Re: [gentoo-user] Recommend a good replacement for XFCE?

[David Haller]

Hello,

On Fri, 23 Sep 2016, Grant Edwards wrote:
>Would anybody care to make a recommendation?

Ever checked out WindowMaker (x11-wm/windowmaker)? The default config
is quite clunky though, but there's many themes and stuff.

>The requirements are:
>
>  * simple and lightweight

Check. Without big bg-images probably < 5MB even on 64bit including
libs.

>  * support for multiple displays[1]

No idea about that. But, from 'man wmaker':

OPTIONS
       -display host:display.screen
              specify display to use. On multiheaded machines, Window
              Maker will automatically manage all screens. If you want
              Window Maker to manage only a specific screen, you must
              supply the screen number you want to have managed with
              the -display command line argument. For example, if you
              want Window Maker to manage only screen 1, start it as:
              wmaker -display :0.1

Never tried that though.

>  * support for multiple virtual desktops on each display (I
>    currently run 4 virtual desktops on each of 3 displays)
>  * must have focus-follows mouse and must be able disable
>    "raise-on-click"

Check, check.

>  * some sort of easily modifiable root-window menu that I can use to
>    start apps

Check. If I understand right, it's the right-click (configurable) menu
anywhere on the desktop itself. Or use a keyboard combo (easily
configurable), as you use xemacs, that should be no problem. If you
move the menu (or any sub-menu), you can "pull the (sub-)menu off" so
it becomes a window in its own right which stays open until you close
it (while you can open other (sub-)menus or whatnot).

>  * some sort of task-bar (auto-hide required)

Just middle-click (configurable) menu anywhere (or use a key-combo)
shows open windows. Autohide is implicit as it's a menu, but again,
it can be pulled off so it'll stay open if you want.

There's also the "App icons" (somewhat like a minified taskbar), I
think they can be disabled in the "Expert User Preferences" of the
config-tool.

>  * some sort toolbar OK (as long as it's auto-hide)

I guess that'd be the "Dock"...

The Dock has a "check" for "start when Window Maker is started", so I
guess ... I guess the Icons can be switched off too if you prefer a
panel/toolbar. But no auto-hide.

wmaker has '--no-clip' and '--no-dock' options, so you'd just get the
root-window plus the menus. Adding (auto-hiding) panel-apps / taskbars
should then be no problem.

But I'm not sure what you mean by root-window menu / task-bar /
toolbar.

>  * GTK-based strongly preferred -- I typically don't have Qt or any
>    KDE stuff installed, and have some custom-written GTK apps on
>    which I'm rather dependent.

Just plain X plus a couple smallish own libs:

$ ls -lh /usr/lib64/{libWINGs,libWUtil,libwraster}.so.?.?.? 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 495K Jul  6 04:27 /usr/lib64/libWINGs.so.3.1.0
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 144K Jul  6 04:27 /usr/lib64/libWUtil.so.5.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 143K Jul  6 04:27 /usr/lib64/libwraster.so.5.0.0

And those libs are unstripped, though that isn't much (439, 124, and
132kB, I just stripped copies in /tmp ;)

>  * I don't want a file manager, terminal emulator, or any other
>    bundled apps, so it would be nice if they were all optional,
>    separate ebuilds

Just the actual window manager, a config-tool and some small helpers
(e.g. wmclip, wmdock, wmsetbg).

>I don't want any storage auto-mounter, network manager, modem manager,
>or any of that sort of thing.  Anything with "manager" in the name is
>probably right out.

Neither do I :) As well as most anything with "Kit".

>All I want is something to run urxvt terminals and xemacs windows --

Same here (with (u)xterms ;).

>with maybe an instance of firefox, chrome, or wireshark.  I also
>occasionally run libreoffice or xfreerdp, but only under duress.
>
>I don't want any icons or folders or shortcuts or whatnot on the
>desktop.

Then WMaker seems fitting ;)

>I don't even need the ability to use an image as my desktop
>"wallpaper": all I want is a user-configurable sold color.

Easy to configure via the config tool.

>When I'm moving/resizing a window, all I want to see is a wireframe --
>I don't need a window's contents being re-rendered constantly as I
>move or resize it.

Got that. "Window Handling Preferences" -> "Opaque Move" (on/off)
plus "Miscellaneous Ergonomic Preferences" -> "Size
Display"/"Position Display" ...

>No fancy animation or translucency silliness.

You got that. IIRC the default has some frills you'd need to turn off.

But no fear, you need to do that only once, I did that in IIRC 2002 or
so with WMaker 0.65 and never touched that config ever again. I think
there was once some feature renamed or so, but you get that with
xemacs/mutt/tin as well.

So, IMO it's should be worth a look. But _do_ have a look through the
config-tool at the options (like the focus and moving stuff) and
ignore the UI-look, that can be tuned a lot, the default is rather
boring (but functional).

If I read and understood it right, WMaker should fit the bill, with a
bit of configuration and possibly some external apps like a
panel/taskbar/toolbar whatever.

Oh, and BTW: I guess you should enable all useflags except 'modelock'
and maybe 'imagemagick' and 'webp'.

Apart from that: LXDE comes to mind.

HTH,
-dnh

-- 
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