Goodbye Gnome, hello KDE. Goodbye KDE, hello wmii
It's not unusual for me to try out different window managers for Linux. In fact, I've tried most of them: Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment (DR16 and E17), jwm, twm, XFCE, *box, LXDE and Awesome to name a few.
While I enjoy having a modern, graphical desktop, every single one of them fails to be functional for me in one way or another. Thus, I always have at least one open Terminal window. Some things are easier and faster that way.
So, recently I stopped using Gnome because I was unable to compile a new version of Gnome due to some dependencies on Mono. I'm not a Mono hater, but I'd rather use software I know will remain free forever.
Switched to KDE because I have friends who swore that 4.3 was the bees knees. If you're looking for a slick, shiny user interface, then KDE 4 is a real treat. I enjoyed it for about 3 weeks, then I became disheartened with how sluggish my computer felt. That, and I spent more time in Terminal than in any part of the GUI.
About a week ago, I switched to wmii. Minimalist interface, manages windows (a good goal for a window manager), and stays the hell out of my way. While there's a bit of a learning curve, it's not so steep that I had to spend hours tweaking it before I began using it.
One of my favorite features is the "tagging." Similar to having multiple desktops in another WM, tags create separate screens for applications. So, tag 1 has a terminal maximized, tag 2 has my browser window and tag 3 has IM, irc, or whatever. Any WM does this, but what wmii does better is that when there are no more apps on that tagged screen, it disappears. This means I never have an empty workspace unless there's only the one.
Another is a feature that's implemented in similar window managers: tiled windows with layouts. I can have all my windows line up like little tiles in the one screen, have them overlap each other with only their title bars showing or even have some windows float while others remain attached to the background. Handy.
Most interesting for me is the way that I can interact with wmii. wmii implements a Plan 9 interface to itself. That means every piece of the wm can be accessed as a file. No more wondering where the configuration is hiding (Gnome and KDE could take a lesson from this.)
