Replace metacity by xfwm4

[jadugarr]

I guess since I don't know what "edge resistance towards other windows and vertical/horizontal maximization" means, I've had nothing to miss.

Edge resistance is when you are moving windows, they sort of snap to the edges of other windows, panel, or edge of screen when you get close to them. The vertical/horizontal maximization will only resize you window to full veritical or full horizontal ... keeping the previous size of the other value. You can think of it as hotdog (vertical) and hamburger (horizontal) folding techniques where the original piece of unfolded paper is regular full maximization.
These features are usefull if you like to view several windows at a time, and helps you arrange them neatly and quickly.

[angrykeyboarder]

Edge resistance is when you are moving windows, they sort of snap to the edges of other windows, panel, or edge of screen when you get close to them. The vertical/horizontal maximization will only resize you window to full veritical or full horizontal ... keeping the previous size of the other value. You can think of it as hotdog (vertical) and hamburger (horizontal) folding techniques where the original piece of unfolded paper is regular full maximization.
These features are usefull if you like to view several windows at a time, and helps you arrange them neatly and quickly.

Aah, OK, now I understand. However, that's not something I'd even use if I did have it.

Thanks for the info.

[jadugarr]

It's one of those things that you'll only notice/miss if you have used a window managers or applications that support this in the past.

[angrykeyboarder]

It's one of those things that you'll only notice/miss if you have used a window managers or applications that support this in the past.

Perhaps. But there are a number of features in Metacity and Kwin that I probably don't use either. I guess I'm boring in that regard. And "minimalist" Window Managers like *box annoy me. It's almost like they go out of thier way to be difficult.

I remember when GNOME dumped Sawfish for Metacity and how that upset many. Sawfish had more "features" but you needed to manually tweak configuration files to get them. And besides, I always felt it was ugly. I just took a gander at thier web site and I still think it's ugly.

[foxy123]

I mostly use xfce, so I enjoy xfwm4 anyway. However I need sometimes to log in to Gnome and thought that would be nice to have xfwm4 there as well. So I followed the guide and xfwm4 seems to be running. The prolem is I cannot now log out. I have to use Alt-Ctrl+Backspace to leave Gnome.

Any idea how to fix it? Also I would like to make sure that it is xfwm4, which causes the problem, so how I put metacity back?

[jadugarr]

So I followed the guide and xfwm4 seems to be running. The prolem is I cannot now log out. I have to use Alt-Ctrl+Backspace to leave Gnome.

Any idea how to fix it? Also I would like to make sure that it is xfwm4, which causes the problem, so how I put metacity back?

What exactly does it do when you try and log out? Metacity may still be running if you didn't delete your ~/.gnome2/session file which could be causing problems.

To change back to metacity just edit the ~/.gnomerc file and remove the line (or comment out) that contains xfwm4.

[foxy123]

What exactly does it do when you try and log out? Metacity may still be running if you didn't delete your ~/.gnome2/session file which could be causing problems.

To change back to metacity just edit the ~/.gnomerc file and remove the line (or comment out) that contains xfwm4.

when I click on Log Out everything freezes, that's all. I rolled back to metacity and everything worked. Then I tried again put xfwm4 and it freezes again. Maybe it is because I use xfce from svn, I do not know.

[Niomi]

Thanks! Metacity had problems with the resolution I was running but xfwm works well with it. It also loads much faster.

I know it is possible to install clearlooks (I heart clearlooks!!) on xfwm but I believe it involves compiling the source code, something I haven't done before. I thought I could ask if there was a hold-the-newbie's-hand way to do it? Or perhaps compiling isn't as difficult as it sounds?

[jadugarr]

I know it is possible to install clearlooks (I heart clearlooks!!) on xfwm but I believe it involves compiling the source code, something I haven't done before.

Since your still in gnome you still use your gtk-themes (listed as controls in theme manager). There are xfwm themes that are similar to metacity themes or complete ports. Many are available in the xfwm4-themes package in universe (apt-get). No compiling necessary.

For more xfwm4 themes you can look at www.xfce-look.org.

[raublekick]

just tried this out. i have xfce installed, but i was never too into it. i do love the easy desktop switching ability though.

however, there's some things in metacity that i like more, and xfwm doesn't seem to be any faster.

oh well, at least i tried it out