Window Manager For X

[ua549]

I just built a new workstation and need to load it with software.

What window manager for X do you use?

I have a big choice - Gnome, K, Window Maker, ...

What is the easiest one to configure and use?

This poll will close in 7 days.

.

.

[PDR60]

Always been partial to KDE. KDE 4.0 is pretty nice.

[ImaNihilist]

I can't stand KDE. Maybe I'm too much of a noob to appreciate it, but I just can't stand it. I've never been able to like it. It feels so dated and amateur to me, and I'm not exactly sure why.

KDE 4 is much improved, and I do like things like KRunner and some of the desktop effects, but at the end of the day everything else in KDE seems "too big." It makes me feel like I'm retarded or 5 years old and it's my first computer ever.

GNOME, on the other hand is bland and dull—and I like it. I've always liked the simplicity of say, the Windows 2000 desktop, and GNOME provides that with advanced features and better navigation.

[Remington]

Another vote for KDE, it just seems to flow better with me than gnome does.
I would definitely recommend either of those though, because the complete desktop is the way to go, individual window managers will disappoint unless you're a guru or something.

[James]

XFCE or Fluxbox/Blackbox. I like lightweight.

[PDR60]

XFCE or Fluxbox/Blackbox. I like lightweight.

I was going to suggest Fluxbox (Ran it long ago in Slackware) for a slim install. XFCE runs great on older systems as its pretty slim. I have an old Dell 233 MHz laptop that runs Puppy, DSL, and presently Xubuntu just fine. Total ram is only 256 on that box. I did "upgrade" the cpu to a 400MHz Celeron though. (a $2.50 ebay find.)

[ua549]

I don't worry about "slim" as my new workstation has 8 cores and 16GB memory and a 4TB RAID 5 array.

[PDR60]

I don't worry about "slim" as my new workstation has 8 cores and 16GB memory and a 4TB RAID 5 array.

With that kind of power you should load up ESX and have a couple dozen machines.....

[ua549]

I'm planning on using Jails and as a last resort (need Windows) I'll use VMware.

The idea here is to purchase as little software as possible because I spent $2,500 on the machine including all the peripherals.

[James]

I still recommend XFCE. It will get done everything that the other windows managers do, but with only about 1/3rd of the overhead. It's a very efficient and clean manager.

[PCJ]

I also really like Xfce. I don't really care about overhead at all (I run OSX on my main machine), but I just think Xfce looks the nicest. All of the other ones have absolutely dreadful typesetting and just look awful in general unless you spend ages configuring. Xfce looks decent enough in its default state.
OSX has spoiled me with Quartz and the nice looking fonts it creates

[ua549]

Since I have no preferences. I'll give XFCE a try.
Does it work on top of PuTTY on a Vista box?
FWIW I have not been able to get Xming to work on Vista.

BTW - Thanks James for the PuTTY tip. PuTTY work great in my environment.

[James]

I know that X Session forwarding over SSH is an option, but I am not sure if PuTTY supports it by default. I'll have to play with it a bit tonight when I get home.

[Nick_B]

Putty supports X forwarding just fine. The catch is, you have to have an X server. Xming is a free option (but UA said it doesn't work). I've used x-win32 and it does it's job (though it is commercial). I think it's on the order of around 200 bucks with more required if you want upgrades (I've never bought it--just used it at school). I'm also pretty sure you can run cygwin for the X manager. I don't know how well this does with Vista.

Xming would probably be the best bet if it would run.