multiple window managers

[oc999]

Hi,

I've recently bought a new laptop battery and have a few questions about installing another window manager to save some energy while running on battery power.
First off is it recommendable to install another window manager or would it be better to just install another full linux system with the window manager i want (making the laptop a triple boot)?
Currently I'm using Gnome and Linux Mint 10 which runs fine for me with Compiz and all the eye candy - plugged in though.
Next question would be the obvious "which window manager should I use" - like I said the important thing for me is to save battery life so I guess I should consider LXDE, Xfce or Fluxbox but I really dont know which one to pick and what their (dis)advantages are.

Thanks in advance!

[viking777]

All my distros have two window managers on them. Until recently one of them had three installed. So there is obviously no problem with what you propose.

As to whether it is better to have multiple distros or multiple window managers, well that is a difficult one. Space is obviously one consideration, speed of switching from one to the other is another. (It is always quicker to log out and in with a different window manager than it is to reboot into another distro). Against that the various lightweight Mint distros are all pretty professional and don't require much intervention once installed, although adding stand alone window managers will involve you in some configuration work in order to tune it to your wishes.

As to which is best well, like everyone else I am biased. Fluxbox for me is the best window manager there is, better than Gnome, KDE4, Xfce or Lxde (although if KDE3 were still supported I would be torn, but I still think Flux would get the vote). Most people would disagree I am sure. The other thing is that a base Fluxbox install is pretty minimal, it is only the addition of some config files copied from Mint Fluxbox that make every other installation of Fluxbox so easy to configure. So if you don't have Mint Fluxbox to start with then you don't have the wonderful config files that Kendall produces, and you don't have such a good window manager unless you really understand how to work on it.

[nunol]

Robin did a nice job explaining a few differences: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... in#p314893

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_manager

[lmintnewb]

Just another opinion,

Would do a lil general research on settings to use with a laptop to get the most out of it in these forums. Often when searching for the answer to anything having to do with Mint, google brings me right back here any way.

Remember coming across settings related to laptops while browsing around Mint 10 main ed. Plenty of common sense tweaks someone can do to slim down their OS too. Turning off startup applications you dont want/need.

Used a bootup manager called bum to get rid of other start up services I didn't have a use for. Just makes sense that lower resource desktops would result in longer battery life. Agree with viking that fluxbox is a pretty neat lil desktop. Though haven't learned to use it to the point he obviously has. So still prefer xfce.

Sure there's a lot of things you can do to slim down or tweak to extend battery life too. But all that would come down to taste. I mean I've done a lot of other tweaks to streamline this install from default, cause its just my preferences. Turned off sounds, welcome screen, visual effects so forth. Just an opinion, but you could always install a couple candidates on your lappy side by side and see which satisfies your needs the best.

Both in performance and taste. Run one exclusively for awhile ... switch to the other and if battery life is vital find out which one does better. Once you pick a winner. Shouldn't be difficult to delete the others partition and extend it for use by the one you prefer.

You can try out diff desktops too. One of the things I'm learning to luv about linux and linux mint. Can have as many as you like and it's a couple seconds to switch between them. Alright this turned into a book ... I know I'm opinionated as hades, lol.

Haven't used them personally. But people are saying the debian based Mint releases are slimmer and faster. Same time though with this rolling release deal. Notice many people running into problems. Just an opinion, but don't see the harm in going with a LTS release. Then you know you've got 18months before needing to worry about anything.

As time passes would think the Linux Mint team will just keep getting better at working with the debian based versions and adding their extra special minty goodness to it.

[oc999]

hey first off thanks for your replies!

quick changing of the session would be good so I guess I'll stick to installing something next to gnome.
If I do that though can I download those mentioned config files from the fluxbox mint distro too? I remember trying out fluxbox on my archlinux installation one year ago but I quickly changed it again after not really understanding how to configure it properly (to be honest it was just too time consuming)
oh regarding desktop environments and window managers - from what I understand the big difference is that wdms "just draw the windows" and a desktop environment comes with stuff like panels and applets etc. - so from what I understand gnome, kde and xfce are DEs and fluxbox is a wdm right?

well thanks again!

[mastablasta]

speaking of DE in my case consumption of batter under LXDE was biger than under Gnome (one of the reasonss i then went with Gnome). Perhaps gnome had better power management?

[nunol]

If I do that though can I download those mentioned config files from the fluxbox mint distro too?

Yes, but it may take some modifications.

oh regarding desktop environments and window managers - from what I understand the big difference is that wdms "just draw the windows" and a desktop environment comes with stuff like panels and applets etc. - so from what I understand gnome, kde and xfce are DEs and fluxbox is a wdm right?

Yes. You can use openbox (a WM) with GNOME, KDE and XFCE replacing Mutter, KWin, and Xfwm4. LXDE already uses Openbox as default.

[nunol]

speaking of DE in my case consumption of batter under LXDE was biger than under Gnome (one of the reasonss i then went with Gnome). Perhaps gnome had better power management?

The idea is that if a DE or WM uses less CPU cycles you save battery however if GNOME has better power management it may offset the bigger CPU utilization and actually improve battery autonomy. I actually don't know how GNOME or LXDE do power management so I can't help you more on that subject.

[oc999]

thanks!
so is there any how to or tutorial on installing fluxbox (and maybe also the config files from the distro) to an existing non-fluxbox distro? not quite sure which packages i should install!
is it possible to screw up the config files in my home directory by installing fluxbox?

[lmintnewb]

Go to software manager ... and search for fluxbox. There's only 2 packages. Fluxbox and mint-info-fluxbox. You can get both with no worries or even just install the main one which is simply called fluxbox. Install them and bam, you're done. Gotta luv linux and linux mint.

Hit your menu button, select logout ... Once youve clicked the user you want to log-in as. Which if you're the only one on the system, there'll be only one option. On the bottom panel of that log-in screen you'll see a little box to pick which desktop you want. Click the little arrow and select fluxbox. Enter your password, hit enter and there you'll be, checking out what fluxbox is like on your comp.

[oc999]

ok thanks! it's done - fluxbox is up and running. wasn't that hard to configure (besides figuring out how to get wifi up and running but with gnome already installed
not a big deal).
just if anyone ever reads this and wants to add the same panel as in the fluxbox mint edition - its called tint2. looks pretty awesome.

thanks everyone again!