Re: Alternatives to Metacity?

On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 11:24, Kurt wrote:
> > Metacity documentation could use some cleanup - things aren't as bad as
> > they seem.  On the plus side, Metacity uses GTK2 so it no only responds
> > to UI changes in Gnome-2, but it means that Accessibility and other
> > features are part of the Window Manager.
> 
> Documentation? From my point of view Metacity came out of nowhere, and
> now, suddenly, it is not only the default window manager, it is now
> difficult for the average user to switch to a different one. Newbies
> just switching to Linux will not even know that they are available.

Metacity has been in development since before Gnome-2 was released.  I
trifled with it off an on from an early point switching between sawfish
and metacity until metacity's limited feature set was enough, and
metacity was so much faster that sawfish wasn't worth it (for me).

Metacity was developed to scratch an itch, and it turns out there were
quite a few people itching.  Sawfish totally lacked support, and people
yearned for a windows manager they could contribute too.  Metacity was
in the right place and time to fill the niche.

Switching between windows managers should be easy.  Metacity supports
the ICCCM --replace flag which "will exit if another WM claims it, and
can claim it from another WM if you pass [it]"  so if other windows
managers support this (and they should -
http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/wm-spec/) then switching desktop
shouldn't be a problem. Of course, a nice tool for this would be, well,
nice. ;-]

> > You could also write you're own WM for Gnome-2, is you would like.
> 
> Yes, I guess I could, I can even write a script or caplet to switch my
> desktop window manager for me. I have been taken a bit aback by just how
> suddenly Metacity has been adopted and the others apparently tossed
> aside.

Yeah, it was a little sudden, but as the initial release of Gnome-2.0.0
come up, developers started to realize just how hard getting changes to
sawfish was.  There was some talk of dropping sawfish at that time, but
metacity wasn't ready.
> > 
> > Gnome has never been reliant on a single WM, or at least not for some
> > time.  Any WM can be made gnome compliant and there's no guarantee that
> > metacity will remain the default.  Time will tell.
> 
> I am not as hostile toward Metacity as I might seem. If Linux is to
> survive it will undoubtedly need to make some more hard decisions that
> will lob off some or other nice piece in favor of the greater
> advancement toward world domination. I just think it would be nice for
> the commercial distributions to make the transition a little less harsh
> and at least include window manager selection utility, even if it is
> tucked away somewhere a naive user is not likely to find it.

I didn't get the feeling you were hostile towards metacity - I just
assumed you were wanting answers ;-]

It would be nice to have more choice (isn't this what Open Source is
about to some degree?).  However, sawfish is a DEAD end, so until
someone steps up to the plate with a alternative, choice is going to be
limited.

> > > Anyone with profound insight to the Linux desktop wars please fill me
> > > in.
> > 
> > No profound insight, just a little time listening to chatter. ;-]
> 
> So far, your listening and insightful thought and comment has helped
> give me a bit more insight to why certain decisions have been made. I
> hope we don't get too much of a backlash from developers outside of
> commercial Linux interests that may not agree with some of the business
> oriented decisions. http://www.linuxisforbitches.com./

Glad to listen.  Everyone's got a right to a wrong opinion... ;-]


Rodd

-- 
Rodd Clarkson <[email protected]>
redfish bluefish [creative]


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