Re: gnome compliant window managers

[Jan Gentsch <gentsch ifm uni-hamburg de>]

Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> 
> Jan Gentsch <gentsch@ifm.uni-hamburg.de> writes:
> 
> > SuSE rpms don't depend on a particular windowmanager, but you are
> > prompted the first time you startup to choose one of the windowmanagers
> > available on the system (that assumes that at least on is installed, but
> > that assumption will hold true 99.9% of the time unless the person
> > operating the system nows what he is doing anyhow.
> 
> I'd consider that better behavior than what Red Hat does. This could
> be made to work even better by having a gnome-compliant-wm
> pseudo-package and having gnome-core depend on it, and all
> gnome-compliant WM's provide it.
> 
> However, I think it would be better to just probe the gnome-compliant
> window managers in some arbitrary/specified order the first time gnome
> starts up, and depend ona gnome-compliant-wm pseudo-package. Indeed,
> one might argue the pseudo-package is not even necessry since users
> should be able to run with a non-compliant wm oo if they want to, but
> that is a separate issue. Perhaps a "windowmanager" pseudo-package
> could be used instead, depending on distributor tastes. The reason I'd
> suggest this instead is because a "choose your window manager" dialog
> would confuse the heck out of new users.

I just consider it polite not to force a slightly more knowledgeable
user to first use a windowmanager that he doesnīt want to use. Just make
use of the help system (which at some stage should finally be more than
a button labeled help) and to make extra sure add something along the
line of: īIf you donīt know what this is about, just press defaultī.

Also that gives the user an indication why her desktop looks so much
different from his. Now that would be a real puzzle if you donīt know
anything about windowmanagers. Take the chance for a gentle introduction
of important UI-Concepts ;-) .

Really, this points out one of the biggest bugs in gnome as is: The Help
system is not being used, or it is often not used to provide real help
(sorry, the help is so seldom mapped to something I canīt remember where
I last found the later).
One of my biggest wishes would be that we end up with a help system
which doesnīt confronts you with such deep thought of the kind: īThe
change windowmanager applet allows you to change your windowmanager.ī.

Jan

> 
> I see now that this has already been suggested in the
> "Windowmanager in session.wm" thread; I wasn't aware of that thread
> until now because I didn't subscribe to gnome-list until I saw the
> cross-posted message that started this thread.
> 
> Further discussion should probably take place on the other thread.
> 
>  - Maciej Stachowiak
> 
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