Re: "Official" gnome window manager

["Robert J. Slover" <robert slover Rose-Hulman Edu>]

Good Grief.

I have *no* idea what advantage might be obtained by specifying a
particular implementation over specifying a particular API.

I really shouldn't add to this thread, I wish it would die.  The couple
of people arguing in favor of a blessed WM don't seem to be catching 
the point that others have made...this isn't a choice that has to be
made at this level.  It is a distribution-level thing.  Gnome should
just define some requirements that a Gnome-Aware window manager needs
to support to play nice.  Gnome volunteers will hack those into the
more popular window managers and provide nice diffs to the maintainers.

>From then on, it's anybody's choice.  Redhat can ship Gnome-Aware fvwm2
and Enlightenment if they want, Debian can ship 15 Gnome-Aware WM's if
they want.  Who cares.  Sites typically get one distribution of things.
We used to get Slackware for our site.   Now it is RedHat.  By default,
you see the Redhat L&F.  To achieve consistency, our Systems Integrator
and Software Suite guys got together and defined a *site default* setup
that new users see.  It's CDE, for the most part....it looks the same on
VMS as anywhere else.  Most don't stick with it for very long.

The only thing that really matters is that the *distributed* desktop
appears consistent with itself to a new user.  This is the job of the
people packaging the distribution (IMHO).  If Redhat were to ship a
Gnome desktop with a non-aware WM, that's a knock against them.  We
shouldn't be dictating to those people though that 'your only WM
must be XYZ or Gnome will break.'

Later down the line, site specific changes might be made.  This is A
Very Good Thing (IMHO).

Beyond that, it might not be a bad thing if Gnome defines a set of WM
functions that are recquired that then eventually get driven into 15
different WM's.  The whole unix software world might benefit.

MWM Hints seems a good thing to start with.  Several of the window
managers I've used over the years already supported them....

My >.02 cents.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Robert J. Slover | Admin Sys Mgr | Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
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 "Yesterday starts tomorrow, Tomorrow starts today.  The problem 
  always seems to be we're picking up the pieces on the ricochet..." 
                                                    -Marillion, "Jigsaw"