Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Window Maker 0.95.8 released

windowmaker.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 94 posts

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#11

Post by laumars »

digi_owl wrote: post #7
badminton1 wrote: post #5

Window Maker is great, inspired on NeXTSTEP. On Windows there is LiteStep which is free and fully customizable. Makes Windows more palatable.

But then Windows was never really designed to handle anything but explorer.exe as its "WM".

Windows 95 and 98 worked pretty well with alternative shells. I think originally the option was there just so users could run the classic 3.x shell (progman.exe I think it was called) but it was pretty trivial to write you own ones; as I often did when I was bored.

You couldn't do much to change the title bars et al though.

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#13

Post by mixedbit »

Window Maker was my first encounter with virtual desktops and since I started using it I can no longer imagine working efficiently without virtual desktops. Was Window Maker the first manager that had virtual desktops?

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#14

Post by peller »

preid24 wrote: post #10
digi_owl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then Windows was never really designed to handle anything but explorer.exe as its "WM".

That's my worry with Wayland. Everything will be designed around GNOME and KDE and it will be difficult to run "alternative" WMs.

I don't think this is anymore a valid concern. From the Wayland FAQ:

"How can I replace Wayland's Window Manager?

The Wayland architecture integrates the display server, window manager and compositor into one process. You can think of Wayland as a toolkit for creating clients and compositors. It is not a specific single compositor or window manager. If you want a different window manager, you can write a new one. A 'libweston' effort is underway in order to allow new environments to reuse Weston's codebase and mechanics, whilst providing their own look and feel."

And here's a list of "alternative" WMs already in progress for Wayland/Weston: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wayland#Window_managers...

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#15

Post by vertex-four »

preid24 wrote: post #10
digi_owl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then Windows was never really designed to handle anything but explorer.exe as its "WM".

That's my worry with Wayland. Everything will be designed around GNOME and KDE and it will be difficult to run "alternative" WMs.

There's a handful of Wayland compositor frameworks - including one built by the KDE project - and Weston provides an interface by which custom UIs can be created. I don't think there's going to be much of an issue, aside from potential problems with the spec itself.

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#16

Post by mavhc »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #4
michel-slm wrote: post #2

Feeling nostalgic ... Window Maker was my window manager of choice per year (up to the GNOME 1 days when it was still easy to run gnome-panel on top of WM). The NeXTSTEP way in which menus can be triggered by right-clicking is really usable - I only wish it's possible to attach the app menu bar as well. The global menu bar approach of macOS and GNOME can feel a bit ridiculous on large displays.

> I only wish it's possible to attach the app menu bar as well. The global menu bar approach of macOS and GNOME can feel a bit ridiculous on large displays. I personally disagree. It's still highly relevant to be able to "slam" the pointer upward to always land on the menu bar.

Problem is returning to where you came from again.

RISC OS has the best menus, just click the mouse button anywhere in the window, maximum Fitts score, and you can select menu items and keep the menu open to select more, also select a menu item that has a submenu, and have windows as submenus, for palette selection etc

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#17

Post by digi_owl »

peller wrote: post #14
preid24 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my worry with Wayland. Everything will be designed around GNOME and KDE and it will be difficult to run "alternative" WMs.

I don't think this is anymore a valid concern. From the Wayland FAQ: "How can I replace Wayland's Window Manager? The Wayland architecture integrates the display server, window manager and compositor into one process. You can think of Wayland as a toolkit for creating clients and compositors. It is not a specific single compositor or window manager. If you want a different window manager, you can write a new one. A '…

That leaves it up to the WM to allow or deny "accessories"...

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#18

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

digi_owl wrote: post #8
michel-slm wrote: post #2

Feeling nostalgic ... Window Maker was my window manager of choice per year (up to the GNOME 1 days when it was still easy to run gnome-panel on top of WM). The NeXTSTEP way in which menus can be triggered by right-clicking is really usable - I only wish it's possible to attach the app menu bar as well. The global menu bar approach of macOS and GNOME can feel a bit ridiculous on large displays.

> (up to the GNOME 1 days when it was still easy to run gnome-panel on top of WM) One more thing to mourn the loss of with Wayland i guess...

Why was this downvoted? Breaking backwards compatibility with every existing WM is legitimately a downside to Wayland.

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#19

Post by digi_owl »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #18
digi_owl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (up to the GNOME 1 days when it was still easy to run gnome-panel on top of WM) One more thing to mourn the loss of with Wayland i guess...

Why was this downvoted? Breaking backwards compatibility with every existing WM is legitimately a downside to Wayland.

Naysay the "future", get the downvote stick...

Re: Window Maker 0.95.8 released

#20

Post by antfarm »

mixedbit wrote: post #13

Window Maker was my first encounter with virtual desktops and since I started using it I can no longer imagine working efficiently without virtual desktops. Was Window Maker the first manager that had virtual desktops?

The first time I have seen virtual desktops was on a UNIX workstation running the FVWM window manager in 1995, a couple of years before Window Maker's inital release.
Post reply on HN