Quoting "s. keeling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > No, I've borne the brunt of simply trying to use the supplied tools > ([xkg]dm, .xsession, .xinitrc, & etc.) and trying to change my desktop > from one of these monstrosities to another. They don't understand how > each other do things, so just saying (on the [xkg]dm login screen) > "Select $BLAH", and I end up with (maybe!) $BLAH, _plus_ various and > sundry other cruft from the old one still running.
I'm not quite sure what you think the problem is. It's very easy to hit a button in kdm or gdm and select the desktop/wm that you want to use. This is far easier that editing .xinitrc or whatever and executing a window manager/terminal/file manager, or whatever. On most of my systems I have gone through and played with all the different installed window managers without any problem. I think it's you're sentances full of $[VAR]iables that make it sound so confusing ;-). > As for where I've run into these things: SuSE 7.0 Professional, SuSE > 7.1 Personal, Libranet 2.0, Debian Woody/stable. None of those are > flakily designed distributions. I've asked about this in debian-user > and they agree. None of the monstrosities understand how the others > do it, and just dance around each other trying to stay out of each > other's way. They can't even do that much right. Granted Gnome applications should not launch the Gnome panel, but I would say that things like this are not the norm. I find that Gnome and KDE get along quite well for the most part, and I have never had problems running their respective programs under other window managers as well. One of the nice things is to be able to take components from the various desktops and make your own. Like running the Gnome-Panel without running Gnome. I once had a system that ran Enlightenment with gmc as the desktop and it worked quite well. > > into these problems? honestly, for MOST people having a display manager is > > > far easier for them and doesn't present anything resembing a problem. > > I agree, if they pick one and stick with it. Most people will have no reason to change the DM, only to change the desktop. That being said, I have switched between GDM, KDM, and XDM on a number of systems without any problems. > > > Add in KDE and Nautilus and you have a mess. > > > My advice: rip it out. Choose a window manager you can control. There are very few window managers that give you the same type of control as a desktop like KDE. If you want a minimalistic GUI then fine, but if you want a powerful GUI that can do more than launch an xterm and put a border around a window, then a DE is the way to go. Why would I use something like TWM when I had a better UI back in 1987? > No. By window manager, I mean "X Window Manager", as in twm, fvwm, > wm2, fluxbox, & etc. I can build my own damn desktop, with the apps I > want to run. I've been doing it since '93, and I never had much > trouble with Linux until kde and gnome arrived on the scene. They may > be perfect for dumbing down the interface to the point that Aunt Tilly > can use it. They're a lot like Wintendo's eye candy for me. Ever got > any useful information from a Windows Help file? Same thing. I'm not sure I see how a Windows Help file fits into all this. Making a better GUI is not just about making it easier for the masses to use. I prefer to work in a graphical environment, and it is nice to have DE's like KDE and Gnome that suit my needs. They are also easy to use, so someone like my GF can sit down at the computer and use it as well. Making something simple does not necessarily mean that it is less powerful. As my brother would say, what's the point of spending 2 hours editing config. files and compiling software when you can do it with a few clicks of the mouse. > When I started, I used fvwm. Everything was controlled by .fvwmrc. > Now I use fluxbox. To change anything, I edit ~/.fluxbox/init or > something. What file do I edit to tell Nautilus to go away and never > return? Which of the many .gnome-* directories contains the file that > controls what I want to change? Ditto for kde. Many of these things can be done through the GUI itself. Older versions of Nautilus had an option to use nautilus to draw the desktop. It can also be launched with the --no-desktop flag. You should also be able to go into the Gnome session manager and disable Nautilus from starting when Gnome starts up. Jesse _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
