Another Notorious Morning
Well, as I write to you this morning, I am currently in a pajama set, that makes me appear as if I work in a Chinese hospital, but in any event, I am here. It has been a long week for me, all kinds of issues have been hitting the fan, but it's cool. I want to get in here as often as I can (Which isn't very often in the first place) and I want to be dedicated, but it is pretty difficult when you live a real life. Well, long story short, I am here, and ready.
Today, I figured since it is just a dull morning, I would talk a little about Desktop Environments, and Window Managers, and more specifically my favorite one; fluxbox.
First off, I should probably explain what a Desktop Environment (Hereon known as a DE) is.
A DE is what graphical part of your computer is running. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, are all DE's because they make up what the "shiny buttons" part of everything.
DE's work on the base system, called the X window system. The X window system (Originally called xfree86, but later picked up as X) if you have ever had issues with a graphics card, or monitor, you will have obviously checked out your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. This file is the basic configuration file for your graphics card, monitor, mouse, keyboard, and other on-screen related peripherals. Anyways, linux is designed as layers, and this is the bottom layer for the Graphical Environment, which the DE comes on top of.
Back to the DE. Gnome is like a DE with a suite of applications to manage your data, and information. All of the applications under the System menu in gnome, are all part of gnome. Personally, my favorite mainstream DE is gnome, because KDE just seems too much like windows, and that is what I want to get away from. True, it may not be windows, but it just isn't my cup of tea. KDE uses the K environment, with mainly K oriented applications, and gnome uses mainly G applications. Like KDE: Kwrite. Gnome: Gedit.
Xfce has its own little set of applications like gnome or KDE, but it is a bit of a smaller suite. Xfce is kind of a minimal type of DE.
KDE, is a massive library of them. It has the functionality of a windows-like environment, which makes it easy for people to transfer to from windows. Which is what makes it mainly popular, but even some veterans I know prefer KDE.
Gnome is kind of mac-ish. It has a top bar, and a bottom bar, and the reason why I prefer it over KDE, is because it just seems to use more of my screen for me. I can house more applications, with still lots of window space, which is what I like. The KDE bar seems to just take up half my screen :p.
Fluxbox, is intensely minimum. It doesn't have a built in set of applications like KDE or gnome, so it is very terminal based. I like it, because it forces me to use the terminal, more than anything else. It doesn't have a start menu, but instead, has one small bar at the bottom of the screen, which shows your open windows, time, workspaces, and notification area. The neat thing, is that the "start menu" if you want to call it that, is just a right click on the desktop. You right click, and you should see some sections like "Apps, Games, Configuration, Restart, and Exit" Those are the ones that will absolutely be there, and there will more than likely be other sections as well. Each install, is independent to the applications you have installed. So it kind of a default "build" of the applications you have installed.
Once you install fluxbox, if you are using a distro like Arch, or Slackware, you will want to do this:
Fluxbox, works quite a bit differently than gnome or KDE. There is a directory '/home/ryan/.fluxbox/' *where "ryan" is your user obviously* that houses all the configuration areas. Under here, there will be a few files:
init
keys
menu
slitlist
and then a directory called 'Styles'
Mine actually has a few others, but that is the basic ones that you will have.
First thing, you will want to check out the menu file. This is one of the EASIEST, greatest configuration files I have seen. Even the man page for fluxbox, is quite amazing. Wonderful documentation, and just all around really easy to understand. I am not going to go into detail on how to configure everything, because the wiki has some great information on it. Check it out here:
http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Configuration_howtos
But in any event, configuring it is easy. Installing styles, is as simple as extracting the tar file into the ~/.fluxbox/styles/ directory. And then right click, configuration, user styles, or wherever it is for you, and just click it.
Fluxbox is easy to use, terminal oriented, great if you really want to learn about linux, and all around, definitely my favorite Window Manager. Check it out!
Peace out Holmes,
Axl
Today, I figured since it is just a dull morning, I would talk a little about Desktop Environments, and Window Managers, and more specifically my favorite one; fluxbox.
First off, I should probably explain what a Desktop Environment (Hereon known as a DE) is.
A DE is what graphical part of your computer is running. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, are all DE's because they make up what the "shiny buttons" part of everything.
DE's work on the base system, called the X window system. The X window system (Originally called xfree86, but later picked up as X) if you have ever had issues with a graphics card, or monitor, you will have obviously checked out your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. This file is the basic configuration file for your graphics card, monitor, mouse, keyboard, and other on-screen related peripherals. Anyways, linux is designed as layers, and this is the bottom layer for the Graphical Environment, which the DE comes on top of.
Back to the DE. Gnome is like a DE with a suite of applications to manage your data, and information. All of the applications under the System menu in gnome, are all part of gnome. Personally, my favorite mainstream DE is gnome, because KDE just seems too much like windows, and that is what I want to get away from. True, it may not be windows, but it just isn't my cup of tea. KDE uses the K environment, with mainly K oriented applications, and gnome uses mainly G applications. Like KDE: Kwrite. Gnome: Gedit.
Xfce has its own little set of applications like gnome or KDE, but it is a bit of a smaller suite. Xfce is kind of a minimal type of DE.
KDE, is a massive library of them. It has the functionality of a windows-like environment, which makes it easy for people to transfer to from windows. Which is what makes it mainly popular, but even some veterans I know prefer KDE.
Gnome is kind of mac-ish. It has a top bar, and a bottom bar, and the reason why I prefer it over KDE, is because it just seems to use more of my screen for me. I can house more applications, with still lots of window space, which is what I like. The KDE bar seems to just take up half my screen :p.
Fluxbox, is intensely minimum. It doesn't have a built in set of applications like KDE or gnome, so it is very terminal based. I like it, because it forces me to use the terminal, more than anything else. It doesn't have a start menu, but instead, has one small bar at the bottom of the screen, which shows your open windows, time, workspaces, and notification area. The neat thing, is that the "start menu" if you want to call it that, is just a right click on the desktop. You right click, and you should see some sections like "Apps, Games, Configuration, Restart, and Exit" Those are the ones that will absolutely be there, and there will more than likely be other sections as well. Each install, is independent to the applications you have installed. So it kind of a default "build" of the applications you have installed.
Once you install fluxbox, if you are using a distro like Arch, or Slackware, you will want to do this:
$ echo "exec startfluxbox" > ~/.xinitrc
This just adds fluxbox to your ~/.xinitrc file, so you can start it up.Fluxbox, works quite a bit differently than gnome or KDE. There is a directory '/home/ryan/.fluxbox/' *where "ryan" is your user obviously* that houses all the configuration areas. Under here, there will be a few files:
init
keys
menu
slitlist
and then a directory called 'Styles'
Mine actually has a few others, but that is the basic ones that you will have.
First thing, you will want to check out the menu file. This is one of the EASIEST, greatest configuration files I have seen. Even the man page for fluxbox, is quite amazing. Wonderful documentation, and just all around really easy to understand. I am not going to go into detail on how to configure everything, because the wiki has some great information on it. Check it out here:
http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Configuration_howtos
But in any event, configuring it is easy. Installing styles, is as simple as extracting the tar file into the ~/.fluxbox/styles/ directory. And then right click, configuration, user styles, or wherever it is for you, and just click it.
Fluxbox is easy to use, terminal oriented, great if you really want to learn about linux, and all around, definitely my favorite Window Manager. Check it out!
Peace out Holmes,
Axl
I was going to read the whole thing, but once I got past your first to paragraphs I got lost. :( I am sorry.
I am sure it is bunch of amazing computer mumbo-jumbo, though. ;)
Just making an appearance so you know I do actually think about you sometimes. (Emphasis on sometimes.) ;)