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Choice of WM

My system is Pentium 60 Mhz with 80MB of RAM. Right now I am using kwm with KDE desktop management and it's quite slow. I am planning to try Gnome desktop management with enlightenment wm. Will it speed up the performance? How about if I use Gnome with windowmaker?

Please submit your answers as comments because I want to see many people opinions(about 5 people). Then, I will grade the best comments.

nrosier

One of my favourites still is olwm (OpenLook WM) or olvwm (OpenLook Virtual WM). These WM's are not so demanding as KDE or Enlightenment (so I doubt that switching to the last one will improve performance). olwm isn't as beautiful as KDE but it's simplicity is what I like about it.

N.

cgrey

Unless there have been drastic changes since my last evaluation, Enlightenment is a massive resource hog, even more so than KDE. Fvwm95-2 and olvwm are my choices for systems which are low on resources.

kobo100198

ASKER

Thanks guys... Right now I choose Window Maker and it's pretty fast, and I want to add Gnome. Will Gnome slow my system much?

Resonance

That depends on how much of Gnome you add. The gnome toolbar is a nasty CPU hog (I'm not sure what it's doing, but it's polling something on a regular basis), however most of the Gnome/GTK applications work remarkably well. Keep in mind that they are alpha software, and as such, are quite likely to have bugs yet.

While I'm here, let me add another plug for olvwm if you haven't taken a good solid look at it yet. It's also quite fast, and if you're the kind of person that likes to do lots of things at once, check out virtual desktop. I have a 3x4 grid of screens, and frequently 10 out of the 12 are in use with something :)

Enlightenment is for very high end systems if you happen to like eye candy. There's no other window manager that looks quite as pretty, but it's not as functional as I'd like.

kobo100198

ASKER

I decided not to use gnome. Just use Window Maker, it's fast and I love their dock applications. I haven't tried olvwm yet and their virtual desktop looks fun, however I usually only opens 5 windows or less. Maybe I will try it someday.

Resonance, post your comment as answer. I will give credit to you.

Thanks.

nrosier

I currently run olvwm with 15 windows at work and with 2x3 at home. I like it because you can see what's running every virtual desktop and you can just drag one window to another desktop.

N.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Resonance

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olvo

I use ICEWM, it claims to be designed for speed and simplicity. It is not as flexible but it has all the basics and is pretty fast.