Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

PackRat · 2019-09-09 19:15:38

MALsPA wrote:

What really helped me most with Fluxbox was its manpage. For anyone who's interested in that WM, I'd definitely suggest taking advantage of man fluxbox.

Fluxbox has several man pages (fluxbox-keys, fluxbox-apps ...) they are listed at the end of the main fluxbox man page; all worth a read.

Last edited by PackRat (2019-09-09 19:16:43)

smitty_vanilli · 2019-09-09 19:30:28

@brontosaurusrex: Shortcuts for DWM? I've found shortcuts here:
https://gist.github.com/elgast/d3cc412c1042c9e65dde

and here:
https://dwm.suckless.org/tutorial/

as well as their main site about DWM:
https://dwm.suckless.org/

and even one with a pretty good commentary:
https://ratfactor.com/slackware/dwm/

@bigbenaugust: I will definitely bookmark this and check your config out when I start learning it!

@brontosaurusrex: If you know how to develop WMs, I would say start a project!

About developing window managers (a bit dated, but I feel it's still relevant):
https://jichu4n.com/posts/how-x-window- … ne-part-i/
https://jichu4n.com/posts/how-x-window- … e-part-ii/
https://jichu4n.com/posts/how-x-window- … -part-iii/

About someone's experience writing a WM:
https://www.uninformativ.de/blog/postin … NG-en.html

I love the option of all these WMs and how Linux gives you choices. For some, they may get overwhelmed if introduced as a newbie. However, for those hungry and wanting productivity, I think WMs can work better for workflow if you learn how they work and that's just my opinion!

Last edited by smitty_vanilli (2019-09-09 19:40:43)

DeepDayze · 2019-09-09 20:23:46

Basically picking the right WM for your workflow is a good thing and there's lots of choices from the real lightweight ones to the heavyweights like KDE and GNOME.

brontosaurusrex · 2019-09-09 20:25:15

@smitty_vanilli; bookmarked, looks like an interesting read. (Of course I'am not even remotely capable of such endeavor.)

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2019-09-09 20:31:33)

MALsPa · 2019-09-09 20:48:06

smitty_vanilli wrote:

How does Tint2 compare to something like Conky?

tint2 is a panel, conky is not.

vasa1 · 2019-09-10 02:17:01

DeepDayze wrote:

Basically picking the right WM for your workflow is a good thing and there's lots of choices from the real lightweight ones to the heavyweights like KDE and GNOME.

I'm nit-picking here but it's "KWin" as opposed to "KDE" and KWin can be installed separately (of course with numerous dependencies) in a system other than KDE Plasma. On the other hand, GNOME's wm (mutter?) seems to be baked into GNOME or gnome-shell or whatever) much like the Adwaita gtk theme.

IIRC, the LXQt people were in talks with the KWin people to reduce the number of KWin's dependencies so that LXQt could use KWin instead of Openbox given that Wayland is somewhere in the future. But I think the LXQt team has decided to stay with Openbox in the short term and then move to something else (Sway?).

johnraff · 2019-09-10 02:26:58

vasa1 wrote:

IIRC, the LXQt people were in talks with the KWin people to reduce the number of KWin's dependencies so that LXQt could use KWin instead of Openbox given that Wayland is somewhere in the future.

That would have been a very interesting example for us at BL too. Pity if it didn't work out.

smitty_vanilli · 2019-09-10 13:13:07

@DeepDayze: It seems the way I prefer to go is lightweight and it looks like a lot of people seem to like i3 most from the following Reddit link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions … ht_window/

A post there mentions it as a "gateway drug" to other WMs and it makes me wonder about that user! I don't respect any illegal drugs, but I understand he / she was using a terminology and I would rather say it is simply a "gateway" to other WMs, however some people just stick with i3 period it seems (i.e. or i3 along with other technologies). And I believe it simply has great documentation.

@brontosaurusrex: Programming, if you're good with logic, is not too hard and mostly takes time and desire to learn! Well, I say that haven taken a programming course. I could of easily read books on the programming materials and asked the questions online, if I had known later, however I also "have a piece of paper" for proof. Yipee! *laughs*

@MALsPa: Thanks for the clarification!

Are tiling window managers the most lightweight out of them all? Here is a list I've found that has quite some nice screenshots and descriptions of the WMs (i.e. Keeping in mind that best is always relative to that person's viewpoint):
https://www.tecmint.com/best-tiling-win … for-linux/

I suppose many of the screenshots are for those who prefer command line workflow. What you don't see is their workspace setups! The might have some workspaces that have their web browser / gui setups.

Also, has anyone worked in QTile before?

Last edited by smitty_vanilli (2019-09-10 13:17:38)

PackRat · 2019-09-10 13:47:09

Are tiling window managers the most lightweight out of them all?

Not necessarily; if you run a status bar with a lot of widgets (or conky) the memory use can be similar to a lightweight wm like openbox. But out of the box they tend to be lighter on resources.

Also, has anyone worked in QTile before?

Yes, it's pretty nice - but note the memory use in that screen shot; not the lightest on resources of tiling wm's. If you know python, you can get some really nice setups.

Note in your link, jwm is not a tiling window manager, and tmux is a terminal multiplexser. So tmux only works in the terminal running tmux and won't imapct any other open windows. I think tilix is the same way.

bigbenaugust · 2019-09-10 14:00:44

For non-tiling, I am a big fan of jwm. It uses a single config file, has its own taskbar, and is more straightforward than some.

damo · 2019-09-10 16:16:25

FWIW you can set up Openbox to tile windows using keybinds and/or scripting.

ohnonot · 2019-09-10 18:36:56

damo wrote:

For example, this makes for some interesting reading: Windowmanagers - a slow marathon with breaks

I started that a while ago.
Then my server crashed and only three of the four articles survived.
Plus the general introduction, which might actually answer one of your questions from post #1: HOW do you keep several WMs installed, and use them: that script snippet.
I am unlikely to continue the "slow marathon" anytime soon - there always seems to be something more important to do - like fiddling with gkrellm2 8)

MALsPa · 2019-09-10 21:24:28

smitty_vanilli wrote:

Off topic, multiple windows managers are something I would love to experience and learn, including many tiling window managers. *smiles*

Just dive in, you'll be fine.

ohnonot · 2019-09-12 17:48:15

BTW, blackbox just got an update
https://github.com/bbidulock/blackboxwm

DeepDayze · 2019-09-12 18:40:54

bigbenaugust wrote:

For non-tiling, I am a big fan of jwm. It uses a single config file, has its own taskbar, and is more straightforward than some.

Yes the jwm config file is pretty straightforward and easy to manage. Only thing is that JWM doesn't really handle transparency very well. Even getting tint2 and conky to work with it was a bt of a pain.

For simple use cases JWM is nice.

Last edited by DeepDayze (2019-09-12 18:41:48)

bigbenaugust · 2019-09-12 18:45:13

DeepDayze wrote:

bigbenaugust wrote:
For non-tiling, I am a big fan of jwm. It uses a single config file, has its own taskbar, and is more straightforward than some.
Yes the jwm config file is pretty straightforward and easy to manage. Only thing is that JWM doesn't really handle transparency very well. Even getting tint2 and conky to work with it was a bt of a pain.
For simple use cases JWM is nice.

Yes, I went from JWM to Awesome when I realized I wanted insta-tiling of terminal windows. But Awesome is not 100% EWMH compliant, IIRC, so one does run into a little weirdness now and then, but it's minimal.

ohnonot · 2019-09-14 08:14:26

DeepDayze wrote:

Yes the jwm config file is pretty straightforward and easy to manage. Only thing is that JWM doesn't really handle transparency very well. Even getting tint2 and conky to work with it was a bt of a pain.

Does JWM manage the desktop?
Or how exactly does it not handle transparency very well? You mean compositing? That's not required for conky & tint2.

#21 2019-09-09 19:15:38

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#22 2019-09-09 19:30:28

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#23 2019-09-09 20:23:46

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#24 2019-09-09 20:25:15

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#25 2019-09-09 20:48:06

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#26 2019-09-10 02:17:01

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#27 2019-09-10 02:26:58

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#28 2019-09-10 13:13:07

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#29 2019-09-10 13:47:09

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#30 2019-09-10 14:00:44

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#31 2019-09-10 16:16:25

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#32 2019-09-10 18:36:56

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#33 2019-09-10 21:24:28

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#34 2019-09-12 17:48:15

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#35 2019-09-12 18:40:54

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

#36 2019-09-12 18:45:13

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#37 2019-09-14 08:14:26

Re: Is it it possible to install multiple window managers?

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