Re: The Distribution

[Kai Wetzel <k.wetzel@welfen-netz.com>]

Rick Jones wrote:
> George Bonser wrote:
> > On Mon, 19 Jan 1998, Rick Jones wrote:
[...]
> > So far from what I have seen in the /etc area, fvwm2 seems to be the most
> > extensible and the most easilly auto-updated and the most easilly
> > customized. The dotfile generator also allows user configuration.
> 
> Take a look at Afterstep, WindowMaker, and Enlightenment.
> 
> > See above.  I am not against anything but I truely feel that the fvwm2
> > package is currently our best option.
[...]
> The last call is for the *installation wm* not the *main wm*.  WM2 will
> be replaced by whatever the main is decided to be upon completion of
> installation.  I chose it because it's footprint is less than 53k while
> the others are many times more, yet it presents a fair display which can
> be enhanced with a background jpg, and looks nothing like Windoze.  It's
> the bare minimum, which is exactly what we want for the install process.

I think it depends on whether we want to try to fit
kernel + X + wm on one disk or whether we want to
load X from CD.  If we go for the latter a small
disk footprint isn't as important.
 
> I'm still researching choices for the *main* window manager.
> 
>         Enlightenment, WindowMaker, Afterstep, FVWM2
> 
> are the choices I'm looking at, in order of current preference.

Well, while I think including Enlightenment as an option
and insuring that it's configurable with the menufile stuff
is a good idea, I don't think it's a good idea to make it
the default window manager:  it's resource hungry and thus
a little too slow on older machines and it's most interesting
themes are a little too strange to make a nice impression
for a majority of users.  I think the first point is the most
important one, though.
 
> There are pro's and con's to each of them. I think that when that WM
> opens in front of them for the first time, it should blow their mind.
[...]

Hmm, I don't think a default window manager should blow
anyone's mind.  But I agree that e is impressive and will
probably be used by many peole at least from time to time.

kai