Window Managers

Now that I've settled on a Linux distribution, I needed to get it all setup how I like it. The first choice is what window manager to use. I have tried them all (or a majority of them) from Desktop Enviroments like KDE, Gnome, XFCE, to minimal window managers like TWM, CTWM, FVWM, IceWM, Pekwm, Aewm, Fluxbox, Openbox, etc. Which one is the best? well it just depends on what you like. I like resource friendly, fast, and completely configurable. That rules out the desktop enviroments. So which of the minimal ones fit that bill? Several do, but most have annoyances like how the windows are placed or some things can't be configured like mouse operations or titlebar buttons.

So the winner for me, is OpenBox. It gives me everything i need in a window manager. It has good configurability, doesnt force me to use its taskbar or uneeded items, and is resource friendly. Add "apwal" launcher and bind it to the right mouse button and you have a fast light easy to use system.

Linux update

I'm finally done with switching linux distributions. The one I settled with is Debian. Why you ask? For a couple reasons. 1. It just works. It boots fast and is solid and consistent. 2. Some other distributions I tried...including Fedora which I thought was excellent until I discovered that it and others had an issue when running Firefox where the whole OS would slow down. That is unacceptable to me and could be duplicated by visiting download.com. Debian doesn't have this issue.

Ubuntu is widely claimed as the "best distribution", but I disagree. Ubuntu is just Debian with a pretty face and some scars being hid under makeup. One of the main things about Ubuntu that made me wonder is it would ask for the user password when wanting root privileges. Hmmm, Debian asks for the root password. Whom do you trust for security? not to mention Ubuntu uses non-stable repositories, where Debian only uses stable ones unless you add others. There are some other differences, but to make this short Debian is clearly the winner. Ubuntu is only for beginners that don't know anything about Linux and once they learn they most likely will move on.

What makes Linux so great is that you don't have to settle for one distribution. Remember that "Linux" is just the kernal and that the rest of the OS is put together by the makers of the distribution. Sure there are similarities between all distributions but the subtleties are what makes the difference.

Linux Distributions

It's been awhile since I posted and I haven't spent much time with windows shells recently because I started using linux again. I originally started to use linux back in the redhat 4.1 days around '95. It was pretty basic back then and a lot of editing files had to be done. It has come a long way since then. I have tried several Linux distributions in the last few months. I started with Ubuntu since I heard it was the "best distribution" and then tried Absolute Linux, PClinuxOS, and Fedora linux. Out of this group I think Fedora wins hands down. It has the best installer of the group and best stability/security. All of the distributions have a lot of gui tools to help with administration tasks and pretty boot loaders, etc. I would rate these distributions in this order: 1. Fedora 2. Ubuntu 3. PClinuxOS 4. Absolute

My first criteria is stability, with the second being the ability to easily add applications, and third is looks. I think both Ubuntu and PClinuxOS were good looking distributions with fancy boot screens and backgrounds. However, they didn't quite live up to their looks when it came to performance and use.

I will probably try more distributions in the future and may change my mind :)