Desktop environments Archive

"Awesome is a floating and tiling window manager. It's extremely fast, small, dynamic and awesome. Windows can be managed in several layouts: tiled, maximized, dwindle, spiral, floating... Each layout can be applied on the fly, optimizing the environment for the application in use and the task performed. Managing windows in tiled mode assures that no space will be wasted on your screen. No gaps, no overlap. Other layouts can be used for different purpose. If you do not want to use the tiling management, you can use the floating layout wich will let you organize your windows as you wish, like any other window manager." Version 2.3-final has been released today.

Enlightenment 0.17, the big, long awaited new release of the Enlightenment project, has been in the making for a long time now - since December 2000, to be precise. E17, as it became known, is a complete rewrite of Enlightenment, complete with a set of base libraries (the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries) turning it into a full-fledged desktop environment, complete with its own set of base libraries for building applications. Last November, main developer Carsten 'Rasterman' Haitzler stated that there were only two big to-do items left blocking the release of E17. We're now a few months ahead, so I contacted Rasterman to see what's what.

Awesome 2.2 has been released. "Awesome is a floating and tiling window manager initialy based on a dwm code rewriting. It's extremely fast, small, dynamic and awesome. Windows can be managed in several layouts: tiled, maximized, dwindle, spiral, floating... Each layout can be applied on the fly, optimizing the environment for the application in use and the task performed. Managing windows in tiled mode assures that no space will be wasted on your screen. No gaps, no overlap. Other layouts can be used for different purpose. If you do not want to use the tiling management, you can use the floating layout wich will let you organize your windows as you wish, like any other window manager."

AfterStep 2.2.8 has been released. It's a bugfix release, as the release announcement details: "Major bugfix release: Found and plugged an elusive memory leak, and many other minor bugfixes." There is a special 'update' package for users of previous versions of AfterStep.

E16 version 0.16.8.12 has been released. "Fix showing tiled external background pixmap in pager; fix edge flip brokenness (causing random mouse jumps when flipping); new window placement algorithm. Should be better at handling crowded desktops and windows with never_use_area attribute; add configuration of default opacities; various minor bug fixes and enhancements."

A new version of E16 has been released. "Fix rendering issues when using pseudo-transparency; fix translucent moves of non-shaped windows; fix border right click (winops menu) in many themes; fix incorrect tracking of pointer motion when dragging window; fix potential trouble while exiting/restarting; various minor bug fixes and enhancements, see ChangeLog for details." Get it here.

"wmii is a dynamic window manager for X11. It supports classic and dynamic window management with extended keyboard, mouse, and filesystem based remote control. It replaces the workspace paradigm with a new tagging approach. Its minimalist philosophy attempts not to exceed 10.000 lines of code (including all shipped utilities and libraries), to enforce simplicity and clarity." Version 3.6 has been released. Its little brother, dwm, has also seen a new release.

"Linux has proven amazingly flexible: after nearly 10 years of use, I'm still impressed by how the Linux operating system does exactly what I want on any type of hardware. Desktop customization is no exception; from the ultra-modern KDE and GNOME window managers to with the likes of Fluxbox and AfterStep, there's a Linux desktop to suit everyone."

Rasterman, the lead developer of the Enlightenment project, speaks about the future of Enlightenment, including the project's focus on the embedded world (Rasterman works at OpenMoko now), the relationship with commercial vendors, reorganized leadership, and even some hints at an upcoming release. "The primary thing of importance is getting E17 out the door. It's actually looking petty good. Only 2 really big TODO items left. I'm doing a theme revamp. The Default theme has very much aged. The gold bling isn't incredibly popular. I'm working on something I think people will love - and it still shows off E. It will replace the current default - and will also knock off some of the comment the default theme so its better documented for people to build new themes from and learn Edje."

xmonad 0.4 has been released. "xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising screen use. Window manager features are accessible from the keyboard: a mouse is optional. xmonad is written, configured and extensible in Haskell. Custom layout algorithms, key bindings and other extensions may be written by the user in Haskell, in config files. Window layouts are applied dynamically, and different layouts may be used on each workspace. Xinerama is fully supported, allowing windows to be tiled across several physical screens."

E16 version 0.16.8.10 is now available for download. Changes: "Fix infinite loop when regenerating menus; fix potential incorrect termination of IPC connection which could cause segv.; eesh: fix bad event loop causing hangs in certain situations; fix xinerama head selection in certain situations; fix menu placement on xinerama screens; various minor bug fixes and enhancements."

A new snapshot of wmii has been released. "wmii is a dynamic window manager for X11. It supports classic and dynamic window management with extended keyboard, mouse, and filesystem based remote control. It replaces the workspace paradigm with a new tagging approach. Its minimalist philosophy attempts not to exceed 10.000 lines of code (including all shipped utilities and libraries), to enforce simplicity and clarity."

A new release of dwm is available, dwm 4.5 "dwm is a dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled and floating layouts. Either layout can be applied dynamically, optimizing the environment for the application in use and the task performed."

The last release candidate for Ion3 has been released. "This release features a few minor fixes. If no major problems are discovered, this is likely to be the last 'rc' release before the first and hopefully final 'stable' release." Ion is a tiling tabbed window manager designed with keyboard users in mind.