Re: "Official" gnome window manager

[Mark Hamstra <mark hamstra Bentley com>]

On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, chuck by default wrote:

: IMHO, theme support is no different from supporting different wm's - it just
: requires slightly more careful abstraction.

This strikes me as correct.  I would opine that the ideal would be a modified
xdm-style login that provides a selection of graphical environments.  Whether
those selection options are various themes of a single window manager, unique
window managers, or a combination of the two should make little difference and
be completely transparent to the end user.  E.g., suppose an environment that
has fvwm95, olwm, and three themes of Enlightenment pre-configured.  The
login manager then has a selector (probably just a selection list) that has five
items.  The end user picks one of the five with little concern for what window
manager is running underneath, she just cares that it looks the way she likes
it to and is the environment she is comfortable with.  The Gnome apps in the
chosen environment configure themselves and behave according to the settings
and supported functionality of the environment.

Bonus points are awarded for having an LDAP-type directory server that stores
the user's preferred environment and uses that environment unless over-ridden
by her choice in the login manager, and for having a way to store a new or mod-
ified configuration into the LDAP server.  These user customized environments
then show up as selection options for that user on subsequent logins, but not
necessarily for all users --though a means of making customizations publicly
available would be cool too.

--
Mark Hamstra
Bentley Systems, Inc.