Window Managers

By far, the three most popular window managers on campus are the familiar Motif Window Manager (mwm), a variant of mwm called fvwm, and (tv)twm. These are all installed on EWS.

mwm

The familiar Motif Window Manager is the default on EWS. Since it's commercial, you have to pay for it if you're running linux. It's a basic little window manager.

twm

The Tab Window Manager is the default in the CS department Sparc lab. It like, manages windows and stuff. It's also freely available

tvtwm

Tom's Virtual Tab Window Manager is a more powerful version of twm, featuring a virtual desktop. The virtual desktop allows you to have a larger "desktop" than just your screen allows, and lets you switch between them.

fvwm

Nobody REALLY knows what 'fvwm' means, but it's THE elite window manager. It's based on twm, but it looks like mwm. It's extremely powerful, configurable, and extensible. It has a programming interface (or API) that allows one to write modules for it, like button bars, and a virtual desktop manager. Unlike mwm, it is freely available.

vuewm

HP's implementation of the Common Desktop Environment, it is only mentioned here because it is the default on the CS HP machines. It sucks. My best advice is to turn it off! Unfortunately, the only alternative is mwm, so you don't have much of a selection.

To use one of these, substitute the appropriate line below for the "exec mwm" line in your .xsession file:

	EWS	CS
fvwm:	exec /usr/local/bin/fvwm	exec /local/bin/fvwm
twm:	exec /usr/bin/X11/twm	exec /usr/openwin/bin/twm
tvtwm:	exec /usupport/bin/tvtwm	exec /local/bin/tvtwm

Default configuration files exist for these, you might want to copy them to your home directory. Modifying these scripts is pretty trivial, but beyond the scope of this workshop. Check out the manager's manual page for details. (Make sure /usupport/man is in your MANPATH on EWS!)

	EWS	CS
mwm:	/usr/lib/X11/system.mwmrc	/usr/openwin/lib/X11/system.mwmrc
fvwm:	/usr/local/lib/fvwm/system.fvwmrc	/local/encap/fvwm-1.24r/lib/X11/fvwm/system.fvwmrc
twm:	/usr/lib/X11/twm/system.twmrc	/usr/openwin/lib/X11/system.twmrc
tvtwm:	/usupport/X11R5/lib/X11/twm/system.twmrc	/local/encap/tvtwm-1.7/lib/X11/tvtwm/system.tvtwmrc

Rolling your own

Killing VUE

Make sure your .xsession file invokes its window manager like this:

if [ -f /usr/bin/X11/mwm ] ; then
    exec /usr/bin/X11/mwm
else
    exec mwm
fi

xinitrc

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