On Wed 18 Oct 2017 at 20:47:08 (+0200), Ionel Mugurel Ciobîcă wrote: > On 18-10-2017, at 22h 17'14", Richard Hector wrote about "Re: removing of > sddm (debian 9 -kde5) to start in console mode then startx to start kde5" > > > > > > Did they simply throw every window manager under the bus and say "Nope, > > > sorry, you gotta run a desktop environment now"? > > > > Now I'm curious - assuming Mageia has deprecated startx, how does that > > impact using a plain window manager? It's perfectly possible to run twm > > or whatever when logging in to a display manager, no? I'm sure I used to > > do that with xdm and icewm. > > > > I never ran an desktop manager, nor I used startx. I always used a > dm (xdm, kdm, etc.) and fvwm. In my ~/.xsession file the last line > is "fvwm2" (no quotes). Before that I set the background, set the > keyboard (with xmodmap), start the ssh agent, start rclock, etc. > > I think kdm has an option to overlook ~/.xsession and start another > wm. Set it to default, which means "read the config files". > > I never understood the need for desktop managers. I use Debian since > hamm and Linux/Unix since 1995. My take is that desktop managers are > for people more used to microsoft OS'. Why do I need to click on > something when the xterm I type in can call any program I need?...
[ It might be clearer to write "Desktop Environment" (or DE) instead of "desktop manager" because of the latter's having the same initials as Display Manager (or DM). ] That said, what are the advantages of running a DM in your case, compared with using startx? One big disadvantage has already been mentioned (that Linux Consoles rely on particular drivers far less than X does). Cheers, David.
