Popular Window Manger, Desktop Environment combinations

[Mereyub]

Hello and Thanks in advance
I'm New to Linux , Asking a lot and Learning much.

I have learned that In Linux there is a difference between Window Mangers and Desktop Environments.
Also you have a choice to use different Window Mangers with different Desktop Environments.
Many thanks to Robin who is a Level 4 Poster she has one of the best Post explaining a topic i have seen so far http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=54945

My Question: What are Popular Window Manger, Desktop Environment combinations?

NOTE: I am already aware that it maybe based on personal taste, and that you should try many combinations to find whats good for you
but please just post what are some Popularly Known combinations or what yours maybe and if you feel like it why is it your favorite combination Thanks

[altair4]

Many thanks to Robin who is a Level 4 Poster she has one of the best Post explaining a topic i have seen so far

Robin's apparent youth belies his abilities and his capacity to articulate them.

[Mereyub]

Many thanks to Robin who is a Level 4 Poster she has one of the best Post explaining a topic i have seen so far

Robin's apparent youth belies his abilities and his capacity to articulate them.

Well altair4 that comment was Real nice thanks please don't waist my time if your not going to answer then don't answer

[zerozero]

Many thanks to Robin who is a Level 4 Poster she has one of the best Post explaining a topic i have seen so far

Robin's apparent youth belies his abilities and his capacity to articulate them.

Well that was Real nice thanks and please don't waist my time if your not going to answer then don't answer

wow that was really nice and polite of you have a nice day sir

[vrkalak]

My Question: What are Popular Window Manger, Desktop Environment combinations?

Although, I personally, am an Xfce fanatic. I have every Linux-distro that uses the Xfce Desktop Environment as default.

A favorite of mine is the default #!Crunchbang set-up > using the Openbox Window Manager and NO Desktop Environment.
Which makes the #!Crunchbang/Linux OS very light on resources and super fast . . . minimal and simple. Openbox is highly configurable.

[Mereyub]

My Question: What are Popular Window Manger, Desktop Environment combinations?

Although, I personally, am an Xfce fanatic. I have every Linux-distro that uses the Xfce Desktop Environment as default.

A favorite of mine is the default #!Crunchbang set-up > using the Openbox Window Manager and NO Desktop Environment.
Which makes the #!Crunchbang/Linux OS very light on resources and super fast . . . minimal and simple. Openbox is highly configurable.

Hmm that #!Crunchbang sounds fun Thank you - While i sit and wait for other examples i am going to try yours right now in my Virtual Box -
Hmm not sure how to do it LOL but that's okay its part of the fun I'll figure it out -

[Mereyub]

Okay so Cruchbang is a distro - based on Ubuntu that uses the lightweight Openbox window manager LOL i thought that Crunchbang was the window manger
So when i try crunchbang i will see how the Window Manger known as Openbox works -

Which was exactly what you said in your post

[Mereyub]

My Question: What are Popular Window Manger, Desktop Environment combinations?

Although, I personally, am an Xfce fanatic. I have every Linux-distro that uses the Xfce Desktop Environment as default.

A favorite of mine is the default #!Crunchbang set-up > using the Openbox Window Manager and NO Desktop Environment.
Which makes the #!Crunchbang/Linux OS very light on resources and super fast . . . minimal and simple. Openbox is highly configurable.

Wow that was fun - everything is black with white text on the right hand side -

What i learned - I didn't Know the Super key is the windows key so after i figured that out it got fun
Every thing was very fast - a bit strange not having the desktop environment but i can see why someone would find this useful

Next i am going to try Cruchbang with XFCE and see what that's like -

[vrkalak]

Okay so Cruchbang is a distro - based on Ubuntu that uses the lightweight Openbox window manager

Crunchbang used to be based on Ubuntu ... since late last year Crunchbang is based on Debian-stable.

Crunchbang uses Xfce as a 'stand-alone' desktop ... like Xfce was meant to be.
And, not loaded over a Gnome-base the way Xubuntu does it.
Xfce as a 'stand-alone' desktop environment . . . is simple, light and fast.

You won't find Xfce anywhere else -- the way Crunchbang does Xfce.

[nunol]

I am a big fan of Openbox. Crunchbang and Archbang are very good Openbox distros but usually I use Debian Openbox (or LXDE) when I want something simple and fast (I learned from the Crunchbang Forums). There is a guide to install Openbox with Mint: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/374

You can also use a GNOME/openbox combination that makes GNOME faster on older machines but it can't beat LXDE/openbox like you have in Mint 10 LXDE.

Fluxbox is another a nice WM and Mint has the Fluxbox edition for some time now. Another WM is Enlightenment E17, you can check Bodhi linux for E17.

I am pretty happy with Mint 10/9 (GNOME) and Debian with Openbox but I like to try something else once in a while. Don't care for KDE 4.x and while I like XFCE don't use it that much. Right now I am waiting for a good GNOME 3 implementation so I can compare with Unity.

There are plenty of other DE/WM:
http://xwinman.org/others.php
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Window_Manager
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_window_m ... w_managers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_en ... vironments

EDIT: here is a bigger list: http://www.gilesorr.com/wm/table.html

[MALsPa]

Right now, I've got:

- KDE and Xfce in Mepis 8
- GNOME, LXDE, and Openbox in Ubuntu Lucid
- GNOME and AwesomeWM in Debian Squeeze
- KDE and E17 in PCLOS
- KDE, GNOME, and IceWM in Scientific Linux

In Fedora 14, I'm using only KDE. In SalineOS, I'm using only Xfce, but with a few GNOME and KDE apps tossed in. When I get Mepis 11 installed, I'll probably add Fluxbox to it.

As you can probably tell, I like to use different DEs/WMs on different days -- no real favorite, I guess.

[nunol]

Just yesterday I did a small test with some DE/WM in a basic Debian install to check RAM usage of the so called light WM and DE against others not so light. The test was made in a 256MB VM.

RAM usage, DE/WM (measured with "free -m" on a terminal window):
27MB dwm (no dmenu)
28MB openbox (no tint2), xmonad
31MB fluxbox, blackbox, awesome
33MB fvwm, icewm
43MB afterstep
44MB lxde-core
51MB xfce4
66MB gnome-core
194MB RAM plus 48MB SWAP: kde-core

I would like to test Openbox with Pytyle and Qtile but have not found the time. Have anyone used the Openbox/PyTyle combination or Qtile?

[Mereyub]

OH Wow now this is cool!
This weekend is going to be fun I'm going to try each combination - Then I'm going to try to recreate the Memory Test with DE/WM Debian i should learn a lot from that - I had a ball with the Crunchbang install. Thank all of you guys for your awesome input - You guys understood what i was asking for and you delivered and then on top of that a side project to check Memory usage That Rocks - if i could i would give you all a beer Like free beer - LOL i just learned that you know like free and open vs free of cost - anyways You made my one Happy Nu-Be
if you have more please keep em coming - God Bless

[nunol]

For the Memory test on a VM I used Virtualbox. I installed a Debian base install (without X), then installed X (apt-get install xorg) and then made a snapshot. From this snapshot I installed one WM or DE and made a new snapshot. This way I still have a VM with all WM/DE on their snapshot so I can use in the future if I need to:

[vrkalak]

First of all, I just bought more RAM for my ancient Gateway (7-8 years old) laptop ... had only 182 Mb of RAM and upgraded to 2Gb RAM. Doesn't even seem like the same machine.

Now, I just built a vanilla Debian from a net.install ... then, added the new Xfce-4.8 on it.

Updated the Linux Kernel to 2.6.36.2 and the Debian 'testing' sources.list

I love what the Xfce-Devs have donw with the Xfce-4.8 panel.

[nunol]

Wow! You increased the amount of RAM by 10x! You can now play with VM's and everything else.

[lmintnewb]

Votes for RAM upgrade being the cheapest and best thing a person can do to a comp. Sheesh can get used RAM sticks at local comps stores in my city. Couple bucks + 45min-1hr = A blazing fast comp.

Alas I'm too lazy to bother so I just keep chugging along with my massive awe inspiring 512mbs ... Oh yeah baby !

Which brings me to my opinion on this. Fluxbox is grand. Not just because it takes far less system resources than any of the other Desktop enviro I've got installed. It's also super convenient. Push a button ... browser opens, another minimize to desktop ... other one ... file manager. etc.

(edit. Though o course you can do the same with all the other DE's by adding shortcuts. But flux just takes so much fewer sys resources. W/o really having to sacrafise usability.)

Mint 10 32bit ( buncha tweaks) w fluxbox +midori 0.3.5 ( 2 tabs ) and a terminal running. Drawing all of 131mbs and not much CPU.

Though vrkalak's post is making me itch to get xfce 4.8 now instead of the 4.6 version that's installed.