Which Window Manager for Puppy Viz?

A home for all kinds of Puppy related projects

Which WM for Puppy Viz?

IceWm
15
29%
JWM
9
18%
Xfce
4
8%
IceWm and JWM
23
45%
 
Total votes: 51

Message
Author
User avatar
Lobster
Official Crustacean
Posts: 15522
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 06:06
Location: Paradox Realm
Contact:

Which Window Manager for Puppy Viz?

#1 Post by Lobster »

I have not put in KDE, Enlightenment, Fluxbox etc
. . . we are now heading towards Release Candidate 1
and so the feature set needs to be completed . . .

So the voting options reflect only the ones I have heard are being considered for the current Puppy 2.15CE

Obviously adaptions can be made :)
If you want to make a case for your option please do
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

User avatar
Pizzasgood
Posts: 6183
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
Location: Knoxville, TN, USA

#2 Post by Pizzasgood »

I voted for both IceWM and JWM, because it adds some choice factor for a very imperceptible amount of space. JWM is slightly faster too, so people might appreciate the option to change back if they have a slower machine. Besides, JWM has some cool stuff that IceWM doesn't, like scrolling the mouse wheel to roll up a window.

And just for clarification, I do want IceWM as the default, with JWM as an alternate.

For the "We don't need 2!" people, Puppy used to ship with two back in the good old days, when it was only 50MB, and it made little difference to the size then. If it could handle JWM as a second WM back then, it can certainly slip in now.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]

User avatar
puppyfan12
Posts: 140
Joined: Mon 04 Dec 2006, 17:25
Location: Ontario, Canada

#3 Post by puppyfan12 »

I second that decision pizzasgood
Joe D.

User avatar
rarsa
Posts: 3053
Joined: Sun 29 May 2005, 20:30
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

#4 Post by rarsa »

I am also on the IceWM + JWM camp.

I find that IceWM will be the favourite visually. I like it alot but I find that configuring JWM is easier.

I vote for asking the user at first boot explaining that one is nicer to look at and the other better for older computers. (maybe only ask this if the computer has low memory or a slow processor)

Even if after a while people realize that the actual functionality of most WMs is fairly the same, still most people get their first perception of a distro based in their look and performance (not too ugly, not too slow).

For faster computers (faster than a tortoise it is) then the preformance diference is not preceptible so having IceWM as the default makes sense.

For slow computers there is a choice to be made between looks and performance, let the user decide.
[url]http://rarsa.blogspot.com[/url] Covering my eclectic thoughts
[url]http://www.kwlug.org/blog/48[/url] Covering my Linux How-to

User avatar
Springer
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue 22 Aug 2006, 16:25
Location: Austin, TX

#5 Post by Springer »

I won't express a preference, since I'm not up to speed on the latest advantages and disadvantages of any of these, but...

I know one thing, for sure: despite that very intentional ignorance, I represent a LOT of users that don't WANT to have to know anything about window managers - they want it to "JUST WORK". (I decided I had better things to do than customize WM settings way back when OpenWin was the preferred Linux WM...)

I (probably) don't care which one we use, but I definitely think this is an area where we *should* pick ONE AND ONLY ONE standard WM. Those who want to run another one can certainly do so, but having one standard WM will allow PETget packages to all be built for a known environment, and consequently, they'll JUST WORK.

Choice of apps is one thing, but from the user's p.o.v., the WM *is* the OS, which is why I feel so strongly about having ONE really good WM, theme, icon set, etc. to provide a high-quality baseline, much as Apple does with OS X.

Multiple WMs only guarantee that some things will not work as expected, and that fixing those will be a genuine pain in the butt, requiring a frustrating amount of "fiddliness". The biggest reason Puppy attracts me is that I want to avoid the fiddly bits in the first place.

It seems to me that Barry's Puppy philosophy has always been to do two things: 1) Cut out the heavyweight cruft while still having heavyweight capabilites, and 2) Make Puppy work "right out of the box", without requiring the user to really know anything much at all about what's under the covers.

I'm for ONE Window Manager.

User avatar
puppyfan12
Posts: 140
Joined: Mon 04 Dec 2006, 17:25
Location: Ontario, Canada

#6 Post by puppyfan12 »

Springer: that's why XDG menus are going into this puppy. They allow a standard way for the puppy user to utilize their preferred window manager and the menu entries to be updated regardless of window manager preference. Also JWM & IceWM are very close to a win98 desktop layout but JWM is only a few hundred KB for older machine but doesn't look quite as pretty as IceWM or have the number of window behaviour preferences. It's almost like having a win98 and a winXP classic style desktop bundled together with 1 OS.
Joe D.

User avatar
Billwho?
Posts: 559
Joined: Tue 06 Dec 2005, 09:28
Location: still "In The Dog House" East Coast Oz
Trialing 4.20

#7 Post by Billwho? »

"Damn it" You guys have realy buggered things up for me now!:evil:
I have always been happy to to just stick with JWM on all the puppies I have downloaded up untill the 215 CE Alpha I mistakenly got my brother in law to download for me Thursday night; even though the Beta is out :oops: (he's got broadband I ain't). Now I've had a taste of IceWM I'll never look at JWM the same way again but there are a few things I miss, Right click in a directory and choose" Xterm here" for one. Plus with the size of JWM being so small it should stay. Two options for me!
Linux = Learning through doing :shock: :? :D
The learning curve may be steep but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
You just have to pass the occasional oncoming train to get there.

User avatar
Springer
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue 22 Aug 2006, 16:25
Location: Austin, TX

#8 Post by Springer »

Joe/puppyfan12:

Thanks for the tip on XDG menus. I'm not opposed to two WMs as long as most users never have to know there is a choice, and that all the packages they install will work correctly regardless. I just got real tired of dealing with WM incompatibilities about 15 years ago, back when Motif was somewhat incompatible with itself...

User avatar
richard.a
Posts: 513
Joined: Tue 15 Aug 2006, 08:00
Location: Adelaide, South Australia

#9 Post by richard.a »

puppyfan12 wrote:I second that decision pizzasgood
Me too.

And maybe Pizza's final version of his splash screen if he's been able to look at it further?

;) :D

Have downloaded the Office version now, will attempt to burn and run it during the course of the day.

Richard in a very cool early morningl in Adelaide
[i]Have you noticed editing is always needed for the inevitable typos that weren't there when you hit the "post" button?[/i]

[img]http://micro-hard.dreamhosters.com/416434.png[/img]

User avatar
Lobster
Official Crustacean
Posts: 15522
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 06:06
Location: Paradox Realm
Contact:

Icewm + Jwm In Viz RC1

#10 Post by Lobster »

:D There was singing and dancing in the streets . . .

Puppy RC1 (Release Candidate 1) will use IceWM as default with JWM as the second Window manger

:D

RC1 will have Clear "Glass Icons", Blue Paw Background, Seamonkey 1.08 (compatibility with past and future Puppys and small size), Offline web page, all available fixes.

We are now moving towards feature set and reliability testing.
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

User avatar
Pizzasgood
Posts: 6183
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
Location: Knoxville, TN, USA

#11 Post by Pizzasgood »

Right click in a directory and choose" Xterm here" for one.
Actually, that's part of Rox, not the windowmanager. Newer Puppies use a newer version of Rox, and the right-click menu is a little different. The feature you mis is still there, just in the "window" submenu.

Also, you can just hit the back-quote key to do it. The old Rox used the 'x' key. With this one though, you can easily change it. Just hover the mouse over a menu option and press a key combination and it will set it. Nifty :)


@Richard: Sorry, I haven't had a chance to work on it yet. School got busy fast. This week, my priorities are my two exams, then porting Pizzapup to 2.14. Spring break is next week though, so then I want to spend break working on various things I've been putting off, like the splash, or getting Galaxy Mage running. I'll also be getting a Wacom Graphire4 (my birthday is the Ides), so I'll have to spend some time getting that running in Puppy. But the bootsplash is definately next on my list, as soon as I get Pizzapup 3.0.1 set up (I made a promise to have it out by St. Patrick's day, though that was before I realized I had a second exam this week). No worries though. I can get vast amounts done on Thursday and Friday night. Though the Wacom might distract me :twisted: Besides, that secon exam isn't too hard (it's computer science :lol: )
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]

User avatar
Billwho?
Posts: 559
Joined: Tue 06 Dec 2005, 09:28
Location: still "In The Dog House" East Coast Oz
Trialing 4.20

#12 Post by Billwho? »

Thanks Pizzasgood
I figured it was probably still there somewhere but I just hadn't found it in my2 1/2 hrs of playing with 215
Linux = Learning through doing :shock: :? :D
The learning curve may be steep but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
You just have to pass the occasional oncoming train to get there.

TonshA
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat 07 Oct 2006, 21:38

#13 Post by TonshA »

Oh Damn! Didn't read all of the options. Voted for IceWM, but should have voted for IceWm & JWM.

Sorry...

User avatar
Lobster
Official Crustacean
Posts: 15522
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 06:06
Location: Paradox Realm
Contact:

#14 Post by Lobster »

We will be using the very option you intended to vote for TonshA
You will see your graphic being used here (12 March 2007) as well as a link to Puppy Viz . . .
http://tmxxine.com/Wikka/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage

:D
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

User avatar
bostonvaulter
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed 27 Sep 2006, 03:41

#15 Post by bostonvaulter »

I voted for iceWm and Jwm also.

But I also think it would be nice if there was better support for Xfce. I'm using it right now without XDG support so I have to edit everything in by hand.

User avatar
Colonel Panic
Posts: 2171
Joined: Sat 16 Sep 2006, 11:09

#16 Post by Colonel Panic »

rarsa wrote:I am also on the IceWM + JWM camp.

I find that IceWM will be the favourite visually. I like it a lot but I find that configuring JWM is easier.

I vote for asking the user at first boot explaining that one is nicer to look at and the other better for older computers. (maybe only ask this if the computer has low memory or a slow processor)

Even if after a while people realize that the actual functionality of most WMs is fairly the same, still most people get their first perception of a distro based in their look and performance (not too ugly, not too slow).

For faster computers (faster than a tortoise it is) then the preformance diference is not preceptible so having IceWM as the default makes sense.

For slow computers there is a choice to be made between looks and performance, let the user decide.
I agree except that I don't think IceWM is that slow on most machines nowadays; Deli Linux utilises it as its default window manager and that's a distro intended exclusively for older computers. Maybe have IceWM as the default with JWM included as a "switch-to" option from the menu (IceWM allows switching to other WMs "on the fly").

User avatar
cb88
Posts: 1165
Joined: Mon 29 Jan 2007, 03:12
Location: USA
Contact:

#17 Post by cb88 »

rarsa wrote:
>I vote for asking the user at first boot explaining that one is nicer to look at and the other better for older
>computers. (maybe only ask this if the computer has low memory or a slow processor)

cb88
I like the idea, but IMHO puppy should never use minimaist questions which is some thing that loads of people strongly dislike about windows. Something like a list of installed window managers and a description of their features would be much better

IceWM: Stable Lightwieght Themeable Better looking
JWM: Better for older computers only basic themability
XFCE: Clean Mac-like? (I never really used it or a Mac)
ect...

Could puppy auto detect installed window managers or do the unleashed build scripts write a file that defines the window managers?
I have never used unleashed. Would this make adding/removing Wm from an official puppy or derivative easier?

User avatar
jason.b.c
Posts: 755
Joined: Wed 08 Feb 2006, 05:32
Location: Marshfield,MO
Contact:

#18 Post by jason.b.c »

This one is interesting...

http://ozonegui.net/
Puppy is Awesome..!!!!
[url=http://www.puppylinux.com/][img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img][/url]

User avatar
rarsa
Posts: 3053
Joined: Sun 29 May 2005, 20:30
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

#19 Post by rarsa »

bostonvaulter wrote:Xfce... I'm using it right now without XDG support.
Why? I've provided support for Xfce. you just need to install it.
[url]http://rarsa.blogspot.com[/url] Covering my eclectic thoughts
[url]http://www.kwlug.org/blog/48[/url] Covering my Linux How-to

User avatar
bostonvaulter
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed 27 Sep 2006, 03:41

#20 Post by bostonvaulter »

well i installed the base from
http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups ... 2-base.pup

and then i installed the xdg files from here.
http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups ... 7.6.tar.gz

and when i run fixmenus it only updates jwm and icewm. Am i missing something?

Post Reply