Re: Very slim Desktop Manager

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:28:23 +0100
NN_il_Confusionario <pinkof.pallus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I usually have no need for switching between X and console. Infact I
have usually no need to run X at all, since svgalib/framebuffer
programs are faster than their X counterparts.

Well, I never figured out what the framebuffer is for. If I want a GUI,
I use X, if I want a console, I use a console --- or an X terminal.

But there is no
console analogue for dememo, and there is the need to occasionally
show someone the pratical proof of the basic web principle "If you
cannot see it with lynx, then it is not worth seeing".

That's not true --- and lynx is very awkward to use. And what if
you want to see the pictures? I eventually read forums, and
people post pictures I want to see. And browsing a forum with
lynx? Bleh ... But I'll have to see if I can go away from mozilla
(which is currently called iceape). I don't need its mail client anymore
--- I tried claws and I like it much better --- and mozilla is a memory
eater.

Another thing is how you can see something, like the difference between
seeing a few characters or the whole thing. Try to use mutt on a
console: the display is too small. If you want to use it for IMAP, it
becomes so awkward that it is unusable.

Moreover I find the keyboard-based switching of workspalces in evilwm
and in gnu screen easier and better than a mouse based switching.

I'm using a trackball --- mice drive me crazy because you have to
constantly pick them up and put them back to keep the pointer on the
screen. To switch, I just move the mouse pointer over the edge. If I
want to, I can use the keyboard to switch. Alt-space opens a terminal,
Alt-ESC and Ctrl-ESC resize windows to full screen/full length. Icons
or buttons to click on are pretty useless --- if they are on the
desktop, there will be a window over them, and even if they are not
covered, I have opened a terminal and entered the command I want before
I could find the icon or button to click on. But consoles, there are
only 6. Desktops, there are 16 --- or as much as I want.

Finally, when I run X then I *must* switch to console (where i can
start X programs if needed: env DISPLAY=:1 XAUTHORITY=~/.Xauthority
xpdf) since, as we are discussing, no satisfactory
font/terminal/whatever exist for my eyes.

Yeah, that is really a problem. Things could be a lot easier if you
could use a terminal.

And in any case I never found a user interfce intrinsecally more
anti-intuitive and broken (for the way my brain works) than the GUI
concept.

It has its advantages. There are some things that a GUI makes easier to
do, and there are many things that are easier to do from a
terminal/console. I need both.

well, Linux is not OpenBSD which is limited to 80x25 and 80x50
consoles. Try vga=ask and see how many possibilities Linux has for
text consoles.

That's what I tried. I couldn't find any mode that would have been
better than the default 80x25.

Then, after Linux has booted,
there is fbset svgatextmode and so on.

Like I said, I never used the frambuffer stuff. I don't know why I
would.


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quantcast