[svlug] (forw) Re: [conspire] could Linux desktop go reasonably any faster?

[Mark Jaffe]

I just noticed this thread, and wondered about the sanity of installing additional desktop environments on one of my boxen I depend on at work. I am currently on fedora24, and usually running one of the Gnome managers. I just saw KDE4 announcement and thought to try it out. Thoughts?
-- 
Mark Jaffe
jaffe.mark at gmail.com 
@Jaff
https://github.com/jaff
408-807-2093 (cell)

> On Feb 1, 2017, at 2:01 AM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> 
> Quoting Steve Litt (slitt at troubleshooters.com):
> 
>> We all know Windowmaker respects our machines' resources. A lot of
>> people whose opinions I respect love Windowmaker, so I've tried it
>> repeatedly, and always failed to make it into something I can use
>> productively and with speed. I must be missing something, but haven't a
>> clue what it would be.
>> 
>> For those of you who like Windowmaker, what do you like about it, what
>> habits must you cultivate to use it productively, and what kind of
>> priority set should a human adopt in order to have a good time with
>> Windowmaker?
> 
> This probably won't help you much.
> 
> In the 1980s, I was an ardent admirer and user of NeXTStep, the
> proprietary BSD variant developed by NeXT, Inc., originally for 
> NeXT, Inc.'s m68k-based computers and then also for Intel i486.
> NeXTStep didn't use X11 but rather Display PostScript as its graphical
> display technology -- and it was both beautiful and elegant while at the
> same time having many traditional BSD virtues.[1]
> 
> Window Maker is an X11-oriented imitation of the aesthetics of NeXTStep,
> using the same style of controls, the 'Dock' toolbar, the arbitrarily
> large number of workspaces, and so on.  To the extent X11 supports, it
> looks and acts the way NeXTStep did.  So, it appeals to me out of
> sentiment and because it shares some of NeXTStep's elegance, i.e., being
> clean and sparse in appearance and getting out of your way.
> 
> Of course, Views Will Differ.{tm}
> 
> That connection aside, Window Maker is a medium-weight window manager that does
> ICCCM and has hooks for common DEs (or did when I last saw anything abut
> that, but I'm no expert because that's not my cuppa).  So, you like its
> look and feel or you don't, and you value its DE integration possibilities 
> or you don't.
> 
> 
> This is also where I could put in a few words about the putative GNUStep DE
> and about the historical OpenStep specification, but I am not sure those
> would be of interest even though they're relevant.
> 
> 
> [1] NeXTStep's direct lineal descendent is Macintosh OS X, but IMO they
> screwed up its look and feel to cater to legacy MacOS users.  They also
> changed the display engine to Display PDF, because PDF is in contrast to
> PostScript free of patent royalties.
> 
> 
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