Thursday, May 19, 2005

Linux Window Managers: The Little Sister Test

The 'putting Debian on little sister's computer' experiment continues, as I still haven't come across a Windows CD.

The default window manager, like I said, is the whole GNOME environment, which is overkill for pretty much anyone as far as I can tell, and especially for a computer with 64MB of RAM. (Upgrades not easily to come by for SIMM RAM) It would run, but barely, and don't even think of running another program on top of that. (The fact that your browser choice are the big fat Mozilla or Konqueror and all the KDE stuff that gets loaded with it doesn't help matters.)

So I needed a window manager that gave just enough of a normal computer's functionality that my little sister could use it without having to edit config files.
GNOME

Usable, familiar way of interating with the file manager, start menu and desktop icons. Memory hog of the first order. Rejected, sadly, since it's Linux's best hope.

IceWM

Lean and fast.. mostly because it doesn't seem to do anything. You can't add items to the panel without editing a config file that doesn't even exist in your home directory after installation. Did a good job of loking like Windows and acting absolutely nothing like it. Rejected.

WindowMaker

Quite configurable, reasonably fast. The NeXT-ish docks were a novelty for me and a bizzarre anachronism for Lynn. Dragging items to the dock didn't work, nor did trying to create icons on the desktop. Most programs had to be accessed by right-clicking on the desktop. Too Unixy-and-proud-of-t. Rejected.

XFCE

I think we have a winner. Fast as hell, knows what people expect from a windowing environment these days. No desktop icons but the panel was easy enough to use. I'll keep that on there for now and see how it works out but it seems to be the only window manager I've seen so far that has its head in the right place.


Other Linux notes:
  • Switched from aMSN to GAIM, mostly for speed but also aMSN has this nasty habig of popping up windows whenever someone just clicks on your name. Annoying as hell, deselecting the obvious preferences option didn't stop it, and since the program is slow as molassis one was forever closing windows and waiting for them to go away. GAIM, on the other hand, is much more civilized.

  • Mozilla Suite doesn't use much more memory or resources than Firefox. I'm wondering what all the fuss is about

  • Setting up sound in Linux is still ridiculous. Why do I still need to fight with isapnp? Hasn't someone written a script to configure an AWE32 by now?

  • The design of XMMS (winamp junior) is familiar but still bad. Is there an iTunes clone for Linux? Or is that too mainstream?


More later, unless I can find a Windows 98 CD, that is.

By al - 12:13 p.m. |

Comments:
So...
(1) why was GNOME rejected?
(2) I think you want Ubuntu, not Debian, if you're complaining about isapnp and friends. It is time to move into a distro that has had a release this century :)
(3) you could look at rhythmbox or muine for xmms replacements.
# Posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 3:24 p.m., May 19, 2005
 
I did try IceWM on my Mandrake box. It's really fast, but like you said, it doesn't do much of anything.

Mandrake doesn't have XFCE. Though it should be on my laptop with Fedora Core 3. I should try that out.

I still like GNOME for how configurable it is. Yeah, it still a memory hog and slow as hell on a PIII-450.

I was wondering why I got these aMSN windows appearing on me all the time. I should write a patch for that as it is annoying. . . when I have free time that is. Haven't noticed that aMSN is slow. I find it slow to load up, but I figured it was just GNOME. Load up time was pretty decent back when I was running MDK 8.1.

I think the soundcard thing is a Debian quirk. I haven't had a problem with soundcards on the other distros I've tried.

There are newer media players. Fedora Core has something called Helix player, though I haven't tried it. I usually stick with xmms because I know it works, I hide the app on another workspace and control playback via the hotkeys on my keyboard. . . what ugly interface?

BTW, I do have a Windows 98 SE CD. But I think it's more fun having you install Linux.
# Posted by Blogger Ming : 3:34 p.m., May 19, 2005
 
I picked Debian because I had the CD lying around and for no other reason. I'm also a little more familiar with straight debian from dealing with servers in various places.

The desktop Linux experience is something I haven't had the pleasure of in about 3 years, now.

My sound troubles are my continued troubles with Alsa, which I've never gotten to work right. I'll likely just go find the kernel driver adn do it the old-fashioned way.
# Posted by Blogger al : 4:09 p.m., May 19, 2005
 
No, no! Grab an ubuntu CD (they'll even ship you one for free), and you'll be able to apply all your debian knowledge, but with an installer that doesn't suck and should Just Work on your hardware. Trust me :)
# Posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 4:22 p.m., May 19, 2005
 
OK, I'll give Ubuntu a try, but it better come on one CD and have sound work out of the box.

Debian Sarge's installer was actually a lot nicer than previous versions', and though it wasn't graphical like all software is supposed to be, I actually preferred it since it was faster.
# Posted by Blogger al : 4:53 p.m., May 19, 2005
 
I use rhythmbox in xmms. It is designed similarly to itunes.
# Posted by Blogger Trey : 11:01 p.m., May 19, 2005
 
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