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Window Managers vs. KDE
© Copyright Darrell Anderson.
After some long and tiring surfing I decided that the only possible contenders for a window manager were Fluxbox and Openbox. Fluxbox comes packaged with Slackware and after some additional reading, I decided to at least start the manager and eyeball things.
Startup was quick, as expected, and the first thing I needed to do was configure my mouse for left-handed usage. Oh, how I grow so weary of having to always do this. I saw no obvious way to do this from a configuration tool, so I opened an xterm and typed xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1 4 5" and then my mouse was fine. I next created an .Xmodmap file in my home directory to make that change permanent. After testing that change, because I am the sole user of my boxes, I moved that file to /etc/X11/xinit/Xmodmap. I edited .xinitrc to ensure that the correct file was loaded.
Having no “Start” button on the task bar is different, but I think I can adapt to having the system menu available anywhere I click on the desktop. I do admit that having to traverse the entire desktop to access the system menu is a drag.
I always have disliked short chubby task bars. I prefer a task bar that stretches across my desktop. Sorry if that sounds rather Windows-ish, but then again, no, I will not apologize. That is what I am familiar with and what I like. Intuitively I learned to use the mouse to widen the task bar to full width across my desktop. So between that exercise and the mouse I was off to a good start. Unfortunately, like so much with the stock Slackware, the system menus are unmodified and many of the menu items need editing to the overall Slackware installation. I expected the menu at least to be packaged to match the stock Slackware. Not so and I’ll learn to edit the menu some other day. For now I can see that a raw window manager provides the kind of desktop speed I expect and witness in NT4.
I tested opening Firefox and the load time was faster than in KDE and about the same as in Windows. I was not connected to the net to test anything else.
Thus far I have a system menu and a task bar. I know from my surfing session that Fluxbox supports mapping hotkeys. I know I can configure the task bar clock format. Although I am unfamiliar, I know I can configure X for a white mouse pointer through the X config files. Eventually I will learn this secret. But this feeble beginning raises many questions.
- A consistent look-and-feel. That is one of the appealing elements about KDE — everything looks the same and everything works the same. Similarly in Windows. But with only a window manager approach, I am on my own to create that consistency. That bothers me. If I use too many KDE apps, then I might as well use KDE. GTK apps have a wide selection of options to help me maintain consistency, but I detest the file picker dialog boxes.
- Related to look-and-feel is themes. I never have played the themes game in any environment or application, but the default Fluxbox packaged themes leave much to be desired. I hope I find something more to my taste.
- Application window placement, size, and memory. Does Fluxbox allow me to configure window placement? Xfce did not. Some apps I want to open maximized, some not maximized but placed at a particular spot and size on the desktop. Can Fluxbox do this?
- I need a Konsole replacement. I like Konsole and the only non-KDE multi-tabbed terminal I have read about is mrxvt. I will have to download a Slackware package and test.
- I need a GUI file manager replacement. Konqueror is a good file manager. I only wish embedded previews were disabled and that Konqueror was not a multi-tasking tool. That would make Konqueror faster. Regardless, how to replace? Midnight Commander is not my ideal solution. I am not happy with Thunar, although that tool might be a good option a few revisions from today. I never have used Rox filer and all the screen captures I have seen and descriptions I have read lead me toward thinking that I will not be happy with Rox. Nautilus probably is overkill.
- A web browser. I suppose I am stuck with Firefox. Then again, I wonder whether I can find an Epiphany package for Slackware. Epiphany is a Gecko web browser but unlike Firefox and the awful XUL interface, is written with native GTK libraries. That translates into being faster and more responsive. But will Epiphany do all that I currently do with Firefox? I don’t know.
- A GUI text editor. In Windows I use two editors, EditPad and EditPad Plus. In KDE I use KEdit and Kate. Kate is rather flexible, but admittedly a tad sluggish on my boxes. For a GUI text editor I prefer a multiple document interface (MDI), but I’ll settle for a tabbed design. For a simple text editor I do not need anything fancy and perhaps the Xfce mousepad will do. For shell programming I need syntax highlighting. Perhaps gedit or geany will do.
- Easy screen captures. In Windows, KDE, and although untested by me — GNOME, screen captures are built into the existing keymap. Simply press Print Screen or Alt Print Screen and the image is placed into the clipboard. How do I map screen captures to the familiar Print Screen key? I’ve read some of the clunky work-arounds using GIMP, ImageMagik, and the like—no thanks. Just a simple keyboard solution will do.
- With a simple window manager, does a global clipboard exist? I’m referring to a system-wide ability to copy and paste from one app to another. Not the age-old mouse trick of using the middle mouse button, but the basic familiar GUI tricks of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V. I do not need a clipboard stack or buffer like the KDE Klipper, just a simple one-shot clipboard.
- An email client. I will not use Thunderbird. KMail is a KDE app. That seems to leave Evolution or Slypheed, neither of which am I familiar. Perhaps I should keep using Eudora 5.1 in WINE.
- I need GTK replacements for the following KDE apps: 1) KLinkStatus, 2) KFileReplace, 3) Kompare, 4) KPDF Viewer, 5) KolourPaint, 6) KSnapshot, 7) KColorChooser, 8) KGet, 9) KCron, 10) KUser, 11) Konqueror in super user mode, 12) KwikDisk.
- Basic system event sounds. Just some basic sounds for system start and end, window closing, system default beep, exclamations, questions, and critical stops (bombs). Are system event sounds even possible with a simple window manager?
- Lastly, but the most important, a word processor. Frankly, I have dismissed Abiword and OpenOffice Writer as not worth my time. The OpenOffice people alienated me when they stopped supporting NT4. Abiword is a decent low-end word processor, but cannot replace my existing Word 97 environment. KWord is useless to me. I’m not embarrassed by my preference for Word 97. That means I need to install and perfect a WINE environment so I can continue using Word 97.
And so my journey continues.
Finis.
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