And in this article I am going to show you how to enable and use tiling feature in KDE 4.5. After that, it’s up to you to decide if this feature helps to make your work more or less efficient.

What is tiling?

The tiling effect will always make sure your windows do not overlap. This allows you to make the absolute most out of your screen real estate. This also allows you to move windows around and always have them take up remaining free space on a desktop. Tiling can take some time to get used to, but once you do, you will come to depend upon it to make your PC use as efficient as possible. Figure 1 shows a sample of how tiling works on the desktop.

Installation

There is no installation involved for the tiling feature. So long as you have KDE updated to 4.5 you are ready to go. NOTE: You can not have Emerald or Compiz enabled for this to work. If you want effects and tiling you will have to use KDE’s built-in effects.

Enabling

Figure 2

To enable tiling click Start > Computer > System Settings > Window Behavior. In this new window click on the Window Behavior section and then click the Advanced tab. In this section (see Figure 2) make sure the Enable Tiling check box is checked and then click Apply.

You will notice a drop down for the tiling layout. You have three possible options:

Columns: This will always layout your windows in columns. If there is no room on your desktop, the windows horizontal size will be resized to allow the addition of another column on the desktop.

Spiral: This will add new windows in a spiral fashion. This is one of the easier methods to use, however, the more windows you have open the smaller the new windows will become.

Floating: This is more free form and will probably suit a larger portion of people. This does not hold true to any hard and fast rules – it just places windows in the free space you have available.

Floating windows

Figure 2

You might be thinking that tiling can really be a problem when you need a window to be specific size all of the time. When you move windows around on a tiled desktop they are constantly changing sizes. To get around that, KDE has Floating Windows. A floating window is just that – not locked to any given position or size. To float a window right-click its title bar and select Float Window. You can now move that window anywhere you like (and it will retain its size). A floated window will overlap other windows (see Figure 2).

Final thoughts

Window tiling is something to get used to. It can be a bit frustrating at first, but once you get used to it, it will keep your desktop from getting out of control.

Fvwm will make you feel like you are using the love child of some UNIX desktop and Windows 95. That’s right, I said “95″. It’s Windows 95 with a few very UNIX features added for good measure. And in this next few articles I am going to help you get to know Fvwm. Why would you want to use it? Because you feel like being a part of a history that is as important to the PC as Bill Gates’s brining Windows 95 to the market.

Features of Fvwm

Fvwm, believe it or not, does have features. Included in this list are:

• Anti-aliasing font support
• Internationalization.
• Side titles with vertical text.
• Various application managers (taskbar, buttonbar, etc.)
• Wharf.
• Small memory usage.
• Tiny footprint.

And much more. For the full list, take a look at the Fvwm official features page.

Installation

Installation is simple…even from the command line. I will illustrate the installation on a Fedora 13 system using the command line. Here are the steps:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Change to the root user with the command su.
3. Enter the root user password and hit Enter.
4. Issue the command yum install fvwm.
5. After installation close out your terminal.
6. Log out of your current desktop.
7. Log in using the Fvwm desktop.

That’s it. You should now be on the Fvwm desktop (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

The desktop

The Fvwm desktop will look very familiar to anyone who has been around Linux for a while. For those of you who have not been around the Linux block long enough, some of the features will look rather archaic – especially the Wharf (bottom right edge of screen in Figure 1). The Wharf is very similar to the Wharf in the AfterStep window manager. The Wharf is a single tool that houses the features of multiple tools, it is a:

• Pager.
• Application launcher.
• Mini application launcher.
• Module holder.

Figure 2

If you look closely to Figure 1 you will notice two modules in the Wharf (xload and xclock) that are missing. This is because they weren’t installed (this was done on purpose). To install them you would need to install the application xorg-x11-apps. Or you could just issue the command:

yum install xclock

which would actually install xorg-x11-apps. Once installed click on the left click on the desktop anywhere (to bring up the desktop menu (see Figure 2) and click Restart > Fvwm. Believe it or not you can issue this restart with all your work open and not lose anything. You will need to issue this restart any time you make a change to the window manager (although some changes are applied instantly).

You will also notice, on the Fvwm desktop, a typical taskbar. This taskbar contains all the usual features:

• Start menu.
• Window list.
• Notification area.

These are all used in the same manner as you would expect.

Final thoughts

You have officially been introduced to a bit of history that refuses to go away. I recommend playing around with Fvwm even if only out of curiosity. And now that you’ve seen how Fvwm looks, in upcoming articles we’ll take a look at how to configure this old-school desktop.

But there are certain advanced configurations that I want to illustrate that might not be as obvious to the new-to-Xfce user. This time around we’re talking about the Window Manager Tweaks tool.

First off – what is a Window Manager

That question is simple to explain, but must be explained so you know what exactly this tool works with. A window manager is the piece of the desktop puzzle in charge of drawing, decorating, and manipulating the windows you see. So that pretty boarder around Firefox you see – that is handled by the Window Manager. In the case of Xfce the window manager is xfwm.

The Window Manager Tweaks tool does just what you would expect – tweaks the Xfce window manager. In what way does it tweak it? The broader picture looks like this:

• Cycling: How you want to cycle through your open windows.
• Focus: How you want window focus to be handled.
• Accessibility: How you access your windows.
• Workspaces: How you access your workspaces.
• Placement: Smart placement.
• Compositor: If you want to use compositing and how you want it used.

Now, let’s take a look at each of these more closely.

Cycling

With this feature you can configure four settings. Of these only one will not be set by default: Cycle through windows on all workspaces. This option can be useful if you deal with a lot of workspaces. If you enable this option all open windows will be included in the cycling process. If you do not include it, only those windows on the current working workspace will be included. I prefer to enable this option.

Focus

This is not the same as the standard window manager settings where you can enable such features as “focus follows mouse”. In fact the features in this tab either do not really work all that well or have no practical use. Even though Focus stealing prevention is a good idea, only applications that follow the _NET_WM_USER_TIME standard will adhere to this feature.

Accessibility

The best feature in this tab is the Key used to grab and move windows. When you press the configured key you can click anywhere on a window and drag that window around. Another nice feature in this tab is the Hide frame of windows when maximized. Although the space gained isn’t much, by losing the window frame you have a much closer to “full screen” effect without losing your titlebar.

Workspaces

From this tab I like to set Use the mouse wheel on the desktop to switch workspaces. This means I do not have to drag my mouse all the way down to the pager to switch workspaces. There is also two wrapping features you might want to set:

Wrap works spaces depending on the actual desktop layout: Wrapping workspaces means you can take a window and drag it to the left or right to move it to the next adjacent workspace.

Wrap workspaces when the first or last workspace is reached: If you have four workspaces and you drag a window to workspace four, in order to get that window back to workspace 1 all you need to do is continue dragging to the right. So the left edge of workspace 1 is adjacent to the right edge of workspace four (or your first and last if you have more than four).

Placement

There is a really nice feature in this tab called Smart Placement. You can set it so that windows open either always in the center of your screen or centered on your cursor. Add this to the mouse menu (right click anywhere on the desktop) where you can start an application without having to go to the start button and you can dictate where all of your windows are to open.

Compositor

This feature, of course, is only available to those with the hardware to support compositing. If you’ve read me enough you know I am a big fan of compositing. In this tab you can set the opacity of:

• Window decorations.
• Inactive windows.
• Windows during move.
• Windows during resize.
• Popup windows.

From this tab you can also set shadows for:

• Regular windows.
• Popup windows.
• Dock windows.

Final thoughts

As you can see, Xfce 4 has started to really challenge the big boys in features. Add to that the lighter footprint and lightning fast speed and you have the makings of an outstanding replacement for either KDE or GNOME.

In this piece of the puzzle we are going to take a look at Xfce’s “control panel”, the Xfce 4 Settings Manager. From this tool you can configure nearly all of the preferences for the Xfce 4′s desktop. It’s a very handy tool to have installed and will keep you from having to poke around the menu system to find the various setting tools.

Installation

The Xfce Settings Manager is not installed by default. So you may or may not have it. If you look in Start > Preferences and do not see Xfce 4 Settings Manager resting at the top of your menu, it is not installed. To install this tool you need only follow these simple steps:

1. Open up the Add/Remove Software tool (found in Start > Administration > Add/Remove Software).
2. Search for “xfce4-settings” (no quotes).
3. Mark xfce4-settings for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

That’s it! You should now see the tool in the Administration sub-menu.

Included tools

Figure 1

When you fire up the Settings Manager you will see everything you need in one window (see Figure 1):

• Accessibility: Configure your keyboard and mouse accessibility such as sticky/slow/bounce keys as well as mouse acceleration and repeat interval.
• Appearance: Customize the look of your desktop (style, icons, fonts, settings).
• Calendar: This controls the Orage settings.
• Desktop: Configure the background wallpaper, menus, and icons.
• Display: Change the resolution of your display.
• File Manager: Configure the behavior of the Thunar file manager.
• Input method: Enable other input devices (like Tablets).
• Keyboard: Configure the behavior of your keyboard (shortcuts, layout, etc).
• Mouse: Configure how the mouse pointer and devices behave.
• Notification: Customize how notifications appear on your desktop.
• Panel: Customize your Xfce panel.
• Preferred applications: Set the preferred web browser, mail reader, and terminal emulator.
• Removable drives and media: Configure the management of removable drives and media (cameras, PDAs, printers, input devices, etc).
• Session and startup: Configure the desktop startup (such as auto-start applications), the splash screen, manage your current session, and configure GNOME or KDE compatibility.
• Window Manager: Configure the style, focus, keyboard shortcuts, window snapping, workspace wrapping, and double-click action.
• Window Manager Tweaks: Configure window manager effects (like compositing, placement, workspaces, window cycling, etc).
• Workspaces: Configure how many workspaces as well as each workspaces name.

That’s quite a lot of available configurations for a desktop environment thought to be too light weight and featureless to be of any use. In fact, after playing around with the Settings Manager you will quickly realize how flexible and powerful Xfce really has become.

You will notice no OK or Save buttons. This is because as you make a change to any of the settings available in the Settings Manager, they are saved immediately. Just click the Close button and you’re good to go.

Final thoughts

I hope you are starting to see that Xfce 4 is not just a desktop people use when they have an old machine. In fact, this desktop is quite power and might be just the ticket for those looking for something a bit different and a bit more “old school” with “new school” capabilities.

I am going to start by showing how to install and start using Xfce 4. I have already introduced this lightweight window manager way back in my article “Get to know Linux: Xfce 4“. That article only skimmed the surface of a window manager that is only barely shy in the feature listing of either GNOME or KDE, and requires much less in the resources category. Let’s take a look at how to get it up and running and how to begin using this desktop.

Installation

The installation of Xfce is actually quite simple. I am going to show you how to install in Fedora 13. The easiest method is to open up Add/Remove Software tool and do a search for “xfce” (no quotes). What you are going to find in the search results is a LOT of possibilities. What you MUST find is a listing for xfce-desktop. Beyond that, here are some of the applications I would recommend you install:

• xfce-utils
• xfce4-taskmanager
• xfce4-settings
• xfce4-session
• xfce4-panel
• xfce4-notifyd
• xfce4-icon-theme
• xfce4-doc
• libxfcegui4
• libxfce4util
• libxfce4menu

You can look through the full listing and see if there’s anything else that strikes your fancy. Mark all of the above for installation (Don’t worry, the installation tool will pick up all dependencies) and click Apply to install. It may take a while for the installation to complete, but once it does log out of the current desktop and then log in again, choosing Xfce as your desktop environment.

The desktop

Figure 1

When you log into the latest Xfce you might be surprised to see that it looks like a standard: Complete with a panel, icons, notification area, and more.

Let’s take a look at some of the features of the Window Manager as the Window Manager (xfwm4) is what you will do much of your interaction with.

The Window Manager

You will be surprised to know that Xfce is not a Window Manager. Xfce is a Desktop Environment. The Window Manager that controls the drawing function of windows is xfwm4 and is a very stable, very lightweight WM. If you look at the upper right corner of each window in Xfce you will notice four icons. From the left to the right they are:

• ^ Roll up.
• - Minimize
• + Full screen
• X Close

Very simple. The Window Manager is configured in two places. The first place is Start > Preferences > Window Manager where you can configure the style, keyboard, focus, and advanced features. I, for one, always like to change the default focus model to “focus follows mouse” as well as set the autoraise. These are always the first things I change when using a new desktop.

The second location for configuring xfwm is Start > Preferences > Window Manager Tweaks. This configuration tool allows you to “tweak”:

• Window cycling (using <Alt>Tab).
• Focus
• Accessibility
• Workspaces
• Placement
• Compositor

That’s correct! Xfce 4 has compositing built in. And in our next article, we’ll take a look at that and other “tweaks” you can have fun with in the Window Manager Tweaks tool.

Final thoughts

You will be surprised how well Xfce 4 works. It’s amazingly fast, user-friendly, and has some bells and whistles you would think only came with bigger Desktop Environments. I hope you enjoy our little exploration of Xfce 4. And who knows, maybe it will wind up your desktop of choice?

In the period since my first article about Avant I have become quite fond of this dock. Not only is it a handy means to launch applications (or have various applets reside), it is also quite aesthetically pleasing. And for those of us who demand more from the look and feel of their desktop, this little tool is a real gift. But out of the box it is fairly pedestrian. Of course we do not want pedestrian, we want something that will make others say “I want that desktop!” And with that in mind, let’s get to the goods.

Theming Avant

The first step in customizing Avant is to install and assign a good theme. But where to get those themes. There are a couple of locations for themes:

AWN Wiki

QV AWN Theme pack

Hopefully more theme sites will pop up for AWN. Until then, the above themes should tied you over.

Now how do you install these themes? Simple. What you will most likely download is a tarball file in tgz format. You do not need to unpack that file UNLESS you download the entire theme pack. If you download the pack you will have to unpack the main tarball which will result in a newly created directory, themes. Within that new directory you will see approximately sixteen files all ending in .tgz. These are also tarball files, but you do not want to unpack them. These files will be what you install for a new theme.

Figure 1

In order to install a new theme open up AWN Manager click the icon that is shown second from the left side in Figure 1.  When you click on that icon the AWN Manager will open. To add themes click on the Theme “tab” to see where your themes are located (see Figure 2). Most likely your default installation will only have the Default theme included.

Figure 2

To install a new theme click on the Add button, navigate to where you have your theme files, select your theme, and click Open. This will install your them, but not apply the theme.  In order use your theme select the newly installed theme from the list and click Apply. Your theme will now automatically apply to your desktop.

If you look back up at Figure 1 you will see the Glass 3D theme is, in effect, a 3D-like theme. When you first apply this theme you might very well find the bar to not be 3D, but instead be a flat appearance. To change this you need to go back to the AWN

Figure 3

Manager General “tab” and click the “Bar Appearance” tab. In this tab (see Figure 3) you can change the appearance of the bar from Flat Bar to 3D by selecting 3D from the Look drop down list.

From this same tab you can change a few other appearance configurations that can further customize your AWN dock.

Fonts

Figure 4

Fonts can also make a big difference in the way your AWN looks. Although text usually only appears. Take a look at Figure 4. This image shows the default look of the mouse-over font for AWN icons.

As you can see there is a black rectangle behind the font which, for some (like myself) blows the overall look and feel of the desktop. I want to change this, and to do so I go to the AWN Manager, click on the Task Appearance tab under the General heading. In this tab I can

Figure 5

change the font use as well as make the background color transparent. To get rid of the background color click on the Background color selector and then drag the opacity bar all the way to the left. The final results are shown in Figure 5. The look is much cleaner now.

Final thoughts

Some people do not look at the computer desktop as a functioning work of art. Others, like myself, see the desktop in exactly this way. My desktop is constantly being tweaked and changed. Some of these tweaks are very minor but have a bit impact. With the help of the Avant Window Navigator I can keep tweaking that overall look and feel to perfection.

Several of the settings can be changed in the settings of the program including the width of the alt tab window, if window previews should be displayed and the icon size. A right-click on any icon in the tab manager will open a context menu with options to manipulate the selected program window. It is for example possible to set the window to be always on top, minimize it to the system tray (even if the program itself is not supporting that feature), to blacklist it so that it is not being displayed in the tab manager anymore or to ghost it. Ghosting will simply change the opacity of the selected window so that contents behind can be accessed without having to move or close the window in the foreground.

Another interesting function that is added by Alt Tab Thingy is a window preview in the Windows taskbar similar to the preview that is introduced in Windows 7. The previews that are provided by the program are limited to windows that are not minimized.

Other options that might be of interest to some users are the ability to change the screen resolution, automatic minimizing or closing of Windows Explorer windows or to enable dragging and resizing of windows by clicking anywhere on the window.

Alt Tab Thingy is a resource friendly application that can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Enlightenment E17 is one of those very special desktops that has a foot in both the window manager and desktop environment arenas. It is, at the same time, both and one or the other. E17 is the natural progress of E16 which is a much more lean and simple window manager. The biggest difference is that E17 offers more in terms of traditional desktop metaphor. But just what does it have to offer? Let’s take a look.

Features

E17 has much to offer, including:

Menus: E17 has both a main and a root menu. The main window is what you would consider a “Start” menu. The root menu is a menu that appears when you click an empty space on the desktop.

Shelf: This is what you would call a panel in most parlance. The E17 desktop can hold multiple shelves which can be placed in one of twelve locations around the desktop.

Modules: You can load or unload modules as you need them.

Gadgets: You can add different gadgets to your desktop or your shelves.

Let’s take a look at some of these pieces.

Figure 1

As you can see, in Figure 1, the E17 desktop is one of the more elegant desktops available. In this image you see the main Shelf (bottom), the root menu (lower left mid section), Gimp main window (upper left mid section), a shaded Xterm window (upper right mid section), and icons that allow you to open the file manager in different directories (upper left).

The main piece you might wonder about is the Shelf. The Shelf is a point of interest because it is highly configurable as well as usable. Let’s take a look at how to configure the Shelf.

Shelf

The shelf that you see in Figure 1 contains a few pieces:

• Start Menu: Far left. This is another means of accessing the menu.
• Pager: Second from left. This is how to warp to other desktops.
• iBox: Third from left. This is often called the Window list in other desktops. It is where applications are minimized to.
• iBar: Forth from left. Add applications launchers to this tool.
• Gadgets: Last three icons. These are various applets that can be added to the Shelf.

Figure 2

You can configure this piece of the desktop by right clicking anywhere on the Shelf, which will bring up a new menu. From the right click menu you will see a submenu called Shelf. Click on that to reveal yet another submenu. Within this new submenu select Shelf Settings, which will open a new window. The Shelf Settings window will start out in Basic mode. Click the Advanced button to expand the contents of this window to show more options.

Figure 2 shows the advanced configuration for the Shelf. Most of this is fairly straight forward. You will, however, notice the Set Contents button. Click on this to reveal yet another window that will allow you to add and remove items to the Shelf.

iBar

You might assume that, from within the Set Contents button of the Shelf Settings window, you can add application launchers and such. You can’t. What you can add is gadgets to the Shelf. Yes the iBar is where you launch applications from but just because you add an iBar to your Shelf doesn’t mean there are any launchers there.

It’s a bit tricky at first. Eventually you get the hang of it.

Figure 3

In order to add an iBar with your desired launchers you have to go to another settings window. This window is found in the Settings Panel. To get to the Settings Panel you go to the root menu, click the Settings submenu, and then click the Settings Panel entry. When this opens you will see the Apps tab (see Figure 3). Click on the Apps tab where you will see an entry for the iBar. Click on that to reveal a new window which will allow you to add and remove applications to the iBar. Once you’ve added/removed your desired applications click OK and the iBar will have exactly what you want in it.

Themes

Adding Themes to E17 is very easy. Download a theme from one of the many E17 theme sites and save it onto your hard drive. Open up the root menu, click on the Settings submenu, and click on the Theme entry. This will open up a new window where you can import themes saved locally. Or you can click the Online button and conveniently select one of the many themes from the online list.

Final thoughts

I bet if you give E17 a chance you will find yourself going back to it more and more until it is your only desktop. I have switched away many times, but I always wind up going back to Enlightenment.

IceWM is a very clean desktop and, even though it is not highly configurable, it is a fairly serviceable desktop. With that in mind let’s take a look at what most will consider a blast from the past.

Features

Let’s take a look at the IceWM feature set.

Panel: The IceWM panel serves the same function as any panel from any other desktop.Don’t expect, however, to be able to do much configuration with the IceWM panel.

Notification Area: This is your typical notification area. By default this holds a CPU meter, a mail watch app, and a clock. If you use wireless tools, such as Network Manager applet, it will appear in this area as soon as you start the applet.

Menu: The main menu of IceWM will appear either by clicking the IceWM button on the left side of the panel or by clicking the right mouse button anywhere on the desktop. We’ll discuss editing this menu later.

GNOME/KDE Support: In early releases it was necessary to roll in GNOME and KDE support when IceWM was installed. Now, however, this support is built in.

Keyboard Shortcuts: There are plenty of default keyboard shortcuts. You can even configure your own keyboard shortcuts by editing a simple text file.

That’s the bulk of the features of IceWM. Now let’s take a look at how some of these features work.

Editing the menu

Figure 1

In order to add/remove/edit items to the IceWM menu you have to edit a text file. This text file will, once saved, update the menu in real time. In other words you do not have to restart the desktop to see the changes. As you can see, in Figure 1, the menu is pretty basic (And this has a few small personalization.)

Take a look in your ~/.icewm directory. You should find a file called menu. If you do not then you have to copy this file from the /usr/share/icewm directory with the command (either with root privileges or using sudo):

cp /usr/share/icewm/menu ~/.icewm

Once that file is copied you can start to edit it to add menu entries.

A menu entry for IceWM looks like this:

prog “APPLICATION_NAME” /PATH/TO/APPLICATION/ICON EXECUTABLE_COMMAND

Where:

• APPLICATION_NAME: Is the name you want to appear in the menu.
• /PATH/TO/APPLICATION/ICON: Is the explicit path the icon image file.
• EXECUTABLE_COMMAND: Is the command used to launch the application.

An example would be:

prog "Firefox" /usr/share/icons/Bluecurve/32x32/apps/mozilla-icon.png firefox

For a Firefox entry.

Make sure you save this file. Once you save it your new entries will appear.

Keyboard shortcuts

You will also notice a file in the ~/.icewm directory called keys. If this file is not in your ~/.icewm directory you will have to copy it from /usr/share/icewm. In this file are all of the keyboard shortcuts you can use with IceWM. A typical entry will look like:

key "Alt+Ctrl+t"                        xterm

You can add your own shortcuts using any of the following modifiers: Alt, Ctrl, Shift, Meta, Super, and Hyper.

Once you have added your keyboard shortcuts you will have to log out of IceWM for the new shortcuts to take effect. These shortcuts can make your work highly efficient. Imagine rarely having to take your fingers off of your keyboard!

Final thoughts

IceWM is not going to win any awards for being the prettiest desktop around. But for efficiency, and speed it very easily could win that tiara. If you are a fan of efficient computing do yourself a favor and give IceWM a try.

Xfce 4 is a fine example of how a full-blown Desktop Environment can be both feature rich as well as light weight. Xfce 4 is based on the GTK+ toolkit which immediately puts in in the same category as GNOME. Xfce started in 1996 and stands for XForms Common Environment (because of the original toolkit it used.)  Most users will find Xfce surprisingly on par with most modern PC desktops. Let’s take a look.

Features

Xfce 4 comes with all of the features you have grown used to on a PC desktop, including:

• Panel: By default there are two. These panels are very similar to the setup in GNOME.
• Icons: Clickable icons to luanch applications from the desktop.
• Notification Area: Portion of the panel that allows small applets to give information or allow quick interaction.
• Themeable: Add new themes to customize your desktop look.
• Menus: Both a mouse menu and a traditional start menu.
• Centralized settings manager

The desktop

Figure 1

As you can see, in Figure 1, the Xfce desktop looks very familar. At the top is Panel 1. This panel contains the Show Desktop button, the Window List, the Notification Area, and the Trashcan. Along the left side are clickable icons. To the right is the mouse menu which appears with a right mouse click. At the bottom is Panel 2 which contains the Start Menu, application launchers, Log out button, and the clock.

There is another mouse menu that will appear when you click the middle mouse button (or the right and left button simultaneously). This mounse menu relates to the workspaces. You can switch workspaces and add/remove workspaces. With this mouse menu you can safely remove the Pager from Panel 1 to remove a little clutter from the top of your desktop. Once the Pager is removed you click your middle mouse button and select the workspace you want to work in from that list.

Configuring Xfce

Xfce has a nice Control Panel-esque application, the Xfce Settings Manager. As you can see, in Figure 2 below, the Settings Manager can configure most aspects of the desktop. You will notice the Window Manager button. When you click this button a new window will open that allows you to configure the following aspects of the window manager:

Figure 2

• Style: This is the theme.
• Keyboard: Keyboard shortcuts.
• Focus: How windows get focus.
• Advanced: Window snapping, Wrap workspace, opaque moving, and title bar double click action.

One very interesting configuration option is the Sessions and Startup button. When you select this you can tell Xfce to launch either GNOME or KDE services at startup. Because Xfce is aware of both KDE and GNOME, it can incorporate their services. Take a look back at Figure 1. In the top right you will see the Wireless applet icon. This is the Network Manager applet that is used by GNOME.

Launchers

Figure 3

We all know what launchers do: They launch applcations. Upon first inspection it is difficult to figure out how to create an application launcher. If you right click one of the launchers already on the desktop you will notice a menu entry “Desktop”. Within this submenu you can select:

• Create Launcher
• Create URL Link
• Create Folder

As you can see, in Figure 3, creating a launcher is straight-forward. Just fill in the information and click Create. You will notice two entries that might not be familiar:

• Use startup notification: This will create a clock-like icon that will inform you that something is starting up.
• Run in terminal: This is for applications that require a terminal for execution. You could create a launcher for the top application which must be run in a termina.

Final Thoughts

Xfce is one fine Linux desktop. It is versatile, stable, light weight, and easy to use. You will find Xfce offers you the best of both worlds: It has the feeling of a light weight window manager with the added bonus of a full-featured desktop.

Window Maker makes many changes to the standard desktop metaphor as we know it today. Gone is any semblance of a panel. Instead Window Maker offers a number of interesting features.

Features

The Window Maker feature list includes:

• Menu: Like Fluxbox (Covered recently in my Get to know Linux: Fluxbox article) the main menu can be accessed with a right mouse click on the desktop. This menu contains pretty much everything you need to work with.
• Dock: This is where dockable applications live. This includes the Window Maker configuration tool.
• Clip: This is an extension of the Dock. The click allows you to move between workspaces, configure aspects of the desktop, attract icons so they automatically add themselves to the clip.
• Graphical Configuration Tool: This saves the new user from having to hand-edit a configuration file.
• Themes: Window Maker has a lot of configuration options for the desktop look and feel.
• On the fly changes: No restart necessary when changes are made.
• Animations: Windows can do 3D flips as they minimize to icons.

Of course that is not an exhaustive feature list. To get the complete list head on over to the Window Maker website.

Getting and installing

Figure 1

Fortunately you will find Window Maker in your distribution’s repositories. So open up your Add/Remove Applications tool, do a search for Window Maker, select the results, and apply the changes. Once Window Maker is installed, exit from your current session, select Window Maker from your log in screen, and log in.

What you will see is something similar to that in Figure 1. What you can see in this image is:

• Clip: Near upper left with one attached icon (OpenOffice).
• Dock: Upper right with two added dockable apps (Firefox and Thunderbird).
• Minimized icons: Bottom left.
• Mouse menu: Near center

Configuring the menu

Figure 2

One of the aspects of Window Maker that trips up people at first is adding new items to the menu. Window Maker has an interesting take on this task. The first step is to open the configuration window. Do this by double clicking the icon in the Dock third from the top which will open the configuration window. You will see a drag bar under the icons. Drag that bar to the right to reveal the Menu Editor icon.

You can see (in Figure 2) the Menu Editor icon is highlighted with a white box. Click on this to open up the tool.

To add an item to the main menu click on an item from the menu in the Configuration window and drag it to the menu that will open when you start the Menu Editor. You can also move menu entries around by clicking and dragging them.

If you click on the drop down you can select different types of entries to add to the menu. You can select from:

• New Items
• Sample commands
• Sample submenus

You can also change the name of a menu entry by double clicking the on menu entry and typing the new name.

If there is a menu entry that you want to remove simply click and drag that item off the menu. Once you are done working with your menu, click Save, and then click Close.

Manipulating windows

There are various ways to manipulate a window in Window Maker. Here are the main methods.

Shade: If you double click a title bar the window will roll up into the title bar. You can unshade by double clicking a shaded window.

Miniaturize: This basically the same as minimizing, only it turns the window into a small icon at the bottom of your desktop. You do this two ways: Click the square in the upper left corner of the window, or Right click the title bar and select Miniaturize. You undo this by double clicking the associated icon.

Maximize: Maximize a window by right clicking the title bar and select Maximize. You undo this by right clicking the title bar and selecting Unmaximize.

Move: You can move a window by clicking and dragging the title bar.

Clip

The Clip is an interesting tool. The most important aspect of the Clip is to serve as the desktop pager. By default there is only 1 desktop. To add more desktops do a middle mouse click on the Clip and select New. The new desktop will automatically appear.

Another neat aspect of the Clip is the ability to attract icons. What this will do is allow you to add an icon to the Clip simply by clicking Attract icons. Any application that is miniaturized will be attached to the Clip. Remove the icons you don’t want by right clicking the icon and select Remove icon. If you don’t “keep” an icon on the Clip, the icon will disappear when the application is closed. If you want to be able to launch the application from the Clip, right click the icon and select Keep Icon. Now, even when the application is closed, there will be a clickable icon on the Clip that will open the application. when its icon is double clicked. One nice aspect about this is that the added icon will remember options for the application. Say, for instance, you run the aterm application with the following options:

aterm -tr -fg white -bg black +sb

When you attract the icon with those options, and you “keep” that icon, any time you double click the Clip icon for that application it will run it with those options.

Final Thoughts

Window Maker is one of the old school desktops you can spend hours playing with and will ultimately discover an incredibly useful desktop. Give this a try and let ghacks know what you think.

But just what does Fluxbox offer if it is so minimal? Believe it or not it offers everything you need on a desktop to get your job done. Let’s take a look at the latest version of this old-school Linux desktop.

Features

Figure 1

• Mouse menu: This is the only menu you will find on the desktop.
• Slit: This is a dock for any application that is “dockable”.
• Toolbar: This bar (by default at the bottom of the screen) shows all of the windows of your desktop and contains the system tray, current workspace name, and more.
• Workspaces: Switch between different workspaces to keep your desktop organized.
• Tabs: Organize windows together into one or multiple tabbed windows to keep clutter to a minimum.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Create your own keyboard shortcuts via simple flat text configuration.
• System Tray: This tool is used to house tiny applications that serve specific purposes (such as the Network Manager applet.)

Figure 1 shows the Fluxbox desktop. As you can see it is, in fact, very minimal yet doesn’t suffer from a loss of useability.

Configuring the menu

By default you will notice a single right click on the desktop will bring up a rather barren menu. Figure 1 shows a menu with a couple of additions: Firefox, Thunderbird, Songbird, and GIMP.  Adding to this menu is simple. One of the entries in the menu is xterm, which you will need to open in order to edit the menu text file.

Once xterm is opened issue the command:

nano ~/.fluxbox/menu

to open up the menu configuration file. Each menu entry consists of a minimum of:

[exec] (NAME) {COMMAND}

Where NAME is the name of the application and COMMAND is the command to start up the application. So an entry for Firefox would look like:

[exec] (Firefox) {firefox}

You can also create submenus by starting each submenu with:

[submenu] (SUBMENU NAME)

Where SUBMENU NAME is the name of the submenu you want to use. So a Networking submenu could look like:

[submenu] (NETWORKING)
[exec] (Firefox) {firefox}
[exec] (Thunderbird) {thunderbird}

Once you have finished your menu, save it and you will automatically see the changes (no need to restart Fluxbox.)

Tabs

Figure 2

This is one of the more unique features to Fluxbox. Tabs are similar to browser tabs in Firefox. You can join various windows together into one tabbed window in order to keep things organized. As you can see, in Figure 2, Firefox and Thunderbird have been joined together in one window. To switch back and forth between each just click the respective tab for the application you want to work with.

To join two windows together you simply middle mouse click (if you only have two buttons click them both at the same time) on the titlebar of one window and drag it to the titlebar of the window you want it to join. So to join Thunderbird with Firefox click on Thunderbird’s title bar with the middle mouse button and drag it to the Firefox titlebar. You can remove an application from a joined window by middle mouse clicking on the titlebar and dragging it out of the window.

Setting a background

One thing you will notice is that Fluxbox is bereft of any tool to help you set the background image. For many this isn’t an issue, but there are those who do prefer to have a personalized wallpaper on their desktop. In order to add a specific wallpaper you have to add a line to the ~/.fluxbox/startup file. This line will look like:

fbsetbg -f /PATH/TO/IMAGE/FILE

Where /PATH/TO/IMAGE/FILE is the explicit path to the background image you want to use.

In the case of the background, you will have to restart Fluxbox in order for the change to take effect.

Who is Fluxbox for?

I get this question a lot. Who would want to use such a minimal window manager? The first, and obvious, answer, is anyone with an older or less powerful machine. Employing Fluxbox on a machine with less power will not gobble up precious CPU or memory leaving more for applications.

I have deployed Fluxbox on kiosk and cafe machines that are used for specific purposes. Say you want to allow only the web browser to be used. For this you can alter the menu file to only include a web browser. That way the user can not run another other program (unless they how to get to a console window).

Fluxbox is also a good window manager for anyone who prefers a very minimalistic approach to computing. There is little to get in the way of your work. And since Fluxbox is so reliable, you won’t be worrying about your desktop crashing.

The simplest method to get a composit manager installed is to install Compiz. Compiz is an outstanding window manager all on its own that is, by default, ready for compositing. With Compiz installed you will have a composit manager that E16 can deal with already installed.

In Ubuntu if you issue the command sudo synaptic you will open up the Add/Remove Software application. From here do a search for compiz. When the results come up select compiz and allow the system to install all necessary dependencies. Finally click Apply to install all of the packages.

Once Compiz is installed you should be able to set compositing up in Enlightenment. With a right mouse click the Settings menu will appear. Select “Composite Settings” to open up the configuration window.

Composite Settings

Once the settings window opens you will see a few configuration options to choose from.

Composite Settings Window

The first option to take care of is Enable Composite. Make sure that is checked. The rest of the options are all up to user taste.  I prefer to have  Fading Speed set to slowest (slider to the far left), Shadows Blurred, Default Unfocused Window Opacity near 1/2, and Default Pop-Up Window Opacity around 3/4 on. Once you have selected these options click Apply to set them.

The final effect can be pretty amazing for just a “simple window manager”.

The full effect

Final Thoughts

What I love about Enlightenment is that it is a lightweight desktop that manages to pull off enough tricks to impress yet doesn’t drag your machine to a halt. With a little hackery, Enlightenment can make Windows Aero look like a sad attempt at a modern desktop.

WinSnap is also known as the Windows Snapshot Maker, a screenshot application that is available as both a portable and regular edition for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows. It provides the usual means to take a snapshot of the full desktop, an application, a window, object or region. The option to take a snapshot of an object might require some explanation. This option makes it possible to take a screenshot of several elements on the screen. Say you have two open windows on the screen and want to include both in the screenshot but not the rest of the desktop. This can be done by selecting the Object mode which makes use of the [CTRL] key to mark several objects before the screenshot is taken.

A new screenshot will be displayed in the main interface of the software program. It can also be set to be automatically saved to the computer’s hard drive or copied to the Windows Clipboard which can save quite some time if you take screenshots regularly. The filename, image format and quality can also be defined in the options. The defaults are the png image format with a quality setting of 85%.

Several effects can be applied to a screenshot taken with WinSnap. They are divided into the categories coloring, shadow and misc. Coloring can be used to change the coloring of the screenshot to grayscale, sepia or inverted colors. Shadows will add shadows to the outlines of the screenshot and misc makes it possible to add contours, watermarks and to rotate or scale the image.

Hotkeys can be used for the main functions in WinSnap. Each of the five different screen capturing modes can be initiated with a global hotkey for maximum comfort. Another interesting option is the external tool support menu which can be used to add external tools – like image editors – to the software program. Only Microsoft Paint and an option to save the screenshot to the computer desktop are available by default.

WindowSpace on the other hand is a window manager. It is supplied as a 32-bit and 64-bit Windows version.

The software application can be used to work with windows in Windows more effectively. Two of its main functions are window snapping and moving & resizing. The application is completely hotkey driven but some functions can also be used regularly without hotkeys.

Window Snapping describes the process of snapping the active window to another window (outer or inner edges) or the screen border. Windows can be moved or resized with hotkeys which is excellent for users who prefer the keyboard over the mouse.

Several global hotkeys are available to maximize, minimize or hide windows instantly. There are also options to tile or cascade windows.

You can win five licenses for WinSnap and five licenses for WindowSpace. All you need to do is leave a comment below.

But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves. Before we get to the actual configuration let’s first take a look at Enlightenment (version E16 which is the stable version).

Enlightenment Screenshot

As you can see Enlightenment has a lot of neat tricks up its sleeve. On the above screenshot you can see The Gimp open, a Firefox browser shaded to only show its title bar, the aterm terminal will full transparency running the top application, the iconbox (bottom right) which is where applications are minimized, and the pager (bottom left).

Now let’s install E16. It shouldn’t be necessary to jump through any hoops. On most modern Linux operating systems you can just open up the Add/Remove Software application (on Ubuntu this is Synaptic, on Fedora 10 running GNOME it is gpk-application) and do a search for “enlightenment”. The package manager should pick up all dependencies.

If you’d prefer to use the command line you can run one of these (either as root or using sudo):

• apt-get install enlightenment
• yum install enlightenment
• urpmi enlightenment

If, by chance, your distribution doesn’t find “enlightenment”, you can try “e16″ instead.

That should do it. Now, if you use a graphical login screen you’ll want to choose the E16 entry before you log in. This should be under “Sessions”. If you use text-based log in you will want to create an .xinitrc file with the following contents:

exec e16

If that doesn’t work us:

exec enlightenment

Most likely the former will work.

Configuration

If you do a left mouse click you will see the configuration window.

E16 Configuration Menu

The one thing you can not configure via the configuration menu is the menu itself. To configure the menu you have to actually edit the file ~/.e16/menus/user_apps.menu. It is very easy to edit this menu. Open this menu up in your favorite text editor and you will see entries that resemble:

“aterm” NULL exec “aterm -tr -fg blue -bg green +sb”
“XTerm” NULL exec “xterm”
“rxvt” NULL exec “rxvt”
“Basket” NULL exec “basket”
“Mozilla” NULL exec “mozilla”
“K3B” NULL exec “k3b”
“Firefox” NULL exec “firefox”
“Flock” NULL exec “/home/jlwallen/flock/flock-browser”
“Thunderbird” NULL exec “thunderbird”
“gnucash” NULL exec “gnucash”
“Amarok” NULL exec “amarok”
“Banshee” NULL exec “banshee”
“The GIMP” NULL exec “gimp”

A menu entry is set up like so:

Comment Icon exec “command”

The comment is the text that appears in the menu. Icon is the actual path to an icon image to use (NULL means none), The exec command is necessary to tell the system that what follows is an executable command. The command section is the actual command.

Once you edit that file, save it, and the changes are made in real time.

Final Thoughts

And that’s pretty much it to configuring Enlightenment E16. If you have a Linux box you should certainly give Enlightenment a try. It might wind up being your “go-to” desktop.

UPDATE: Here’s a new screenshot, full size, for your enjoyment.

New Screenshot

With that in mind let us begin by illustrating the differences between a desktop environment and a window manager. We’ll begin by showing how the Linux graphical desktop is layered.

As you can see, in the image below, there are basically three layers that can be included in the Linux desktop:

• X Windows – This is the foundation that allows for graphic elements to be drawn on the display. X Windows builds the primitive framework that allows moving of windows, interactions with keyboard and mouse, and draws windows. This is required for any graphical desktop.
• Window Manager: The Window Manager is the piece of the puzzle that controls the placement and appearance of windows. Window Managers include: Enlightenment, Afterstep, FVWM, Fluxbox, IceWM, etc. Requires X Windows but not a desktop environment.
• Desktop Environment: This is where it begins to get a little fuzzy for some. A Desktop Environment includes a Window Manager but builds upon it. The Desktop Environment typically is a far more fully integrated system than a Window Manager. Requires both X Windows and a Window Manager.

A Desktop Environment generally includes a suite of applications that are tightly integrated so that all applications are aware of one another. A Desktop Manager will also include some form of panel that includes a system tray where small widgets can be placed for quick action or information.

Linux Desktop Layering

Much of the confusion starts to peek out when you examine such Window Managers as E17 (Enlightenment 17).

The most recent iteratio of Enlightenment includes many of the elements usually found only Desktop Environments even though Enlightenment is still considered a Window Manager. To this point I generally refer to such desktops as Desktop Managers.

There are two main Desktop Environments: GNOME and KDE. If you are curious as to which is right for you, here is some advice. The latest default GNOME will make users of OS X feel right at home, KDE 3.x will make Windows XP users feel at home, and KDE 4.x will make Windows Vista users feel at home.

[poll id="3"]

As to which Window Manager is best suited for which user? Since there are so many Window Managers I will highlight my favorites.

• Enlightenment: You want plenty of eye candy but not something as resource-intensive as KDE or GNOME.
• Fluxbox: You want minimal and fast.
• Afterstep: You want something old-school to give you hours of tinkering fun.
• Xfce: You want a Windows-like interface without the bloatware of GNOME or KDE.
• Compiz-Fusion: This is a full-blown 3 dimensional window manager rife with plugs that do just about everything. If you want something to seriously impress your friends, this is where you want to look.

One of the most wonderful things about the Linux desktop is that it is only limited to your imagination. You can make the Linux desktop look and feel exactly how you want it. You can go from complete minimalism to the full-blown 3D goodness of Compiz-Fusion. I will give you one warning: Playing with the Linux desktop might be as much of a time-suck as World of Warcraft.

That is of course not all that auto window manager can do. It is able to change the way windows reacts when you click on the minimize button. You may send minimized windows to the tray instead of sending them to the task bar. This is great if you want to run a program in the background and don’t want that it wastes some space in the task bar. You may also configure windows to stay on top all of the time.

Another nice option is the transparency one that gives you a similar transparency effect that windows vista ships with. You may choose a transparency rate between 0% which means no transparency to 100% which means absolutely transparent.

Last but not least you may specify a location where the windows should appear on your desktop. All options are accessible when you right-click the window.