Re: "Official" gnome window manager

[Jim Pick <jim jimpick com>]

Marcus Butler <marcusb@wspice.com> writes:

> On 13 Feb 1998, Jim Pick wrote:
> 
> > A Gnome window manager would only be 1 out of 15 or so in Debian.  The
> > battle to have a single window manager standard was lost when the X
> > consortium decided to allow multiple window managers.  Personally, I
> > think that's a good thing.
> 
>  That decision is one of the big reasons why people are implementing
> desktops now.  Mechanism v. Policy is dead.  When we start supporting ten
> (or even three) different window managers, there are going to be
> differences in application behaviour.  One WM might support MWM hints,
> another might not.  If one application takes advantage of MWM hints on a
> system without a WM that understands MWM hints, window decorations might
> be out of place.  Part of a desktop system is a window manager.  Another
> part of a desktop system is a consistent look-and-feel.  You can't have
> the latter without the former.

Who needs absolute consistency?

Some consistency is nice, sure.  But that can be easily achieved by
publishing specs and patching the window manages to support any Gnome
extensions we come up with (ie. MWM hints).

Nobody is going to choose absolute consistency over choice.

Cheers,

 - Jim

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