Which is the lightest WM?

Forum: Window Mangers
Topic: Which is the lightest WM?
started by: Luzbel

Posted by Luzbel on Jan. 31 2006,00:44

Already tried search with no result. I've read many different opinions in my research, what's yours? Eye candyness is not important.

And, by the way, is there any documented way of getting XDMCP and ssh rendering graphics remotely? Does they already do? AFAIK, at least ssh with X forwarding enabled renders graphics locally.

Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 31 2006,04:34

Did you check the mydsl repository?
< http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub....wm_apps >

The lightest available from myDSL is evilwm, at least as far as size goes....not sure about speed. It has no candy at all...not even a menu or toolbar. Eventually there will be a UCI of the latest version available, but i just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Next up is twm, which is only slightly larger than evilwm, but it's a whole pile more friendly....might even be faster, easier on ram, but i haven't compared them.

There's also jwm, which is included in DSL...it's a bit smaller and faster than fluxbox.

Personally, for a good balance of features, size, and speed, i still prefer fluxbox devel, as long as it is not one of the sluggish versions released between 0.9.6 and 0.9.12. fb 0.9.14 is the best windowmanager ever =o)

Posted by Luzbel on Jan. 31 2006,18:59

Thanks for your quick answer! TWM is the one used in my college, but those PCs are relatively newer than the one I'm thinking to use. Size is not a problem really, memory and speed ARE. I'll try fluxbox as you adviced, and if it is still too slow, I'll move to TWM.

Now about X, you think XFree86 is faster than Xorg? I can't test performance on my other PCs since it's amost the same, hard to distinguish.

Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 31 2006,20:22

If you are using DSL already, you've tried Fluxbox already. If you have issues with speed and ram in TWM, i don't recommend using fluxbox devel...it's noticeably slower.

From what I've seen so far, I think xfree86 is faster than xorg. It's also faster than Xvesa in DSL, although a lot larger.