Window Maker Desktop: Lightweight Linux Minimalism

“In this ongoing series on lightweight Linux desktops, Juliet
Kemp takes us on a tour of Window Maker, the popular fast,
lightweight window manager based on the look and feel of the
NeXTStep interface. How does Window Maker measure up in this era of
fancy special effects GUIs?

“Window Maker is a fast, lightweight window manager based as
closely as possible on the look and feel of the NeXTStep interface.
(You may be familiar with NeXTStep an ancestor of Mac OSX, although
the look and feel has changed a fair bit between the two.)

“Install it with the wmaker package in Debian or Ubuntu, which
provides the current stable version (0.92); or download it from the
website if you prefer. As per my article on Xfce, your login
manager should have a ‘sessions’ option that you can use at login
to set your session choice.

“First impressions

“My very first impression was that it starts up blisteringly
fast, even on my low-powered machine. There’s minimal screen
furniture on startup – no menu bar, just a couple of icons in
the top right corner and one in the top left.”

Complete
Story