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Killing Clutter With The Antidesktop

Posted by timothy on from the your-brain-is-your-panel dept.

Espectr0 writes "Hate window managers? Cannot live without one? Well, you can, kind of. A Freshmeat editorial called 'The Antidesktop' talks about how you can get rid of flashy, bloaty window managers without loosing functionality." It depends on how many tasks you want to keep track of in your head, too.

3 of 448 comments (clear)

  1. Oh wow by Apreche · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yeah, that screen/ratpoison window manager he's got there, it's reeeealy useful. NOT. I know that many of you are linux guys who weild the CLI like a deadly katana. I know that using the CLI as opposed to a GUI is faster and more powerful. However, there is one large problem with it. It's hard. It requires a great deal of effort to learn all of the commands and how to use them effectively. Sure someone can learn ls, mv, cp, rm, really quick. But things like grep, awk, etc. Require a lot more.

    As I see it the number 1 reason why windows/mac are still beating linux out is that in linux you can't avoid opening a shell and getting a CLI at some point. For me, if something isn't easy and graphical it's useless. In Windows I can install/update a driver in 5 or 6 clicks of the mouse. In linux it requires me to do all kinds of crazy kernel stuff. It would take me more time to learn how to install the driver in linux and actually make it work properly than it would take me to just install windows.

    This window manager that he presents is useful, if you are a crazy CLI type of guy. I want a fully customizeable, pretty, and powerful GUI. I don't want to ever be presented with a CLI. It's unecessary. The GUI was invented for a reason, and it was successful for a reason. It gives the user visual cues as to the correct way to achieve their goals. The CLI gives you a prompt that require the user to know what to type in with absolutely no help whatsoever. Yeah, there are man pages, if you know about them!

    I realize the CLI is powerful and if you know what you are doing, as I'm sure many of you do, that it is more efficient for you to have a simplified window manager like this. But for everyone else in the real world Windows/KDE/Gnome/Mac is the way to go. The option of a CLI is available in all of those, but you never have to go to it if you don't want to.

    Rather than trying to get away from the desktop we should find ways to make it prettier, faster, more responsive, and more intuitive. I think that using something besides X is a good way to start, but I dont' see that happening any time soon. Sure a stripped down window manager might be more efficient for .01% of the population. And it's great, you've got what you want. But 99% of the people need a better, complete, window manager.

    The biggest problem I've seen in the open source world is that the people writing the software write it for themselves. Big software companies like MS and Adobe write software for the least common denominator. I wonder why more people use their stuff??

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
  2. Re:loose versus lose by mickwd · · Score: 1, Troll

    Jesus, no wonder they say programmers have problems designing desktops for "normal" users.

    Looks like some of them can't even get the language right. And then they expect the bloody language to change.

    (NOTE: This rant is only aimed at people for whom English is a first language).

  3. Re:loose versus lose by Quaryon · · Score: 0, Troll

    Unfortunately, most of the users probably think lose should be spelt "loose" too - one of the few times when two wrongs actually do make a right :)

    Q.