GNU Window Maker 0.60.0 Released

papason with the news that Windowmaker is out, and alternative downloading can be found here " From the site itself, it talks about the major changes include more Theme related configuarability in WPrefs, better international support, and more-check the ChangeLog.

Comments

Re:Window Maker Stability

[Dictator For Life]

I didn't know that about E. That's good, though. Now that I think about it, maybe *all* apps of any substance (e.g., who cares if 'ls' segfaults, apart from possible security issues) ought to be trapping for SEGVs, so they can die gracefully (i.e., without leaving you high and dry so often). I think emacs does this -- I can't remember ever losing anything in an emacs crash (and the only time I've seen emacs die is when running in X and X or the window mangler dies).

Nevertheless, a crash per week isn't what I'd call 'stable.' I've been running Window Maker for *months* and never had a crash till this week.

I'm not bad-mouthing E, and I know you said that this was an unstable version. I'm just pointing out that a crash/week ain't anything to write home about.

Re:Window Maker Stability

[DaKrushr]

Of course, the same is true of Enlightenment, you know - it's had that sort of thing for AGES :).

Of course, it needed a while back, but now it's quite stable - I've been using it for about a week or so, and it's only crashed on me once (and I didn't lose any work either).

This was also the unstable CVS version - which is quite impressive.

So if you want a window manager that actually has pagers, check out Enlightenment CVS 0.16.

I didn't mean to make this an ad for E, but I just thought I'd point out that WindowMaker isn't the only one that does that... however, I definitely agree that all window managers SHOULD, or at the very least start an XTerm if they crash (so you can at least start up another WM or close all of your running programs).

Window Maker distribution

[fremen]

You know, I would love to see a Linux distribution cater to the Window Maker users. Last time /. had a poll, Window Maker was the most popular window manager by far. In February, 28% of us used Window Maker. Another 17% of us used 'other.' Third place went to FVWM with 13%. It's my favorite window manager, and I know lots of users who absolutely love it.

So, why isn't there a distribution that comes with Window Maker preconfigured, setup, and ready to go with Gnome or KDE support working already (Unlike, Red Hat 6.0)? It could come with lots of great themes already installed, along with plenty of dockapps.

Now, THAT'S a distribution that would be worthy of my time installing it.

Ooops typo

[Daeron]

should be

ftp://shadowmere.student.utwente.nl/Mirrors/ftp. windowmaker.org/pub

That's not a bug...

[Phaid]

BTW the bug is this:
If you start a x session at tty1 you're x display will go to tty7. Whenever you try to start a command line tool in the Run applet it will prompt you for stuff on tty1. I started a "ssh -l my_name
My_Host" in the run applet. On tty1 a command line
prompt was started asking me for a password. To my stunning suprise the password *was* echoed on the screen. I did file report.

Ummm... That's not a bug, that's the way X always works. If you run a command line program, it will appear on the current controlling terminal. You were on tty1, so WM's controlling terminal is tty1, and since these things are inherited so is the run applet's, and therefore so is ssh's. There's not a whole lot you could do about it; you'd have to modify the Run applet to be smart enough to know whether what it's being asked to run is an X app in order to get around this, and to start the app in an xterm if it's not. That's not the kind of stuff that the Run app is supposed to do.

The real solution is to type "xterm -e ssh -l my_name my_host" in the Run... box.

Re:Window Maker 1.0

[Vlad Drac]

I don't think this should be rushed at all. I agree, it's stable as hell, but waiting for 1.0 is not a bad idea.

IMO if more company's would do this (and we could convince people that BetaSoftware != BadSoftware), we probably wouldn't see as many products in the 6.0 - 8.0 range that are still trash.

In an nutshell, a 1.0 should be the realization of the original idea for the software.

Sean

"Desktop Environments" vs. Window Managers

[Dictator For Life]

What exactly is it about an "environment" that is so enthralling? Drag and drop? Granted, it can be a handy thing, but is it worth the overhead?

If not drag and drop, then what?

Is it a unified look and feel? Can't this be had by using apps based on one toolkit, for less overhead?

Is it integrated apps? Setting aside KOffice for the moment (since it's not *quite* ready), what other "integrated" apps are there (not counting app-swallowing panels, since panels aren't (IMO) an essential part of an "environment" and since that functionality already exists in window managers lacking an "environment")?

Is the big attraction having a "desktop"? What work do you do on it? What benefits does it add?

I'm not trying to be a pain in the neck. I'm literally at a loss for what exactly the benefits are that a window manager like Window Maker or AfterStep doesn't provide. After 4 years of Windows 9X/NT and after spending time with KDE, I still don't see what the benefit is of a "desktop" other than a place for icons to generate clutter. Why do I need that? I do all my work in applications, not on a desktop. So what does this add?

So what is it?