What desktop/window manager do you use?

[confuseling]

Well, there are simple tiling window managers. Bluetile, a fork (or perhaps an inbuilt variant configuration... not sure) of xmonad, is supposed to be pretty simple, though I've never used it.

Musca is also very nice as an introduction, though I've no idea if you can persuade it to run on Debian.

That said, you *really* don't need any more than the cheatsheet to get started. Configuration of something like xmonad can be complex (though even then, the user community is exemplary in its helpfulness), but actually using it isn't - confusing, yes, until it 'clicks', but not complicated.

This page tells you most of it...

http://xmonad.org/tour.html

[dmhdlr]

There is - they save much time and screen space (although I'm sure you can configure minimal stacking window managers to not waste screen space, you can't arrange things as quickly in them).

I wouldn't say once you've used them you'll never go back - I still use both. But I would say that if you have your head around how a tiling one works, and know the keyboard shortcuts instinctively (they do tend to be very keyboard driven), it's extremely efficient.

The whole l33t thing... Meh. Some people who think they're immensely cool for using them use them, but that doesn't mean all people who use them do so because it makes them feel cool. You could say much the same about Linux...

That said, there is something to be said for elegance. You can know a program is designed beautifully, and derive more pleasure from using it - as irrational as it may be - because of that. xmonad strikes me as elegant, partly because of its almost 'stark' simplicity.

Thanks for response. Yeah, you can't say I'm using Linux because I'm a pragmatist. I was taking a look at screencasts of xmonad, and elegant seems a good way to describe it. I think I'll eventually give something like that a try. I am easily distracted and if I keep my hand away from the mouse I might be less inclined to waste time on the intertubes, and spend more time on my keyboard where the real work happens.

[knarf]

I'd like to see a tiling window manager that has user-friendly stuff like titlebars, buttons, etc. Perhaps something a bit like the window management in Windows 1, but with more modern features.

You can get that with a bit of configuring^Wprogramming in Xmonad. It also supports both tiling as well as stacking modes, in any reasonable combination.

STORA SNOPPAR

So you know (some) Swedish, ey?

[regular]

Enlightenment E17 And recommend it.

[vrkalak]

Normally, I am an Xfce fanatic . . .

But, I really like Openbox WM with no desktop environment.

A straight Openbox is ... light on resources, highly customizable and very fast.

[dust hill resident]

STORA SNOPPAR

So you know (some) Swedish, ey?

I do. Not very much, but it still comes in handy.

[vrkalak]

First of all, I just bought more RAM for my ancient Gateway (7-8 years old) laptop ... had only 182 Mb of RAM and upgraded to 2Gb RAM. Doesn't even seem like the same machine.

Now, I built a vanilla Debian from a net.install ... then, added the new Xfce-4.8 on it.

Updated the Linux Kernel to 2.6.36.2 and then Debian 'testing' sources.list

I love what the Xfce-Devs have done with the Xfce-4.8 panel.

[Barcelona_DEB]

First of all, I just bought more RAM for my ancient Gateway (7-8 years old) laptop ... had only 182 Mb of RAM and upgraded to 2Gb RAM. Doesn't even seem like the same machine.

Now, I built a vanilla Debian from a net.install ... then, added the new Xfce-4.8 on it.

Updated the Linux Kernel to 2.6.36.2 and then Debian 'testing' sources.list

I love what the Xfce-Devs have done with the Xfce-4.8 panel.

What they have done with the panel ?

[samwyse]

I'm a long time KDE3 user currently running Trinity Desktop. Other ones frustrate me fast.

[demosthenese]

Surprised at how popular Xfce is becoming. 4.8 has given a lot of improvements and a bit of polish.

[Tadeas]

I'm a long time KDE3 user currently running Trinity Desktop. Other ones frustrate me fast.

Trinity? How well does it work? How does it compare to KDE 3? Does it have all the features with reasonably small amount of bugs?

I only ask out of curiosity. I've read about Trinity when it was started and I've thought it's an utopy, that it will take many, many years to mature. But I hope I was wrong .

[Piter_]

awesome wm

[rokytnji]

Icewm and Fluxbox.

[samwyse]

I'm a long time KDE3 user currently running Trinity Desktop. Other ones frustrate me fast.

Trinity? How well does it work? How does it compare to KDE 3? Does it have all the features with reasonably small amount of bugs?

I only ask out of curiosity. I've read about Trinity when it was started and I've thought it's an utopy, that it will take many, many years to mature. But I hope I was wrong .

It's got some updates and some new problems compared to Lenny KDE 3.5. Nothing major though. You must configure sudo if you want to launch stuff in administrator mode (like synaptic from the k-menu). Also installing KDE4 stuff will mess things up a bit, Nepomuk starts when running Trinity and menu icons disappear. I just decided to avoid everything KDE4.

[Anzhr]

Surprised at how popular Xfce is becoming. 4.8 has given a lot of improvements and a bit of polish.

That's true.

But since GNOME Shell and disUnity are both such unfriendly departures from GNOME 2, Xfce is the logical choice for people who want to continue their work-flow.

[shapeshifter]

Squeeze with Gnome2 (gdm3 + some stuff, not the full install). XFCE 4.8 looks interesting. Tried Openbox a little bit. Nice, too.

[dust hill resident]

Since this poll gives people the ability to change their vote, it'll be interesting to see how things change a year or so later, once GNOME 2 has been obsoleted.

[Anzhr]

Can I vote for Xfce twice?


_______
/kidding

[gramur]

Been using Enlightenment 17 for almost two years now with no complaints.

[mvdan]

Using Fluxbox in Debian sid