
  Size: 2702
  Editor: MarkHobley
  Comment: AmiWM, JWM
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 1:
-["GUI"] > ["X Window System"] 
-------
-Line 10:
+Line 8:
+ * AmiWM (Amiga Lookalike)
 Line 20:
+ * JWM (A footprint efficient window manager)
-Line 35:
+Line 37:
-If you use ["startx"] rather than a login manager, you'll probably want to choose a default Window Manager. To change the default window manager use{{{
+If you use startx rather than a login manager, you'll probably want to choose a default Window Manager. To change the default window manager use{{{
-Line 39:
+Line 41:
-( See ["update-alternatives"]).
+( See {{{update-alternatives}}} manpage).
-Line 43:
+Line 45:
-Afterstep should be mentioned - (and fvwm is actually fvwm2 whereas fvwm1 already had/has lots of "functionallity" and lives on a smaller foot-print)
+Afterstep should be mentioned - (and fvwm is actually fvwm2 whereas fvwm1 already had/has lots of "functionality" and lives on a smaller foot-print)
-Line 47:
+Line 49:
+ * ["Display manager"]s: (gdm, kdm, xdm ..).
 * ["GUI"]
 * ["X Window System"] 
-------
-Line 49:
+Line 54:
- * DesktopEnvironment for ["X Window System"]
-Line 51:
+Line 55:
- * ["Display manager"]s: (gdm, kdm, xdm ..).
+----
CategoryDesktopEnvironment

Diff for "WindowManager"

See also