5 ms·

Distribution Release: Window Maker Live 0.96

42 points by jandeboevrie 3y ago

josteink 3y ago
Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in at least a decade. Nice nostalgia-factor whooshing in :)
benbristow 3y ago
Thought Windows Live Movie Maker was making a comeback for a minute.
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
So is this a PoC or something meant to be a daily driver?
bdcravens 3y ago
Non-mobile version of the page: https://distrowatch.com/index.php?newsid=11963 https://distrowatch.com/index.php?newsid=11963
wmlive 3y ago
Have a look at https://wmlive.sourceforge.net https://wmlive.sourceforge.net instead to get a better idea what this is about.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
micheljansen 3y ago
Window Maker was my first window manager, but I hate to say I don’t think it has aged well.
- duskwuff 3y ago
  > I hate to say I don’t think it has aged well. Agreed. Window Maker wanted to be the foundation of an entire "GNUstep" desktop environment, not just a window manager. Unfortunately, that environment never materialized; for better or worse, all of the development effort went towards GNOME and KDE. WMaker is still (barely) usable as an X11 WM, but there's no real ecosystem around it; based on the video at https://wmlive.sourceforge.net/ https://wmlive.sourceforge.net/, this distribution is mostly running GTK apps with a (rather ugly) theme to make them fit in.
  - lproven 3y ago
    The GNUstep Desktop Environment (GSDE) from OnFlapp: https://onflapp.github.io/gs-desktop/index.html https://onflapp.github.io/gs-desktop/index.html This is a modern setup for Debian 9, 10 & 11. (Not 12 yet AFAIK.) It inherits a little bit of code from the earlier NEXTSPACE desktop, which was based on CentOS Linux: https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace NEXTSPACE is Ukrainian and development has been on hold since Russia invaded the author's country.
- tux2bsd 3y ago
  [dead]
thepostman0 3y ago
There used to be a site that had desktop themes showcased in the late 90s or early 2000's that was popular, csnt remember the name of it now. I used to look at the windowmaker and KDE themes in that daily. Nostalgia, would like to see them again.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- cout 3y ago
  I think I remember the site you are talking about, and I can't remember the name either. There is still xwinman.org and even though it's not about themes it still has screenshots of some old windows managers, for nostalgia sake.
dsr_ 3y ago
Why is this a distribution instead of a deb repo with three packages? (updated windowmaker, aux config to make it the default, and wallpaper/icons/art/misc)
- wmlive 3y ago
  The associated repo is here: http://wmlive.rumbero.org/repo/ http://wmlive.rumbero.org/repo/ It even contains slightly more than three packages. A distribution is much more than just the superficial aspect of its primary GUI. So dig a bit deeper first. Might be a good idea to first have a closer look at the things questioned instead of being led astray by just a few few random screenshots...
  - dsr_ 3y ago
    Could you be less gnomic, please? I can't see any reason for this to be a distribution, incurring the overhead of replicating all of Debian, when instead it could be a single-digit number of packages that apply on top of a stable Debian release. Why are you doing all that extra work? What value does it give you beyond "it is slightly fewer steps to install my image vs a standard Bookworm"?
    - wmlive 3y ago
      Because i can. A standard Debian install doesn't provide the software we prefer because it appears to mainly focus on end user type desktops instead of providing a well equipped Unix toolbox. It's just great to be able installing a system that already has included all the nice tools and utilities we rely on since almost 30 years. And Window Maker is a good enough environment to run terminal emulator windows.
  - jwrallie 3y ago
    Thanks for maintaining this distro. Although nowadays I install things manually, when I started to get into windowmaker, I used your distro to get an idea of how to configure things in a cohesive environment. Things like the layout of the autostart file or which gtk theme to select are not so obvious for beginners, and for me it was more valuable than a bunch of packages.
cout 3y ago
I was always more a fan of afterstep, though I'm still happy to see people interested in keeping nextstep-derived interfaces like window maker alive.

42 points by jandeboevrie 3y ago

josteink 3y ago

Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in at least a decade. Nice nostalgia-factor whooshing in :)

benbristow 3y ago

Thought Windows Live Movie Maker was making a comeback for a minute.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

So is this a PoC or something meant to be a daily driver?

bdcravens 3y ago

Non-mobile version of the page: https://distrowatch.com/index.php?newsid=11963 https://distrowatch.com/index.php?newsid=11963

wmlive 3y ago

Have a look at https://wmlive.sourceforge.net https://wmlive.sourceforge.net instead to get a better idea what this is about.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

micheljansen 3y ago

Window Maker was my first window manager, but I hate to say I don’t think it has aged well.

duskwuff 3y ago
> I hate to say I don’t think it has aged well. Agreed. Window Maker wanted to be the foundation of an entire "GNUstep" desktop environment, not just a window manager. Unfortunately, that environment never materialized; for better or worse, all of the development effort went towards GNOME and KDE. WMaker is still (barely) usable as an X11 WM, but there's no real ecosystem around it; based on the video at https://wmlive.sourceforge.net/ https://wmlive.sourceforge.net/, this distribution is mostly running GTK apps with a (rather ugly) theme to make them fit in.
- lproven 3y ago
  The GNUstep Desktop Environment (GSDE) from OnFlapp: https://onflapp.github.io/gs-desktop/index.html https://onflapp.github.io/gs-desktop/index.html This is a modern setup for Debian 9, 10 & 11. (Not 12 yet AFAIK.) It inherits a little bit of code from the earlier NEXTSPACE desktop, which was based on CentOS Linux: https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace NEXTSPACE is Ukrainian and development has been on hold since Russia invaded the author's country.
tux2bsd 3y ago
[dead]

thepostman0 3y ago

There used to be a site that had desktop themes showcased in the late 90s or early 2000's that was popular, csnt remember the name of it now. I used to look at the windowmaker and KDE themes in that daily. Nostalgia, would like to see them again.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
cout 3y ago
I think I remember the site you are talking about, and I can't remember the name either. There is still xwinman.org and even though it's not about themes it still has screenshots of some old windows managers, for nostalgia sake.

dsr_ 3y ago

Why is this a distribution instead of a deb repo with three packages? (updated windowmaker, aux config to make it the default, and wallpaper/icons/art/misc)

wmlive 3y ago
The associated repo is here: http://wmlive.rumbero.org/repo/ http://wmlive.rumbero.org/repo/ It even contains slightly more than three packages. A distribution is much more than just the superficial aspect of its primary GUI. So dig a bit deeper first. Might be a good idea to first have a closer look at the things questioned instead of being led astray by just a few few random screenshots...
- dsr_ 3y ago
  Could you be less gnomic, please? I can't see any reason for this to be a distribution, incurring the overhead of replicating all of Debian, when instead it could be a single-digit number of packages that apply on top of a stable Debian release. Why are you doing all that extra work? What value does it give you beyond "it is slightly fewer steps to install my image vs a standard Bookworm"?
  - wmlive 3y ago
    Because i can. A standard Debian install doesn't provide the software we prefer because it appears to mainly focus on end user type desktops instead of providing a well equipped Unix toolbox. It's just great to be able installing a system that already has included all the nice tools and utilities we rely on since almost 30 years. And Window Maker is a good enough environment to run terminal emulator windows.
- jwrallie 3y ago
  Thanks for maintaining this distro. Although nowadays I install things manually, when I started to get into windowmaker, I used your distro to get an idea of how to configure things in a cohesive environment. Things like the layout of the autostart file or which gtk theme to select are not so obvious for beginners, and for me it was more valuable than a bunch of packages.

cout 3y ago

I was always more a fan of afterstep, though I'm still happy to see people interested in keeping nextstep-derived interfaces like window maker alive.