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Best Mouse-free Windowmanager? 36

Posted by michael from the still-pumped-from-using-the-keyboard dept.
An Anonymous Coward writes "I've been using fvwm2 for quite some time now as I don't need to use the mouse much. I don't have time to try every window manager under the sun, but are there newer window managers out there that have better 'usability' characteristics when it comes to avoiding the mouse? I still have a mouse handy for browsing, etc. so I don't need to do away with it altogether.). Thanks."
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Best Mouse-free Windowmanager? More

Best Mouse-free Windowmanager?

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  • Try Ion (Score:3, Informative)

    by kraf ( 450958 ) on Saturday March 23, 2002 @06:10AM (#3212170)
    I think Ion [students.tut.fi] is worth a try.
  • In the light of this [slashdot.org] happening, it makes sens to look for alternatives... don't rely on GPS accuracy, and avoid becoming "collateral damage". :)

  • wmx (Score:4, Informative)

    by HyperbolicParabaloid ( 220184 ) on Saturday March 23, 2002 @07:04AM (#3212239) Journal
    I like wmx [all-day-breakfast.com], especially on my laptop.
    All the windowing functions can be bound to alt-keys. So, for instance, on my laptop, the otherwise-useless Windows keys pop up menus of commonly used applications and a menu of current windows.
    It has multiple virtual desk tops (accessable by key commands. Does gnome/sawfish do that? How? I couldn't figure it out...)
    wmx is great for a laptop because of it's unusual window decoration scheme. The title tab is on the left side of each window, not the top. Since vertical screen space is scarcer(sp?) than horizontal, this actually makes sense, though it takes getting used to.
    • It has multiple virtual desk tops (accessable by key commands. Does gnome/sawfish do that? How? I couldn't figure it out...)

      I use Sawfish. I've turned the Windows key into Super with my own keymap. I have 12 workspaces, and I've bound Super-F1 to Activate Workspace 1, Super-F2 to Activate Workspace 2, and so on. To send windows to different workspaces I just make them sticky, shift workspace, then make them unsticky. For that purpose I bound Super-S to Make Window Sticky and Super-A to Make Window Unsticky.

      I have some window toggling commands as well, but in most cases I keep only one window open per workspace. 1024x768 is not enough for two windows of decent size side by side, and I am not going to hide windows behind each other.

      • Re:wmx (Score:1)

        by BJH ( 11355 )
        I use Sawfish too. I bound Alt-1 to Alt-9 to nine workspaces. If I want to move a window between workspaces, I just use the functions that the standard ws-send-to.jl provides. One thing to remember is that you should name your workspaces in order to fully use the 'Send to workspace...' functions.

      • Re:wmx (Score:2)

        by Bishop ( 4500 )

        Instead of your 'sticky window' hack[1] you can also bind a key to 'send window to workspace...' In my case I have ctrl-Fn bound to send a window to workspace n.

        [1]don't get me wrong: that is a nice hack.

  • I'm using fvwm because I can configure keyboard commands for everything and I've been looking for alternatives for the same reason as you.

    You won't solve your problem with another wm, if the programs don't comply. Mouseless window managers are most suited for mouseless applications, such as terminal windows and text editors. They all fail for mouse centered programs such as Netscape and GIMP.

    I suggest that you to configure fvwm to make use of the keyboard as much as possible and replace your browser with one that is more keyboard aware (recommendations, anyone?). By sticking with fvwm you still have the mouse as a last resort.

    • http://links.sourceforge.net

      A Lynx like console browser.
      Supports tables, cookies.
      Uses ncurses
    • Opera probably has the best keyboard interface of the graphical browsers. Mozilla can be used without a mouse, but it's painful. I've promised myself that one day, I'll hack Mozilla to make it work just like lynx/links, but I haven't had the time yet.
    • Does anyone have a link to a non-WM specific FvwmIconBox replacement? I have sawfish at home, and Merlins hacks are... well, hacks. I'd like something a little prettier, w/o having to use the panel. I try to avoid gnome as far as possible.

      Just to make sure everyone reads that the same way: I'd like a list of windows, up in the corner of the screen (growing down), of all windows on the current desktop -- iconized and not -- from which I can (de)iconize them. Kinda like the panel, but using much less real estate -- in total, and per window.

      There was/is a framework out on sourceforge for writing those panel/iconbox stype apps, but google searches found exactly zero programs that claimed to use it. what was it called? Plip? Plop? Flack? Something like that.
  • How many window managers have I tried? Way too many. ;) Here are a few interesting/unusual keyboard config options.

    A while ago I ran into Oroborus [blueyonder.co.uk] - it has an
    optional component called 'Key Launch' that basically sits there and runs
    commands based on key presses. This is completely separated from window
    manager and desktop environment, and highly customizable.

    The default GNOME window manager as you probably already know is sawfish, and there's a hack that lets you do smooth workspace scrolling [t-online.de] with key commands, which is, um, smooth.

    When all is said and done, though, I still usually wind up gravitating back to WindowMaker.
  • I use EvilWM [sourceforge.net] which is fairly simplistic (a 1-pixel border around each window is all you get!) bu it's fully controllable via the keyboard, has virtual desktops etc. hjkl move the window in the same way as vi, alt-tab moves between windows etc. I like it, anyway =)

    • I started using EvilWM lately as well, and quickly hacked the code so I can do ALT-M and have mozilla launch :-) If I had any free time that I didn't spend reading /., I'd hack the code to easily allow multiple configuration keybindings... anybody?

      EvilWM is great on a lower powered laptop, and fast and easy to use. Makes great use of real estate, alhough I've upped the border width to 5 pixels :-)

  • Thanks for posting this question, it's a good one. I have the same dilemma you have -- I want a window manager that I don't have to use the mouse to navigate and use. Additionally, I prefer a desktop without a lot of fancy icons or control panels that get in the way of the windows I'm working in.

    A few years ago I tried out Window Maker [windowmaker.org], as I was looking for an Afterstep alternative. At the time, kde was an infant and gnome was in the same nursery. Afterstep was getting to bloated and slow, and when I tried out Window Maker I was in heaven! It was fast, lightweight and clean. My only complaint is that every time a new app is launched, an icon is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

    As far as key bindings are concerned, everything is customizable. I use my keyboard to move virtual desktops all the time. Actually this is one of the things Window Maker wins me with -- I can jump from virtual window 1 to virtual window 3 by just typing "Alt-3" sort of a la Linux virtual consoles. I can also cycle through windows making them active "Alt-tab" or kill windows (read: Netscape annoying javascript banner pop-up adds)

    I haven't tried the other window managers people have suggested, but I will be soon. If you want to get something up quick, without having to do a lot of customization, try out Window Maker for a while.

    • My only complaint is that every time a new app is launched, an icon is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

      To deal with this, I use the clip. In the clip options, set it to "Collapsed" and "Autoattract Icons". Any new app icons will just get sucked in there and not be seen. You do have to set this individually for each desktop though.

      What I like best about Windowmaker are the various dock apps and being able to minimize a window to an actual icon (aka miniwindow) instead of an actual task bar. Personal preference, I know, but having started on fvwm that's just the right behaviour in my mind.
    • The Window Maker feature that really does it for me is the ability to bind keystrokes to windows. An example of this is, when I log in, I bring up an xterm for my mailer. When this window has focus, I press F1. Any subsequent F1 presses will jump focus from whatever window/desktop I might be on to this xterm.

      To me, this makes mouseless work much easier, as there's no more switching back & forth between virtual desktops, then tab-cycling through windows to get to the right one. Just one keystroke brings up the window I want.

      noah

    • I also use windowmaker. But in addition, I use konsole. So Ctrl-(left, right) to switch between the virtual windows, and Shift-(left, right) to switch between konsole terminals. I still haven't found a good browser yet. I'm still looking for some konsole hack that embeds a GRAPHICAL browser (mozilla?). Does anyone know of one?
  • Blackbox [alug.org] and BBKeys [sourceforge.net]
    minimalist type approach, not too resource intensive, looks nice, usually acts nice.
    cntrl+shift+numlock to allow you to use the numpad of your keyboard to move the cursor around, 3 button functionality; really cool, i dont have a link handy, but basically hit those three buttons and your numpad becomes a mouse, choose between the 3 mouse buttons by clicking one of the top (nearest to the top of the keyboard) 3 buttons in the numpad, click with 5, click and hold is either 0 or . or something like that... for those apps you still need mouse you still dont have to move your hands off the keyboard...
    put these 3 pieces together and you have a relatively good-looking, nice-acting, not-resource intensive, no hand moving between keyboard and mouse for the lazy among us... -donkey
  • I tried hacking around with the heliwm code. In general I like the ideas of the window manager.

    Here's the link: http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~hok/heliwm/ [rim.or.jp]

    The thing that I like about it, is that all of the standard window functions are easy to control with different key combinations.
  • You can do it with a standard IceWM [icewm.org] installation, no additional tools required. Most key combos can be configured and changed.

    With IceWM you get a full featured Window Manager with many bells and whistles but low memory footprint and very fast.

  • something that not a lot of people know is that if you have X display access with enlightenment just about everything is scriptable from outside of the window manager. try opening up a terminal window inside of enlightenment and typing 'eesh'. it won't say anything outright, but you can type 'help' and get a list of commands that you can use. not EVERYTHING is documented, but 95% of the commands are documented in here appropriately. This was one of the things I was really interested in working on in E. There may or may not be a couple of sample scripts that use this interface available in the distribution package, but there is a perl module for it (Pesh I think) and I did write a few sample scripts I will put up on my website here: http://mandrake.net/downloads/e-scripts/ [mandrake.net].

    You can script, of course, in the scripting language of your choice (I've never been a big fan of lisp). The script examples aren't terribly pretty but very easy to write.

  • PLWM (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jonas Öberg ( 19456 ) <jonas@gnu.org> on Saturday March 23, 2002 @02:10PM (#3213297) Homepage
    PLWM [sourceforge.net] is the "Pointless Window Manager". Written by Peter Liljenberg and others, one if its basic ideas is that "the mouse should be banished, and
    everything should be possible to do without moving your hands from the keyboard."


    That's the pointless bit of PLWM. The window manager is built using a number of Python classes and another idea is that you should be able to configure it exactly as you want it by writing Python-snippets that use the PLWM library to construct your window manager.

  • When I was looking for a wm, I tried IceWM since they claim "Optional use of mouse." Everything is supposed to be accessable by the keyboard. The keybindings are similar to a lot of windows keybindings, if you've learned any of those, but also they have other keys to use, and it seems pretty comprehensive. It also seems to be a decent WM all around, so give it a try.

  • Why has no one mentioned... (Score:3, Informative)

    by PeterClark ( 324270 ) on Saturday March 23, 2002 @04:21PM (#3213715) Journal
    Ratpoison? Note, I have not tried it (I'm perfectly happy using the mouse :) but it sounds like something you might be interested in. Here's it's description:
    Ratpoison is a simple window manager with no large library dependencies, fancy graphics, window decorations, or flash. It is largely modelled after GNU Screen, which has done wonders in virtual terminal market. All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes. ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize the key clobbering that cripples EMACS and other quality pieces of software. All windows are maximized and kept maximized to avoid wasting precious screen space.
    You can find it at http://ratpoison.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net].

    :Peter

  • I just found this last night so I've not had a chance to really test it. But software.linux.com lists "stwm". It's a Shell controllable TWM. From xterm you can issue standard X widget properties to move, resize, focus, etc. of any standard X Windows Application. The source is 160KB gz'd and only needs the XFree86 4.x. Here's the links:
    • The software.linux.com entry [linux.com]
    • Old English docs page with examples [titech.ac.jp]
    • New home of source files [unixuser.org]

    PS. He's got some souce code for that standard X Clock with a transparent background. Schway.

  • IMO ion is the *one* window manager which combines speed, a small memory print and simple usage.
  • I think you have right window manager, it's question have you configured it properly.

    Take a look at here [cc.tut.fi] for example. Direction-command is something usefull you may not have noticed.

  • I love KDE. I think it's the best window manager/desktop for Linux, however, some older computers with slow processors and minimal amount of memory can't run KDE to its full potential. I know this from firsthand experience, so what I do is run Anotherlevel on Mandrake 6, then type in kfm in the terminal to bring up the KDE file manager. It brings up the desktop and runs most everything, but doesn't hog your memory as usual. It runs great on my Pentium 75MHz with only 32MB RAM and small swap space.

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