No More Window Maker?
Back in the days prior to OS X, I used to run Linux on the desktop (dual booting with OS 9) and used Window Maker. Since then I've used Linux a fair bit but only on servers - I have all the UNIXy goodness I need in OS X. I've just looked into setting up another Linux desktop system to see how viable it is and found that Window Maker still hasn't made it to a 1.0 release - in fact, it hasn't seen an update since 2005.
It's a bit of a shame, I guess Window Maker wasn't exactly a shining example of innovation considering it was a copy of the NeXt UI, but at least its aim in life wasn't to look like Windows. Looking at it now I don't expect that I'd actually want to use it (though running in VMWare really doesn't help perceptions) but I just don't see the point of running Gnome or KDE - they're like Windows but not as well done.
April 28th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I used to use WMaker long ago. Then I switched over to Enlightenment specifically because I didn’t want something that tried to be Windowy. I’d recommend it from that point of view. It is different from WMaker, but it doesn’t take too long to make the adjustments…
April 29th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I’ve heard good things about beryl - all the demos use effects that would make me sick in regular usage but you can turn them off and run something a little more suited to everyday use.
http://www.beryl-project.org/
April 29th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Yeah I saw Beryl and it looks like the most promising so far, but it doesn’t run in VMWare (kinda lacking in OpenGL support).
May 30th, 2007 at 8:44 am
I actually just started using Window Maker (coming from Fluxbox) a couple of weeks ago and really like it. I pointed out to my (OS X-using) wife all the little things in Window Maker that you can sort of see in OS X, such as the three dots in the icons that disappear when the app is running (kinda the reverse of the little triangle in the OS X Dock), the icon bar instead of a taskbar, etc.
Her response? “If you’re going to run that, why don’t you just run OS X?”