Looking for a reccomendation...

[mtf8]

Running redhat 6.2 on a pIII 500 mhz laptop w/ 128mb RAM. I'm looking for a nice wm that doesn't hog system resources. So far, I kinda like icewm (feels fast!!!). One thing I would LOVE to do is embed stuff into the background on my desktop like terminal windows and maybe even an irc session. I'd love to be able to do a tail -f /var/log/messages and have it just "exist" on my desktop with no window borders. I've seen this on quite a few themes out there but have not been able to duplicate. Am I using the wrong wm? I'm open to ideas...

thanks
mtf8

[MADHATter7]

Then you ought to try Enlightenment, it is what I am running now. Very focused on graphics, backgrounds, transparent terminals, themed terminals, easy to configure and pretty light on the resources.

Try version 0.16.5 (newest).....
http://www.enlightenment.org

Get themes at...
http://e.themes.org

Get themes to make gtk (gnome) apps match:
http://gtk.themes.org

I have used Helix Gnome, KDE, KDE2, Sawfish, Windowmaker, Afterstep, TWM, Blackbox and now E. (I seem to like E best)



[This message has been edited by MADHATter7 (edited 18 December 2000).]

[MADHATter7]

Of course, there probably is a way to do this in Icewm, I'm just not sure...

[Pierre Lambion]

Isn't there a way to do it by editing xressources ? There is a icewm theme "borderless": no windows border, just the title bar. I guess if you could get some windows drawed without any border or title bar, from a usage viewpoint, they will seem to be embed in your wallpaper.

Pierre

[Shad]

Combine it with eterm and you can have a transparent terminal. So it looks like there is just text if you remove the borders of the window.

------------------
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[gmoreno]

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gifBlackbox http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gif

[jemfinch]

You don't need a different window manager to do this; just run Eterm with a --borderless (iirc the option; the man page knows better than I do).

Also look into "root-tail" which I believe is available on freshmeat.

Jeremy

[madmanZ]

I'm looking for a nice wm that doesn't hog system resources.

Some how i dont think enlightenment would fit the bill on that. If you want something that wont hog reasources, i heard blackbox is nice and light or windowmaker.

[mtf8]

This post is right on the money. I've been combing through alot of information since I wrote the original post and I've found that Eterm provides this type of functionality. Although one of the first things I noticed after achieving a borderless, transparent window (after runnin Esetroot) was that there is no title bar. What this ends up meaning is that the terminal can not be moved around the screen (unless ALT + F7 is used). I'm sure this that type of terminal would be nice on a 19" monitor or bigger, but on a 15" screen, it makes things a bit tough for me. I also found out that all those COOL desktop-embedded log files that show up on so many themes is actually root-tail at work (sorry I don't have a url). I've installed this thing and I've got to say it rocks.

Thanks for all the feedback. Enlightenment doesn't seem to be the way to go in terms of system resources (according to a review from Linux Magazine) so I don't think I'm going to look at it. I'm not so thrilled with IceWM after working with the utilities provided (itheme, icepref, iceme) so I think I'm going to look at blackbox tonight. According to the same Linux mag review, Blackbox has a way to go in terms of GUI configuration (not that I'm a slave to the GUI but I do believe that it should be possible to configure an app whose whole purpose is to enhance the GUI via a GUI) but perhaps the review was based on a dated version (I hope).

Thanks for the ideas http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif
mtf8

Originally posted by Shad:
Combine it with eterm and you can have a transparent terminal. So it looks like there is just text if you remove the borders of the window.

[ep0k]

Sawfish (http://www.sawfish.org)

-ep0k

[NGene]

u should really give windowmaker a try! it's pretty fast (even on my p233 / 64 MB RAM) and u can configure it via gui... and windowmaker looks pretty cool! ;-)

[theoenophile]

Anyone have a url/good reference for window maker??

Thanks http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif

[mtf8]

I'm addicted to blackbox now