Best Mouse-free Windowmanager?

An Anonymous Coward writes "I've been using fvwm2 for quite some time now as I don't need to use the mouse much. I don't have time to try every window manager under the sun, but are there newer window managers out there that have better 'usability' characteristics when it comes to avoiding the mouse? I still have a mouse handy for browsing, etc. so I don't need to do away with it altogether.). Thanks."

Comments

Try Ion

[kraf]

I think Ion is worth a try.

wmx

[HyperbolicParabaloid]

I like wmx, especially on my laptop.
All the windowing functions can be bound to alt-keys. So, for instance, on my laptop, the otherwise-useless Windows keys pop up menus of commonly used applications and a menu of current windows.
It has multiple virtual desk tops (accessable by key commands. Does gnome/sawfish do that? How? I couldn't figure it out...)
wmx is great for a laptop because of it's unusual window decoration scheme. The title tab is on the left side of each window, not the top. Since vertical screen space is scarcer(sp?) than horizontal, this actually makes sense, though it takes getting used to.

Windowmaker works for me

[Ragetech]

Thanks for posting this question, it's a good one. I have the same dilemma you have -- I want a window manager that I don't have to use the mouse to navigate and use. Additionally, I prefer a desktop without a lot of fancy icons or control panels that get in the way of the windows I'm working in.

A few years ago I tried out Window Maker, as I was looking for an Afterstep alternative. At the time, kde was an infant and gnome was in the same nursery. Afterstep was getting to bloated and slow, and when I tried out Window Maker I was in heaven! It was fast, lightweight and clean. My only complaint is that every time a new app is launched, an icon is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

As far as key bindings are concerned, everything is customizable. I use my keyboard to move virtual desktops all the time. Actually this is one of the things Window Maker wins me with -- I can jump from virtual window 1 to virtual window 3 by just typing "Alt-3" sort of a la Linux virtual consoles. I can also cycle through windows making them active "Alt-tab" or kill windows (read: Netscape annoying javascript banner pop-up adds)

I haven't tried the other window managers people have suggested, but I will be soon. If you want to get something up quick, without having to do a lot of customization, try out Window Maker for a while.

PLWM

[Jonas �berg]

PLWM is the "Pointless Window Manager". Written by Peter Liljenberg and others, one if its basic ideas is that "the mouse should be banished, and
everything should be possible to do without moving your hands from the keyboard."

That's the pointless bit of PLWM. The window manager is built using a number of Python classes and another idea is that you should be able to configure it exactly as you want it by writing Python-snippets that use the PLWM library to construct your window manager.

Why has no one mentioned...

[PeterClark]

Ratpoison? Note, I have not tried it (I'm perfectly happy using the mouse :) but it sounds like something you might be interested in. Here's it's description:

Ratpoison is a simple window manager with no large library dependencies, fancy graphics, window decorations, or flash. It is largely modelled after GNU Screen, which has done wonders in virtual terminal market. All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes. ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize the key clobbering that cripples EMACS and other quality pieces of software. All windows are maximized and kept maximized to avoid wasting precious screen space.

You can find it at http://ratpoison.sourceforge.net/.

:Peter