## X11 Window Managers ## Daniel Jung Unlike Microsoft's Windows OS, FreeBSD offers many unique window managers. Starting with a fancy looking Enlightenment to just plain, simple TWM. Choosing which X window manager is totally up to you depending on your machine, of course. Making choice for X window manager was difficult one for me since there are so many available. I went with WindowMaker. While it offers variety of choices of theme and easy to work environment, it also runs with little hardware support. Another manager, I am using is called AfterStep. This is an another manger that enables you with wide selections of your environment and works well with limited hardware. Since everyone has his or her own taste in what he or she wants in a window manager and requirements, take a look below for info on varieties of X11 window managers. Name RAM Recommended Details ---- --------------- ------- WindowMaker Runs with 16mb; Multiple Work Spaces; 24mb recommended Easy to configure AfterStep Runs with 16mb; Pager; Multiple Work Spaces; 24mb recommended Easy configuration and modularization Enlightenment Need at least 32mb Very graphical; Fancy Desktop; for smooth operation Pager; Multiple Work Spaces; Memory hog KDE 32mb or more is Very stylish and graphical; recommended Desktop; Pager; Multiple Work Spaces FVWM/FVWM2 Runs with 8mb; Stylish, yet easy on your RAM; 16mb is recommended Pager; Multiple Work Spaces TWM Runs with 8mb Very simple; default if no other manager is installed There are several other managers such as CDE, WM2, MWM and so on. But, it seems like Enlightenment, KDE, WindowMaker and AfterStep is leading the way in popularity. I suggest you try them all if you can until you find the one that fits your needs and hardware requirements. I hope this somehow helped you decide on which window manager is for you. Daniel $Id: wm.txt,v 1.1 2000/02/16 08:07:43 jim Exp $