[issue897] evaluate inclusion of colfm

[Frank Terbeck]

Frank Terbeck <ft at grml.org> added the comment:

>> I'd need to check out most of the WMs again, to get a descent proposal
>> for removal.

Okay, let's works this down from the top.

  awesome - I tried it again. It's not as bad as I remembered. But we
            have to think in terms of a live-cd. Does it add anything
            the other WMs don't?  What about its dependencies? What else
            on the isos uses libxcb*? Could this free up a lot of space?
            I'm leaning towards removing this one.

  dwm - Should go. Sorry. But I don't see any value added by this one
        for grml as a live-cd. Does anybody *really* want this WM when
        he's doing desaster recovery? I honestly can't believe that.

  evilwm - When I tried it, it turned the screen black. No mouse pointer
           and the default bindings from the webpage didn't work. This
           was in a `kvm' session. In any case, I'm voting to remove
           this one.

  fluxbox - Finally. This is a default setup you can use. This one
            should definately stay.

  fvwm - Seriously? fwvm1? That's gotta be a joke. And it is. Kind of.
         `fvwm' and `fvwm2' are actually the same. The zsh completion
         for `grml-x' shouldn't list both.

  fvwm2 - This is actually better than I remembered. The menu has the
          whole debian menu, but also a reasonable selection in its own
          submenus. I was about to vote to remove this one, but apart
          from the weird default-fvwm look this is actually very usable.

  fvwm2-crystal - fvwm2 with pretty looks. Couldn't find the big Debian
                  menus, though. The app selection in the windows I
                  could find were quite limited. I'm voting to remove
                  this one.

  jwm - Not bad. But I don't see an advantage over fluxbox or fvwm. I
        think this one is pretty small, so we could keep it. I'm still
        voting to remove it. Why? Because it doesn't earn us any
        functionality.

  openbox - I don't know, but I like this one. The menu is short and
            sweet, but offers the whole Debian menu, too. No bullshit
            user interface... I should probably say "Remove it!" since
            it doesn't add much to fluxbox and fvwm. But this one really
            feels right... Dunno.

  pekwm - Hum. Another small WM. `jwm' felt better and I voted to remove
          it. So, my vote on this one is clear: Remove.

  ratpoison - Another small WM. For mouseless use. So, started it, got a
              black screen. No mouse pointer, makes sense. Didn't
              remember default keybindings. But that's my fault. Looked
              at the projects webpage, which said "C-t c" should open a
              terminal. Didn't work. Useless if we change the default
              keybindings without telling anyone. (again, this is in
              kvm, maybe that has something to do with this problem,
              which is similar to what I saw with evilwm.) Still, I'm
              voting to remove this one.

  twm - X11's default WM. That's all that's positive about this
        one. It's clumsy to use and adds nothing useful. Let's just
        remove it.

  w9wm - A slightly improved 9wm. I don't think we gain anything from
         having this one. At all. Let's remove it.

  wmii - Small tiling WM. The positive aspect is that, when you start
         it, you get a short tutorial displayed. Useful, esp. for users
         who don't know it. Still, this basically helps to start
         terminals. And other WMs to that, too.

  wm-ng - Fluxbox with a desktop and gkrellm. Since it's fluxbox, the
          same as before applies. I'd probably start fluxbox like this
          per default, though.

  x-window-manager - debian-alternatives. Defaults to `openbox'. Not a
                     bad choice.

If I'd be really really strict, I'd say, keep `fluxbox', `fvwm2' and get
rid of the rest. But then, diversity isn't a bad thing. So, I'd also
keep `openbox'. And maybe `wmii' or `awesome' - one of the two
anyway. `awesome' is more powerful but also heavier...

Thinking about it a little more, I'd keep: awesome, fluxbox, fvwm2 and
openbox.

I'd definately remove: -crystal, twm, w9wm, evilwm, ratpoison and dwm.

Undecided about the others, but leaning towards removal.

Regards, Frank

----------
files: unnamed
messages: 3334, 3337, 3400, 3401, 3407, 3408, 3409, 3410, 3411
nosy: ft, mru
priority: wish
status: chatting
title: evaluate inclusion of colfm
topic: grml-etc-core

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GRML issue tracker <bts at bts.grml.org>
<http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue897>
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