The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    linux windows manager

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Supermiguel, Jun 8, 2011.

  1. Supermiguel

    Supermiguel Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    29
    Messages:
    550
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Which window manager you guys use on your laptops? i have an i7,8gb vertex 3 240gb x220, and was wondering if it was worth it to use a low memory window manager like fluxbox instead of gnome?
     
    Supermiguel, Jun 8, 2011
    #1
  2. aax

    aax Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I just installed Ubuntu 11.4 on the x220t and changed to gnome ( new default is unity). For a normal user, any window manager is ok, because most of the modern hardware should be more than enough to support whatever you want to run. Does it make sense to run fluxbox? It's all about preferences. I used to run BlackBox for so many years on FreeBSD just because I love it ( minimalistic approach).
    $0.02
     
    aax, Jun 9, 2011
    #2
  3. ThinkRob

    ThinkRob Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1,006
    Messages:
    1,343
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Musca.

    It takes about two days to really get used to it (more if you're new to tiling WMs), but it's by far the best tiling window manager I've ever used (and I've used a ton.)

    Once you're used to it, you really never need to lift your fingers from the keyboard, and you'll find that you're much more productive. It's also a godsend on 16:9 screens, as the combination of no window borders and sane split-screen management allows you to make maximal use of your screen space.

    Finally, it's light weight. Like... 1 MB of RAM light weight.
     
    ThinkRob, Jun 9, 2011
    #3
  4. oct

    oct Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    116
    Messages:
    402
    Likes Received:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Gnome on Fedora 15... though I've been thinking to give another shot to XFCE...

    Not sure if low memory/light is actual anymore on new hardware. Of course it depends on user's habits and the way of using desktop...
     
    oct, Jun 9, 2011
    #4
  5. antskip

    antskip Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    146
    Messages:
    795
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    There is no need to using a lightweight window manager on a modern system with plenty of ram. For most people staying with Gnome or KDE is safest - powerful and well-supported, with the fewest hassles. If you have the latest Ubuntu 11.04, their Unity is also excellent, though some like to choose Gnome instead. It can be a lot of fun to try out the different windows managers - part of the amazing array of options that are such a part of the rich universe of the perpetually alpha linux :)
    My old favourite was Window Maker - made any resource-hungry system fly. :)
     
    antskip, Jun 9, 2011
    #5
  6. kirayamato26

    kirayamato26 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    146
    Messages:
    972
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I find Unity to be a hassle to use on 11.04. I'm currently using Gnome.
     
    kirayamato26, Jun 9, 2011
    #6
  7. EZjijy

    EZjijy Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    10
    Messages:
    90
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    EZjijy, Jun 9, 2011
    #7
  8. UNIXgod

    UNIXgod Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    For windows managers I use e16 and fluxbox. In effort to have a system more assessable to my girlfriend I have the kde4 desktop and compiz-fusion for it's wm.

    Most people don't you light weight desktop because of low memory. They initially did it for speed. gnome and kde 10 years ago ran just fine in minimal memory environments.

    I am currently running Funtoo.
     
    UNIXgod, Jun 11, 2011
    #8