Window managers...again

[tonybaldwin]

So, after using wmii (window manager improved) as my default window manager for several months, I find myself using OpenBox, again.

Of course, I use openbox without any desktop icon managers, panels, or other trappings, solely as a window manager, and not as a desktop environment (as is done with, for instance LXDE, a "lightweight" desktop environment which uses openbox as it's window manager). I do keep a small conky script running to display a clock and a few relevant system statistics (cpu/mem usage, running procs, network traffice, clock), but that's it.

Why?
I was having issues with my CPU usage getting ramped up beyond believe, and, when taking a look at running process, it looked as though, for every wmii tab, another instance of wmii was running. Of course, I don't blame wmii entirely for running up my CPU, since I was also running some rather heavy applications, such as OmegaT (translating for very large documents, while using directories chock full of large translation memories, glossaries, and dictionary files, etc.), and, Google Chrome (which, despite being a very nifty, and blazing fast browser, is rather memory heavy). But, I saw that there were numerous instance of wmii running, and killed them, and logged into openbox again.
Gosh...openbox is just so light and fast...seriously.
Now, I really, really dig the tiling feature of wmii and similar window managers, but, that can be achieved in openbox, using a nifty little program called (who'd have thunk it) "tile".

So, I find myself once more happily using openbox, which I've come back to time and again. I really like the ease of configuration, involving only editing a simple xml file.

It is quick and snappy, allows (via editing said rc.xml file) me to program in all of my own preferred keyboard shortcuts for my most used actions and programs, etc., and, I'll even admit, it's nice to have the program menu (rt-click on desktop) at my disposal. wmii offers not such menus. I right-clicked on my desktop once I logged into openbox, and found programs in the debian menu that I'd entirely forgotten I even had on my machine! That was a pleasant surprise.

So, while I still have many positive things to say about wmii, today I give two thumbs up to OpenBox.

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posted with Xpostulate

Comments

[dimitar]

Have you tried Awesome (http://awesome.naquadah.org/)? That's a seriously awesome WM, though I still haven't properly used (only used for like one day), because it takes some time to get used to it. It provides some great tiling support out of the box, and configuration with Lua, which is a whole scripting lanugage :)

[tonybaldwin]

I did try awesome, as well as dwm and xmonad.
All three had difficulty rendering java swing gui windows, for some reason, and my most used work application uses java swing.
I used Ion3 for well over a year, and only switched from there to wmii, because the creator (Tuomo) defected to the dark side (uggh...windows).
Ion3 also has configuration with lua. I liked Ion3 a lot, really.
I like wmii, too, and openbox. They're all good, really.
I just can't stand KDE (which I used for about 7 years) anymore.
When I first switched off KDE, I used fluxbox for about a year, then openbox for a short while, then Ion3, then openbox, briefly, then wmii, and now openbox again.
I've experimented with fvwm, jwm, icewm(blech), twm, pwm, xfce (not bad), and even enlightenment (didn't like it at all).
I have to say, Ion3 was probably my most favorite of all.
There's a project to fork it, now (called "notion"...pretty cool, ie NOT ION).

[dimitar]

Yeah I know about the Java bug, it's easily fixable (see http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Problems_with_Java), but then you're stuck with the motif theme.
KDE really sucks in my opinion (even though I haven't used it much). I'm on GNOME, and it's all cool but I'm really getting tired of manually tiling the windows. That would be the only reason why I'd change to something different.

[tonybaldwin]

I just don't like or want to use a "Desktop Environment/DE", which is what KDE< Gnome, LXDE, XFCE, etc., all are.
I don't want software that's going to hold my hand and make decisions for me, which is why I like a more stripped down window manager only approach. Also, there's the wasting of system resources. Desktop environments tend to run a lot of crap in the background that I don't want or need running, simply wasting system resources that I'd rather be using for the rather resource intensive translation work I do.

I think gnome and kde are both bloated, but gnome not nearly so much so as KDE which has become absolutely nauseating. I don't need icons on my desktop or flashing, spinning animations. I need to be able to work.

Wmii really does everything I like, for the most part, although Ion3 did have some additional features that were handy.
Openbox is good, but, of course, tiling is managed with a "third party" app.