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GUI Software Operating Systems Unix X BSD Linux

Window Maker 0.90.0 Released At Long Last 55

Posted by timothy from the clean-and-functional dept.
BEI01 writes "From windowmaker.org: After years without a release, we are glad to announce that Window Maker 0.90.0 is out! Highlights are NetWM support (thanks to Peter). This means wmaker should work fine with GNOME 2.x and KDE 3.x. UTF-8 support, antialiased text support via Xft2, Xinerama support, enhanced Alt-Tab window switching, Font configuration in WPrefs, and many fixes."
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Window Maker 0.90.0 Released At Long Last More

Window Maker 0.90.0 Released At Long Last

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  • Linux? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Breakfast Pants ( 323698 )
    A new release of Window Maker is not exactly linux news. Window Maker can run on pretty much any platform which runs X.

    • Re:Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by node 3 ( 115640 ) on Monday October 25, 2004 @05:42AM (#10619054)
      A new release of Window Maker is not exactly linux news.

      But it exactly is Linux news. It's news that is related to Linux, and of interest to many Linux users.

      That doesn't mean it's not also X11 news, and Mac OS X news, and Cygwin/X news, and AIX news, etc, but they have to pick a category, and "Linux" isn't an illogical category to choose. It's not like they picked YRO, or Games or something.

      Window Maker can run on pretty much any platform which runs X.

      And Linux is used as a general catch-all category for the Unixey platforms that run X. A bit fuzzy? Sure. Is that too confusing for you?

      • Re:Linux? (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I'm really not happy with this logic.

        It's not like they picked YRO, or Games or something.

        But surely if I can now download a version of WindowMaker I've never had the right to before, then it is one of my rights online? What about the fact it's GPL'd? That's an important issue of rights damnit!

        And are you saying I can't play XBill and other quality games if I run WindowMaker?

        I know, it's stretching it, but it's equally stretching it to argue that the appropriate place for this is the Linux section.

        • Re:Linux? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by node 3 ( 115640 )
          I know, it's stretching it, but it's equally stretching it to argue that the appropriate place for this is the Linux section.

          It's not equal at all, except in an irrational, binary, you-completely-missed-the-nuance way. Of all the possible Slashdot categories, Linux is a logical one. I believe there's an X11 category which to me seems even more appropriate. Hell, there might even be a Window Maker one. The Games and YRO categories are not reasonable, unless the story is specifically about Games or YRO aspe

          • Re:Linux? (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Brandybuck ( 704397 )
            They take something that's reasonable, and extend it to absurdity to make the claim that the reasonable example is also absurd.

            Categorizing Mozilla as "Linux" (the example you claimed was absurd) is no more absurd than categorizing WindowMaker as "Linux".
      • I take offence to your inference that FreeBSD falls under the fuzzy unmbrella of 'Linux'. That migh make sence if this was for a web site for PHBs, but it's not. It's a site for geeks who know the difference between FreeBSD and Fedora.
      • There was a bug (since fixed) that made it impossible to add or update the topics and sections assigned to a story; since the bug is now fixed, I went in and added the topics I thought appropriate.

        I suspect (am not sure) that Linux is the environment under which Window Maker is most often run, just multiplying the number of Linux installs x the % of people whom might have it on the machines :)

        However, as has been pointed out, the story as posted was remiss for implying that it was a Linux-only bit of news
      • Even though I got modded to 1, someone seemed to agree with me as the story is now under about 6 topics.

    • Re:Linux? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Brandybuck ( 704397 )
      It should be noted that before this thread existed this article was only in the Linux section. After this thread it gets moved to the BSD section with a link in the Linux section.

      WTF?

      Meanwhile, it still hasn't been tagged with the GNUstep topic, which Windowmaker is officially a part of.

      WTF?

      Does anyone else think that Slashdot's continuing popularity is a result of mere inertia?

  • Fonts setup... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kosmosik ( 654958 )
    Does anybody know how to change fontface used for drawing ballon tips and window while switching with alt-tab? It should be under some variable in ~/GNUstep/Defaults/WindowMaker - but I don't know which one...
  • Yeah, because I also had some bug reports filed. However, for the moment I do not use wmaker much. On my small portable (233 MHz) I installed XFCE4 for my wife, on my big portable (AMD64 3000+) I use KDE, on my server I use Enlightenment with the Aqua theme, come to think of it, the workstation I use to connect to my server still runs wmaker. I hope it makes it quickly into Debian unstable/testing.
    • I used to be a huge wmaker fan, but I gave it up when moving to KDE 3, because of the lack of full support. But kwin isn't quite as capable as wmaker; maybe once it hits Debian sid, I'll give a shot to running kde+wmaker and see how it goes.

  • That's great! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by namekuseijin ( 604504 ) on Monday October 25, 2004 @06:32AM (#10619238)

    Despite being simplistic by today standards, the NeXTStep graphical environment, which WMaker emulates, still is one of the most productive and unintrusive environments ever. And it can look damn good with some proper themes and fine-tuning.

    The Xft2 addition is a particularly very welcome one.

    This is great news. I hope the integration with GNUStep [gnustep.org] is a step further too. :)

    • Agreed. Pretty much the first thing I do in any environment is get it looking as close to NeXTStep as possible. The environment Just Works much better than pretty much anything else out there. I use KDE right now almost entirely because of juk, but my desktop is much more nextish than anything else.
  • Visiting windowmaker.org is like visiting xemacs.org or xfree86.org. Nothing happens at all!
  • Is this a sign we will get E17 soon?

  • Important to note (Score:4, Informative)

    by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Monday October 25, 2004 @06:59AM (#10619337) Homepage Journal
    It's important to note that Window Maker is part of the GNUStep [gnustep.org] project which is a cross-platform, object-oriented framework for desktop application development, free software implementation of NeXT's OpenStep, which celebrated its 10th birthday [slashdot.org] on October 19th. For anyone who is interested, there is much more info here [slashdot.org].
    • It's important to note that Window Maker is part of the GNUStep project

      It's also important to note that WindowMaker does not use the GNUstep API in any form.

  • Comparison? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Kevin Burtch ( 13372 ) on Monday October 25, 2004 @08:09AM (#10619584)

    Anyone know of a comparison between GNUstep, WindowMaker, and AfterStep?

    I'd finally given up on WindowMaker a few weeks back, nothing has been happening with it for so long - I was looking at AfterStep, but the configuration and user-interface are a bit different and tough to get used to (AS uses the wrong mouse button for menus, for example). Glad to see it hasn't been completely abandoned.

    Anyways, the original question: Are there any reasonably current (within the last few years) comparisons out there?

    • Re:Comparison? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by skahshah ( 603640 )
      GNUstep isn't a window manager. You can't compare it to Windowmaker or Afterstep. In fact Window maker was the semi-official window manager for GNUstep.

      • That's already been established, so your post is redundant and not at all helpful.

        The original question still stands unanswered.

        • "Anyone know of a comparison between GNUstep, WindowMaker, and AfterStep?" You asked for a comparison he gave you one: GNUStep and WindowMaker are totally different things.
    • You gave up on WindowMaker because there was nothing happening? Was there anything wrong with it, or was stale version numbers enough to get you to switch to a more exciting and version creeping window manager? :)

      • Bugs mainly... like the one that causes all the windows that belong to a single client to cycle focus when the mouse is moved from one to another, or a new window popped up (most commonly seen in web browsers). Insanely annoying, requiring that you shade all of the windows to get it to stop.

        There are others, but that was by far the most annoying and common.

        Also features... you should have a look at AfterStep, it's quite nice (if it weren't for the weird decision to reverse the mouse-buttons, I'd already b

  • Does anyone else miss... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by KilobyteKnight ( 91023 ) <bjm.midsouth@rr@com> on Monday October 25, 2004 @09:14AM (#10619888) Homepage
    This is a little off topic I suppose, but it got me thinking about when I first started using Linux. It was hard to choose which desktop I wanted to use every time I logged in. Sure Gnome and KDE have made vast improvements over the years, and both are excellent desktops at this point, but I kinda miss that choice.

    Maybe it's just my perception, and not reality, but it seems like all the other desktops have stagnated. I have been excited about the new Enlightenment for a long time, but it still seems to be a long way from completion.

    I don't mean to put down any of the desktops or demean any of the developers. I just miss the old days when the desktop wars had at least 1/2 dozen serious contenders.... *sigh*

  • Kudos (Score:4, Informative)

    by Khazunga ( 176423 ) * on Monday October 25, 2004 @10:29AM (#10620451)
    Here's my biggest Kudos to the Windowmaker dev team :-) Wmaker has been by window manager of choice for the last four years. While I recognize the advances of the Gnome/KDE projects, I've tried both multiple times and always come back to Wmaker. It just feels right.

    My main gripe with other window managers is the inability to set the "Initial Workspace" (virtual desktop) per application. When wmaker starts, all my apps load and pop up in their respective workspaces. If they fire up windows, these get contained in the app's virtual desktop, and do not interrupt my work. Really cool, and unmatched by other WMs (to my knowledge).

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Kudos (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Take a look at PWM [cs.tut.fi], "the first tabbed windowmanager". It is small and fast. With a simple configuration-file,one can match against the windowname and place windows wherever one wants them. And it supports dockapps :)
    • The problem with Gnome and KDE is that they're not really usable with a CPU that's below 4Ghz. WMaker is fast, lean and effective.

      On the other hand, most modern window managers do support virtual desktops, so this is nothing unique to WindowMaker. Yes, this does include both Gnome and KDE; and also Enlightenment, Blackbox and next to anything... except for fvwm and the MS Windows equivalent of a window manager.
    • My main gripe with other window managers is the inability to set the "Initial Workspace" (virtual desktop) per application.

      My main gripe with Slashdoters is they don't look up data to validate their opinions. :)

      In KWin, any window setting can be saved on a per application basis -- and that includes which virtual desktop it starts on. And I agree it's extremely useful. Some of my apps I want on all the desktops automatically, some I want borderless and always under the other windows (to keep an eye on log
  • I just built a FreeBSD test machine this last week after months of not having any local machines not running WinXP. Installed WindowMaker not but 2 days ago. It'll take me months to build up motivation to upgrade! Yay for slacking!
    • CVSup ports tree, portupgrade -a

      Provided, of course, the tree is thawed and includes the new WindowMaker :P

      Gentoo Portage has caught up, I'm trying it now, but it seems to suck. Kernel granularity bug not fixed (and I sent them patches a year ago) and too many file paths have changed to make keeping your old configs safe. Font smoothing seems to apply only to title bars and sufficiently large fonts in themes, but not good yet (oppose Fluxbox which has had font smoothing for years and used it for every
  • Just wanted to say thanks to the dev team for this project. Though the systems I roll out to our end users are running GNOME, Windowmaker is still my weapon of choice for the machines that I have to use.

    Never fails to confuse the hell out of my students when I hook the laptop up to a projector, either. Heh.

    So as soon as this hits Unstable (what's that, 2007 or so?) I'll be happily upgrading.

    --saint
  • Without even looking to see what is new and improved in this release of Wmaker, i'm simply delighted to see that it is still being actively developed.

    Since the last release, I had assumed that it had fallen by the wayside and was no longer developed nor maintained, and one day would simply fade away.

    I started with KDE 1.1 on Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 in 1998, and when i switched to Debian (Potato) i was still such a n00b that i didn't know how to change the DE. Windowmaker was the default, and a lack of a ta
  • this is great, everysince i have been using windowmaker ive been waiting for an update. And with a few themes you will truely have a awesome desktop. The new tab control is off a hook, and you can change the fonts now, which is more impressive then it sounds.
  • WindowMaker is too light weight. Yeah, that's one of its "strong points" but other window managers have come around and staked that same claim. Besides, who wants to wait years for an incremental release from a minimalist approach. What the *NIX community needs is a united desktop to compete more effectively with MS. I wish the whole "KDE vs. GNOME" thing didn't even exist. And no, I don't believe we need two dozen window managers.

  • Gah, my libXft isn't new enough. *grumble* Yup/yum won't work. When's YDL 4.0 going to be available to download? Hope it works on my beige G3. I've been happy with Blackbox and IceWM in the past but have heard good things about WindowMaker so I thought I'd give it a shot. Where can I download libXft?

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