To switch between DEs, you can do it with the usual connection
managers, IIRC.
But I personally prefer to login on TTY and then start the window
manager/DE of my choice. Usually, DEs have a 'start-my_favorite_de'
command to do that. If you are tired about starting them by hand
everytime, you can add those lines to your ~/.bash_profile file:
============
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ $(tty) == /dev/tty1 ];then
startx
fi
============
Of course, starting from here can allow you to think about other
things, like using startx for tty1, gnome for tty2, kde for tty3, etc.
It is like the usual connection managers, but without the mouse or
eyecandy stuff, and more lightweight. My current only problem with that
is that I still need to enter my login and password at start, which is
boring on my desktop, but I never tried to fix that for now.
Le 16.09.2013 20:57, Richard Owlett a écrit :
Dan Ritter wrote:
On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 10:06:32AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
As I have minimal to *NO INTERNET* access, when Debian 7.1 DVDs
became available from vendors I purchased the 10 DVD set. I also
purchased the live DVDs for Gnome, lxde, kde, and xfce. I did some
test runs of each. I chose xfce for my initial Wheezy install based
almost exclusively on "look and feel". It felt "comfortable" and
seemed to express my somewhat vague ideas of how a GUI should
'act'.
It was an educational experience. Each had something I'd like to
see
in an ideal installation. I also did more web browsing comparing
"Desktop Environments" to "Windows Managers" and product
comparisons
within those classifications.
/Questions
1. Given that I prefer LILO over GRUB and xfce over Gnome/lxde/kde,
what GUIs should I investigate further.
If you're happy with xfce, you shouldn't need to look further.
xfce is a fully supported, first-class environment.
I don't _need_ to, but I'm involved with other projects which might
benefit. Also I'm retired with lots of free time and I find the topic
interesting.
If you like XFCE, you might also look at LXDE. It's tools are less
linked between them than those of XFCE, and it's even more lightweight.
I now use some carefully chosen parts of it in combination with i3, such
as the primitive text editor (for notes. I use vim when I need a strong
one) and the terminal emulator.
Now, it seem you only know about stacking window managers. Let me give
you a different direction to explore: tiling window managers.
I will try to be as objective as possible, but remember that when I
tried them, I simply fell in love with that paradigm, probably because I
always was a computer tinkerer. So you are warned.
There are, AFAIK, no DE with some of them (well, I have heard that KDE
had an optional one in previous versions, but it was removed. No idea
about the truth in those words, KDE is too heavy for my computer uses)
but if you use lightweight DE, you can usually change the window
manager.
If you want the name of one on official DVDs, I think I would speak
about i3, which is the first one I successfully tried, and the one which
remain on my computers, bot netbook and dekstop with 2 screens.
It's documentation claims that it is for powerusers but... I think it
is only to not have people come and bother them with stupid questions
like how to edit a text file, because the doc itself is very clear, and
the configuration of that DE is *NOT* made with a programming language,
which is a strong point and something which makes it very easy to use.
In short, it uses a real configuration file, and it works when you
install it, unlike all other TWM I have tried (but others have other
features which can be useful as well).
Now, why could someone be interested in that kind of managers?
The difference is simply that, instead of having a stack of windows of
different sizes that you have to manually set, each new window is
automatically placed on the desktop and all windows are resized to fill
the entire space without overlapping.
This allows, for example, to control everything with your keyboard
(pretty useful if you are mostly working with text, because you do not
have to move a hand to the mouse.), or if you have more than one screen,
it is really easier to be efficient with them, when it's painful with
classic window managers (moving a mouse from a screen to another just to
focus another application is painful, and using alt-tab is not always
very fast).
The problem is that they are usually not beautiful. I guess that the
reason is that they are not very well known, and so, often made by power
users for power users, like i3 claim.
The beauty problem resides in the fact that there is no transparent
windows, no rounded corners, no buttons to control the windows, etc (but
there is still an optional title bar). This imply that heavy mouse users
will find them harder to use, but maybe ( I never tried that ) it can be
fixed by using window decorators or integrating them into a lightweight
DE such as XFCE or LXDE.
On the other hand, that lack of beautiful stuff also implies that you
spend less screen space for theoretically beautiful things (beauty is a
matter of personal tastes), and less computer resources. Thanks to that
kind of wm, I made a netbook faster and nicer to use than computer with
more space and faster CPUs. At least, in my opinion, of course.
The problem which come with the fact that they are made for power users
is proven by the fact that most of them needs to know programming
languages or techniques ( such as compiling ) to configure them.
However, it is not true for i3, and it's why I have started with it and
am still with it. I tried others, but learning a new language and it's
API or having to recompile my softwares to simply change a key... I do
not like that idea, even if I am myself a software developer. So, i3 is
very good on that point (but have less features than some other, and
older, TWM, like templates)
So, if you want to try them (you said you have time, right? ;) ) start
with an easy one like i3, and if and when you will like the idea behind,
feel free to try more advanced ones.
I know that i3 is on official DVDs. I discovered it like this, thanks
to debtags. Unlike some others, it works out of the box, but read the
doc before.
Here are some basic shortcuts for a first try:
_ starting terminal: $mod + enter
_ starting launcher: $mod + d ( it will need suckless tools, which is a
recommended package. It is one of the rare recommended packages that I
have installed, so I strongly advice you to install it, at least in a
first time. Then you might want to replace it with another one.)
_ moving focus: $mod + jklm ( 'm' might be ';' if you are using a
qwerty keyboard. It's simply the key after 'l' ) but it'll work also
with mouse.
_ closing a window: $mod + q
_ switching to resize mode: $mod + r
_ resizing windows: jklm
_ switching back to standard mode: esc
$mod is a key i3 will ask you at first start, but that you will be able
to change in configuration file.
Starting a terminal is made by $mod + enter, starting an application
launcher is made by $mod +d (if you installed suckless tools, which I
recommend for your start. You will find them in your apt browser easily,
then are recommended by i3-wm package), $mod being a key i3 will ask you
to choose at first start (but you can change it in the configuration
file of course)
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