Any IceWM users here ?

[MetalheadGautham]

I thought I could start this thread to woo people to use IceWM and to find out who uses IceWM.

For those who don´t know,

The following link is the best IceWM introduction for ubuntu users ever made.
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/icewm


Introduction(my version):

IceWM is a simple, elegent and easy to use window manager thats light on system requirements. It uses noticably lesser memory than FluxBox, OpenBox or Xfce. Its easy to configure, either with a GUI or with easy to edit text files placed in the ~/.icewm directory. IceWM has support for gnome like features too, via icewm-gnome-support package. It looks like Windows95, OS/2, Motif, and other classic OSes, but is still overall a modern looking Window Manager. Whats really great about it is that it has very little memory usage, but it still provides a pretty decent looking GUI.

Through icewm-themes package, you can get lots and lots of themes for IceWM, and freshmeat provides tonnes more. The default UI is ugly, so I recomend you use a theme like True-Curve, SilverXP, Natural, or OSX.

It lacks a desktop by default, but you can easily use a desktop like nautilus within it, though I don´t recomend it for memory reasons. But it does have an excellent menu, which can be edited to show desktop as an entry.

Lightweight apps make a good combination with IceWM, but its main use is as a <<¨sidekick¨>> to gnome 2.22, so that you can use it as an alternative desktop environment ONLY while performing CPU and Memory intensive tasks like DVD Burning, Gaming, etc.

It has a simple taskbar with IceMenu, show desktop, workspace switcher and window switcher. Its IceMenu is accessed by either rightclick on desktop or clicking on icemenu button. Though the menu may appear ugly at first sight, its really great and easy to use.


So any of you guys ever tried this thing ? I removed and purged those useless Xfce libraries, because Xfce is nothing compared to IceWM. It needs lots and lots of files, still its only slightly more benifitial compared to gnome. Fluxbox also gets pwned by IceWM. Openbox might be a great l00ker, but it eats waay too much ram.

[praka123]

used it temporarily in archlinux recently.it kinda no use with these WM's.you know ,I want full-fledged Desktop Environments like Gnome or Kde :D

[MetalheadGautham]

used it temporarily in archlinux recently.it kinda no use with these WM's.you know ,I want full-fledged Desktop Environments like Gnome or Kde :D
you of all people prefer DEs over WMs ? Make one yourself then. There are desktops available for IceWM, then you have other addons as well; with full support for GTK apps. Its theme is somewhat gnome default-ish, but it still OWNS.

[it_waaznt_me]

Well .. I did try to use IceWM on my installation .. And I didnt like that Red Hat kinda look and feel ..

That reminds me I havent booted into my Ubuntu installation for more than a week ..

[MetalheadGautham]

Well .. I did try to use IceWM on my installation .. And I didnt like that Red Hat kinda look and feel ..

That reminds me I havent booted into my Ubuntu installation for more than a week ..
this is wierd.

rayraven tells he doesn like the windows-classic look
FilledVoid tells that he doesn´t like the Gnome look
now you tell that you don´t like the Red Hat kida look

which of you is right ?

to me, it looks totally unique, when I use the TrueCurve theme.

[it_waaznt_me]

There's nothing right or wrong .. Its just personal preference .. Btw ... I dont see FilledVoid's comment anywhere .. :-? ..

[MetalheadGautham]

There's nothing right or wrong .. Its just personal preference .. Btw ... I dont see FilledVoid's comment anywhere .. :-? ..
I was talking about IRC discussions...
first, rayraven tells me fluxbox is the least memory hog and icewm is only slightly less than xfce and it isnt worth it. Then he started commenting against ice.

finally, when it came to testing, IceWM owned every single window manager, including fluxbox, openbox and xfce4.

[ray|raven]

I was talking about IRC discussions...
first, rayraven tells me fluxbox is the least memory hog and icewm is only slightly less than xfce and it isnt worth it. Then he started commenting against ice.

finally, when it came to testing, IceWM owned every single window manager, including fluxbox, openbox and xfce4.

IceWM feels crude and less refined to me.
Xfce and Flux are waay better IMO.

And btw, when it comes to testing , i'd bet flux eats less than icewm.

I removed and purged those useless Xfce libraries, because Xfce is nothing compared to IceWM. It needs lots and lots of files, still its only slightly more benifitial compared to gnome. Fluxbox also gets pwned by IceWM. Openbox might be a great l00ker, but it eats waay too much ram.

You must to be joking.

[mehulved]

this is wierd.

rayraven tells he doesn like the windows-classic look
FilledVoid tells that he doesn´t like the Gnome look
now you tell that you don´t like the Red Hat kida look

which of you is right ?

to me, it looks totally unique, when I use the TrueCurve theme.
Use ratpoison and forget about looks :p

[T159]

You must to be joking.
no he's in hormonal surge, may find crude things interesting and vice versa :D

again "you must be joking" is stolen from the town next to Toluca lake

Use ratpoison and forget about looks :p
you must be joking, not.

[MetalheadGautham]

IceWM feels crude and less refined to me.
Xfce and Flux are waay better IMO.

And btw, when it comes to testing , i'd bet flux eats less than icewm.



You must to be joking.
I am DEAD serious. It looks great, is simplistic, is not TOO minimal like FluxBox, and it consumes lesser resources than Flux. Exactly 5mb lesser RAM :p

I now almost always use IceWM whenever I play some game, or when I need to do some heavy installing from synaptic, or when I leave the PC on while downloading at night.

Xfce is a complete DE if you use the xubuntu-desktop package, and it comes with lots and lots of unwanted messy libraries. I prefer IceWM because its light, easy to use and easy to configure.
Use ratpoison and forget about looks :p
never heard about it. Any links ? Screenshots of your desktop ?
no he's in hormonal surge, may find crude things interesting and vice versa :D

again "you must be joking" is stolen from the town next to Toluca lake


you must be joking, not.
IceWM is waaaaaay more comfortable than Flux.

the reason its said to be crude is because in the mouse menu or the ice menu, passing over items does not expand the menus; you need to click instead. This people find crude, but I find this a great benifit because I hate having to steady my left hand, which I need to use while I eat with my right.

Even in l00ks department IceWM rocks.

just do a small
sudo apt-get install icewm icewm-gnome-support icewm-themes
and tell me how it is. Its AWSSOME provided you use the right theme, as the default one is MEANT to look crappy.

[praka123]

ratpoison is so lean,that you cannot take screenshots of it :p;):evil::D:twisted::lol:

[MetalheadGautham]

ratpoison is so lean,that you cannot take screenshots of it :p;):evil::D:twisted::lol:
then I guess its time to do a sudo apt-get install ratpoison

edit: I take my words back. It looks terrible. No mouse ?

[ray|raven]

Xfce is a complete DE if you use the xubuntu-desktop package, and it comes with lots and lots of unwanted messy libraries. I prefer IceWM because its light, easy to use and easy to configure.


There's a lot of difference between Xfce and the Xubuntu-desktop package.
Xubuntu comes with a lot of gnome libs and some apps which the Xubuntu folks think are good for low end systems.

Try Xfce in a distro like Zenwalk or Vector. You'll see how light it truly is.


never heard about it. Any links ? Screenshots of your desktop ?


Believe me , you would'nt want to try it out.
Trust me on this ;)

ratpoison is so lean,that you cannot take screenshots of it :p;):evil::D:twisted::lol:

You insult rat-poison :p
http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/shot2.png

[MetalheadGautham]

There's a lot of difference between Xfce and the Xubuntu-desktop package.
Xubuntu comes with a lot of gnome libs and some apps which the Xubuntu folks think are good for low end systems.

Try Xfce in a distro like Zenwalk or Vector. You'll see how truly light it is.



Believe me , you would'nt want to try it out.
Trust me on this ;)



You insult rat-poison :p
http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/shot2.png
I installed thunar and it needed 15mb of xfce libraries.
not at all what I call light, concidering the fact that IceWM is TOTALLY 5 MB.
and Xfce makes no sense to have when I already have gnome.
hell, even KDE3.5 runs smooth on this P4 256mb RAM Hardy system.
but on the other hand, IceWM is perfect. Extremely lightweight.

I am thinking of trying out DSLś WM for a change next.

[T159]

post the desktop screenie here, i might try it

[ray|raven]

^Dude, DSL uses Flux.

Btw , i think you should give openbox+pypanel a try, if you havent.
Its really light.

Oh and btw, size of an app doesnt determine its memory usage.
http://thunar.xfce.org/wiki/memory_usage

[MetalheadGautham]

^Dude, DSL uses Flux.

Btw , i think you should give openbox+pypanel a try, if you havent.
Its really light.

Oh and btw, size of an app doesnt determine its memory usage.
http://thunar.xfce.org/wiki/memory_usage
DSL uses JWM.

I gave openbox a try, and it eats more ram than fluxbox or gnome.
Pypanel will only add to its memory usage.
And a pannel is useless in openbox, whose neat uncluttered barely existing interface just needs an alt+tab to switch between apps.

I ditched thunar mainly because of its size, as my linux set of partitions is limited to 20GB.

I wanted to try out dillo, but its too buggy, just like XMMS because of GTK1.2+ instead of GTK2+. I and prakash are hardcore haters of GTK1.2+ due to its buggy nature.

So I am short of a good web browser for IceWM.

EmelFM is also just like dillo. So I need a file browser too.

[ray|raven]

For a browser get Kazehakase (http://kazehakase.sourceforge.jp/) or Midori (http://software.twotoasts.de/?page=midori)

For a file manager , you can use pcmanfm (http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/)

As for openbox eating more ram than gnome , did u run it inside gnome or standalone?
Its known to be light. And gnome is definitely the bloated of the list.
JWM is good , but is supposedly hard to configure.

A Panel or Standalone tray is needed in Openbox , to keep track of apps that use the tray.

[MetalheadGautham]

For a browser get Kazehakase (http://kazehakase.sourceforge.jp/) or Midori (http://software.twotoasts.de/?page=midori)

For a file manager , you can use pcmanfm (http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/)

As for openbox eating more ram than gnome , did u run it inside gnome or standalone?
Its known to be light. And gnome is definitely the bloated of the list.
JWM is good , but is supposedly hard to configure.

A Panel or Standalone tray is needed in Openbox , to keep track of apps that use the tray.
it was a typo. Openbox uses more ram than IceWM, not Gnome :oops:
JWM I heard uses XML files instead of easier to edit and well commented text files. So its out of my list.

I am sticking with IceWM because it has the simple bare necessities and nothing more, nothing less. It has a tray, a clock, a CPU monitor, a taskbar, a show desktop icon, buttons for terminal/run-command/firefox, a menu with programs and functions. Thats it.

Xfce may be better(correction: it IS better) if you use it as the only window manager, on a system like vector, but running it on ubuntu with a machine like mine is a pure sin.

[T159]

JWM I heard uses XML files instead of easier to edit and well commented text files. So its out of my list.

lol...xml files are easier to edit and you get to know every property clearly defined with tags,
even its easily understandable by machine

Every new technology is using XML somewhere in the process, the world is all about XML now.

Its much more easier to do things with XML, XSLT, XPATH and XQUERY :D

Teh whole web is being interwoven by XML at a decent pace.

[FilledVoid]

There's nothing right or wrong .. Its just personal preference .. Btw ... I dont see FilledVoid's comment anywhere .. ..

I didn't mean that IceWM is a rip off of gnome. I rather meant I preferred not using it cause it looked to ME like a stripped down version of Gnome. I personally only use Fluxbox and sometimes Gnome when I work with OOo cause OOo looks much better in gnome than it does in Fluxbox I guess. Maybe I can configure it some other way but Id have to look into it.

[Dark Star]

Mandriva install the IceWM DE by default. .will try it today :D

[ray|raven]

@MetalHead:

Try LXDE : http://lxde.sourceforge.net/