WM vs. Library

Posted Jan 8, 2009 16:23 UTC (Thu) by mrfredsmoothie (guest, #3100)
Parent article: Debates on the future of Compiz

I've never understood why people were working on a "compositing window manager" vs. a compositing library which could be used by any window manager.

I like eye candy, but not enough to make it be the primary criteria by which I select a window manager.

WM vs. Library

Posted Jan 10, 2009 0:20 UTC (Sat) by Tet (guest, #5433) [Link] (2 responses)

Hmmm. I was just about to post about my lack of understanding of the need for Compiz, when what we really need is libcomposite.so and for other window managers to make use of it. But I see you've already done that for me :-) It's been a long time annoyance for me.

WM vs. Library

Posted Jan 10, 2009 15:24 UTC (Sat) by kirkengaard (guest, #15022) [Link] (1 responses)

And, in this age of desktop environments, how valuable is the WM paradigm, anyways? I realize that Gnome uses several as options, but even they have trimmed down (consistent with their philosophy). A decade ago, when even KDE was still a desktop environment that used window managers, compiz made sense, but it's increasingly a bolt-on in a built-in world. Making it a library might see its demise come sooner, but it also stands a chance of bringing the benefit compiz actually has to all sorts of desktop environments through compiled-in support for 3d effects in the DE itself.

Except for the fact that KDE has gone the built-in-effects-library route for themselves, in a big and usable KDE-internal way, and lobbying freedesktop.org to make it a standard library will just make it a Gnome compile necessity, something Gnome is just *begging* for more of.

(Cue flames from the remaining FVWM users out there... :) )

The free software ecosystem is like any other evolutionary environment, in that it pursues all branches into all niches, and lets the environmental and competitive constraints do the pruning. We've seen it before, and we'll see it again. A project's value proposition is a description of the niche value, not the value of the specific code that occupies it. Competition is for niche occupancy, and maybe the niche is taken, in which case the survival option is to evolve to a niche that is more available.

WM vs. Library

Posted Jan 10, 2009 15:50 UTC (Sat) by Tet (guest, #5433) [Link]

And, in this age of desktop environments, how valuable is the WM paradigm, anyways?

For me, it's essential. Whether people realise it or not, they're still using a window manager, even if they're using GNOME or KDE. And having a capable window manager makes the user much more productive. Perhaps that's why I'm one of those remaining FVWM users you mentioned...