IceWM 2.0 – Ice Window Manager • Hacker News Board

I’ve always used IceWM because it was the default or forced upon me (flashbacks to my high school, which took CentOS 6 and replaced all the logos with the school’s mascot and changed the background picture so they could brand it as their custom Linux distro). Does anyone actually use it because they prefer it? If so, why?

Re: IceWM 2.0 – Ice Window Manager

#5

Post by rahimiali » Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 12:01 AM UTC

tux wrote: post #2

IceWM Screenshots Collection ( https://ice-wm.org/screenshots/ )

I see two instances of the rootcow in these sceeenshots. I had assumed rootcow was specifically a Berkeley thing circa the 90s. Was it a broader phenomenon?

Re: IceWM 2.0 – Ice Window Manager

#6

Post by Lammy » Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 12:03 AM UTC

rahimiali wrote: post #5

tux wrote: post #2

IceWM Screenshots Collection ( https://ice-wm.org/screenshots/ )

I see two instances of the rootcow in these sceeenshots. I had assumed rootcow was specifically a Berkeley thing circa the 90s. Was it a broader phenomenon?

I imagine that person's shell profile pipes fortune to cowsay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowsay

Re: IceWM 2.0 – Ice Window Manager

#7

Post by rahimiali » Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 12:07 AM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #6

rahimiali wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see two instances of the rootcow in these sceeenshots. I had assumed rootcow was specifically a Berkeley thing circa the 90s. Was it a broader phenomenon?

I imagine that person's shell profile pipes fortune to cowsay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowsay

Indeed the link to the archived web page from that wiki page confirms this originated in Berkeley (the link to tmonroe’s page). It’s nice to see that it made it widely.

Re: IceWM 2.0 – Ice Window Manager

#8

Post by ptx » Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 12:15 AM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #4

I’ve always used IceWM because it was the default or forced upon me (flashbacks to my high school, which took CentOS 6 and replaced all the logos with the school’s mascot and changed the background picture so they could brand it as their custom Linux distro). Does anyone actually use it because they prefer it? If so, why?

It has an OS/2 theme, which goes well with the DFM file manager. But it's been a long time since I last used it.

Re: IceWM 2.0 – Ice Window Manager

#9

Post by thom » Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 12:21 AM UTC

Having a very Obi-Wan "that's a name I've not heard in a long time" moment. I can't remember ever settling on IceWM at any point - in my early forays into Linux I always just used Blackbox, before using KDE until it got weird, and then just settling on Xfce and Wxfm because my needs are simple. I'd be interested to hear what it excels at?

Re: IceWM 2.0 – Ice Window Manager

#10

Post by mynegation » Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 12:23 AM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #4

I’ve always used IceWM because it was the default or forced upon me (flashbacks to my high school, which took CentOS 6 and replaced all the logos with the school’s mascot and changed the background picture so they could brand it as their custom Linux distro). Does anyone actually use it because they prefer it? If so, why?

I used it 20 years ago on SPARC Solaris as it was the easiest window manager to compile from the source and replace Solaris’ default CDE with it.