Re: Recommended gnome startup

[Martin Soto <masoto uniandes edu co>]

adam@cybertrails.com writes:
> A: If your using a X11R6 Session Management compliant WM, just run
> gnome-session, pop up an xterm or gnome-terminal, run the wm, then 
> exit gnome.  The next time you start, so will the WM. (This is how
> I get E, for example, to start by default.
> 
> B: In the case of some WM that is not complaint (Window Maker), 
> use the "session manager properties" to add the window manager
> manually.
> 
> 	That is, of course, unless someone with more knowledge says
> otherwise.. :)

Yep, I guess that is it.  I have one little point though: Isn't this
going to be too complex for the standard Gnome luser?  One thing that
worries me is that exiting or killing most window managers is an easy
thing to do (even by accident) and that may be very annoying for non
experienced users.

Think a bit about it.  You suddenly get all of your windows on the
screen at the same time (even if they were iconized or in another
desktop) and the borders are simply not there.  You no longer can
raise windows by clicking on them, and the keyboard focus behaves very
estrangely.  I'm sure many of us hackers and techno-geeks lurking
around the Gnome lists can deal with such a situation properly, but a
naive user will be really scared.

I think the only way to avoid this problem would be to add special
support for the window manager to gnome-session.  The idea would be to
guarantee that a window manager will always be running, so that if the
running one is killed or dies due to a bug a fresh one will be
automatically started.  Also, a gui would have to be provided to ease
the task of picking a new window manager and starting it in a session
aware fashion.

I'm willing to code the thing by myself, but I don't know
gnome-session, or, in general, X11 session management good enough.
So, I would really appreciate the help of more knowledgeable people
regarding how to do this in a straightforward way.  

Any opinions already?

M. S.
------------
Martin A. Soto J.                           Profesor
Departamento de Ingenieria de Sistemas y Computacion
Universidad de los Andes      masoto@uniandes.edu.co