Bigger selection of window managers for Puppy?

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37fleetwood · #1 Post by **37fleetwood** » Fri 05 Jun 2009, 22:46

I would like to ask if someone could do me and the world a favor and do some updating and have a central location maybe even the ibiblio (is that spelled right?) server so it can be easily installed, of as many window managers as possible?

I recently was on the Ubuntu forum and someone was asking the question that eventually comes up after the glow of rebelling from Microsoft wears off, "so what other window managers are there and what do they look like?".

I posted over there and there are quite a few but not all of them are available any more. I was surprised how many I could get going on Ubuntu and then I played with a few in Puppy. I found that there were a few that may have a significant role to play in Puppy if they can be made available.
of interest to me are:
EDE Equinox Desktop Environment
FVWM95/FVWM98, FVWM Crystal
After Step
Étoilé
Metisse

I really think that for some of the guys fixing up older computers, FVWM95/98 would be very advantageous. FVWM95 is in the repositories for Puppy2 and Puppy3, I got it to install and run in Puppies as new as Puppy3.0, but it doesn't seem to work as well in Puppy4 and newer.
Afterstep, Fvwm Crystal, and a few others are available in Ubuntu so they might work with Woof.

I actually got EDE running in Ubuntu so it should actually be pretty easy for someone better than I at this stuff should be able to get it done in Puppy and looking great! here are a few web sites, I don't know if you have seen them but they may help track some of these down:
http://xwinman.org/
http://etoileos.com/etoile/
http://equinox-project.org/

Here is a cap of EDE if you've never seen it!, with something like PCMan, or Thunar it would look and feel just about like Windows95!!

here is After Step:

Finally FVWM Crystal, which is in the Ubuntu repositories, it asked me which I wanted to use as my "Pinboard" and I picked Nautilus, kinda funny seeing the Gnome file browser huh?:

37fleetwood · #2 Post by **37fleetwood** » Fri 05 Jun 2009, 22:50

almost forgot, here is the link to the post I made on the Ubuntu Forum:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1176747

it was just a thought, if Puppy could offer these easily, it may get more people interested. there are so many guys here who can make drab window managers look so great that I can't imagine what they could do with a few of these. after seeing Boxpup, I wonder what FVWM95, or EDE would look like in the hands of Grey or one of you other guys!

WhoDo · #3 Post by **WhoDo** » Sat 06 Jun 2009, 00:44

Was this what you had in mind?

IceWM
icedesert theme
eXperience icon theme
Puppy 4.1.2

Just a quick mock-up. JWM can also be made to look very much like Windows 95/98, which is why Barry chose it for later Puppy versions. There are other things you could do with start buttons, Gtk themes and file managers to make it even more authentic looking.

BTW, FVWM or FVWM95 (not sure which) was standard fare in Puppy 1.x and maybe even early Puppy 2.x series.

Puppy also supports:
Xfce
Enlightenment E16 and E17
Openbox
Fluxbox
Gnome
KDE
... although technically some of those including Xfce, Gnome and KDE are full desktop environments rather than just window managers.

See here for the full list: http://xwinman.org/

Hope that helps

runtt21 · #4 Post by **runtt21** » Sat 06 Jun 2009, 01:03

There already .pet's for afterstep, EDE.fluxbox And we have mastered e17!!! KDE also , what else do you want? I even remember seeing a .pet of looking glass .

afterstep:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 07&t=35365

EDE :
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 27&t=29540

LXDE:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=32049

In a few days I will be posting the macpup version of e17.pet that has the menu fix and a puppy shutdown menu preinstalled.

37fleetwood · #5 Post by **37fleetwood** » Sat 06 Jun 2009, 05:34

Icewm is great, as is Jwm, I just thought for those who are interested in playing around, maybe some of these could be made into .pets. I also was wondering if they could be added to the repository so that they can be installed without searching the forum all day looking to see if they are out there. I'm not particularly interested in having one that looks like Win95 but just thought it might be useful for someone wanting to revive older boxes. fvwm95 seems to be specifically tailored to look familiar to Win95 users. I have to admit that after seeing Macpup e-17 and Boxpup, I am wondering what some of these others would look like in the right hands. and I just installed FVWM95 in Puppy yesterday, it just doesn't seem to work right in Puppy4 and higer. I was wondering if someone adventurous might want to make it into a pet and make it available for the newer Puppies.
I didn't realize that there were already Pets for some of these, what does it take to get them into the repository? I think I even have a Puppy running Metisse somewhere.
I'm not saying I need any of these, nor am I asking someone to go through lots of work. I just thought if someone was interested, they might consider the challenge of getting these set up and ready to go. I got EDE going in Ubuntu and it works well and even looks nice enough.
as for FVWM95, this is more what I had in mind.

runtt21 · #6 Post by **runtt21** » Sat 06 Jun 2009, 15:59

Looking Glass :

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 39&t=30700

" after seeing Macpup e-17" ..... You need to take Macpup Opera for a spin:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42984

Keef · #7 Post by **Keef** » Sat 06 Jun 2009, 17:55

If you are in search of window managers, I've found this site is more useful than xwinman:
http://www.gilesorr.com/wm/table.html

runtt21 · #8 Post by **runtt21** » Sun 07 Jun 2009, 12:25

XFCE :

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=39637

KDE :

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 95&t=26151

GNOME :

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 95&t=27864

FLUXBOX :

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 05&t=24987

ANTICO :

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42571

omskates · #9 Post by **omskates** » Tue 24 Nov 2009, 08:37

Interesting.....thanks for the links

I noticed that the Matchbox window manager is used partially in Maemo5 as well as the XO-1 in creative ways. I keep thinking that Puppy would run great on small mobile devices as well as projects such as the XO-1 (one laptop per child), but especially with small mobile devices may be of interest to someone more skilled than I.

Colonel Panic · #10 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Fri 27 Nov 2009, 12:35

@runtt21; thanks for the link. I like trying different window managers and seeing for myself what their advantages and disadvantages are.

brymway · #11 Post by **brymway** » Sun 29 Nov 2009, 03:17

dwm http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=258224

sunburnt · #12 Post by **sunburnt** » Mon 30 Nov 2009, 03:42

A window manager is just another app., put them in SFS files!

And yes... Lots of them, all of them, Why not? Puppy deserves it.

sikpuppy · #13 Post by **sikpuppy** » Mon 30 Nov 2009, 09:26

sunburnt wrote:A window manager is just another app., put them in SFS files!

And yes... Lots of them, all of them, Why not? Puppy deserves it.

Why not? Because a lot of the window managers are buggy and crash a lot. I would be happy to flood the forums with window managers, but I would not be happy to debug them all in place of the developers.

To get them working with the current set of default apps would be a thankless task in itself.

Colonel Panic · #14 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Mon 30 Nov 2009, 12:22

sikpuppy wrote:
sunburnt wrote:A window manager is just another app., put them in SFS files!

And yes... Lots of them, all of them, Why not? Puppy deserves it.
Why not? Because a lot of the window managers are buggy and crash a lot. I would be happy to flood the forums with window managers, but I would not be happy to debug them all in place of the developers.

To get them working with the current set of default apps would be a thankless task in itself.

I take your point, but all you really need are workable PETs of them as already exist for, say, Openbox and which you can install yourself as the inclination arises. If they don't work, you can just install a different one.

IME, the biggest problem with minority window managers isn't debugging them but getting them to compile in the first place - some of the more obscure ones seem to need about a 2 MB library to be installed before a 100 KB window manager will work (and even then it's hit or miss).

Finally, I doubt that many people attracted to Puppy will want to use a tiling, keyboard-oriented window manager like Ratpoison or wmii. Mostly you're talking about having PETs for the likes of FVWM, Fluxbox and Openbox, and most of those are already done.

sunburnt · #15 Post by **sunburnt** » Mon 30 Nov 2009, 18:15

Why pets? Why pollute and fill the Save file up when you don`t have to?
Trying new software should be one of the joys of an OS...
Make adding and removing software transparent as possible.
Instead of messing up the Save file, SFS files are a discrete layer.
Or better yet... Make them mount but don`t union type of SFS files...

jemimah · #16 Post by **jemimah** » Mon 30 Nov 2009, 19:22

Flwm is here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=49355

37fleetwood · #17 Post by **37fleetwood** » Tue 01 Dec 2009, 01:57

I was originally thinking that .pets would make it easier for novices to get them installed, but sfs sounds fine. also I was thinking about the more useful wm's. on an older box I'm guessing Afterstep, Window Maker, FVWM95, EDE, Metisse LXDE, Rox (rather than just using part of it with Jwm and Icewm, use it as a desktop environment) and maybe even Étoilé would be fun to play with. I got quite a few working in Ubuntu. I realize some of them are already available I just thought if they came up in the package manager it would save time finding them.
if you get any going I would love to see a cap or two!

P.S. Flwm looks very cool, I don't have a netbook or a small screen but I might play with it anyway (who are we kidding, you know I won't be able to resist playing with it)

runtt21 · #18 Post by **runtt21** » Tue 01 Dec 2009, 02:20

"To get them working with the current set of default apps would be a thankless task in itself."

Possibly , But I intend to keep working on e17 and puppy....

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=49526

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42984

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... &start=108

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=39410

sunburnt · #19 Post by **sunburnt** » Tue 01 Dec 2009, 02:49

If a few or more of the variant builder guys would get behind Dpup...
I and many have said that Dpup is a solid base for a Puppy distro.
Based on Debian ( as Ubuntu is ) it has more apps. than anybody!

As has been said... There`s too much scattering of forces within the
Puppy community and way too much "reinventing the wheel" going on.
If Dpup can build a good base of Debian apps. in non-union SFS files,
then all the variants based on it would benefit ( no remaking apps.).

sikpuppy · #20 Post by **sikpuppy** » Tue 01 Dec 2009, 05:07

sunburnt wrote:If a few or more of the variant builder guys would get behind Dpup...
I and many have said that Dpup is a solid base for a Puppy distro.
Based on Debian ( as Ubuntu is ) it has more apps. than anybody!

As has been said... There`s too much scattering of forces within the
Puppy community and way too much "reinventing the wheel" going on.
If Dpup can build a good base of Debian apps. in non-union SFS files,
then all the variants based on it would benefit ( no remaking apps.).

Why is working on Puppy 4.31 applications "reinventing the wheel?". It's the current "stable" official Puppy isn't it?

Dpup is a little way from the same stability.

If you want to support Dpup, that's fine, but please stop inferring that anyone making apps for 4.31 is effectively wasting their time...because that's a bit rude isn't it? Even if you believe it to be true, it could come across as being tactless and nasty.

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Bigger selection of window managers for Puppy?

Bigger selection of window managers for Puppy?