Xmonad: Dealing in Efficiency
I've always tried to branch out here and there and try new and interesting ways to utilize my linux systems. This time I've had Xmonad brought to my attention and I am very pleased that it was. Xmonad is a windows manager (WM) just like Gnome and Fluxbox.
The big difference being that Xmonad is what is called a 'Tiling WM' which means that space is utilized to it's fullest. No windows on top of windows or windows being hidden behind windows, nope, no more. The first terminal you open in your environment will take up the whole screen space. Depending on how you've configured your windows to behave they can react any number of ways, but they are always filling your screen. Not only all of this but, with the right configuration, you can make your mouse obsolete. Everything you see can be selected with just a few keystrokes.
So, I decided that I would do this conversion on my laptop because I was getting tired of Fluxbox and didn't feel like slowing my system down with Gnome and it's dependicies. The 1024x768 screen resolution was bothering me too, I was feeling claustraphobic even with Fluxbox. Also, since I had what I considered a pretty minimal setup with Fluxbox I wanted to see just how much more minimal Xmonad was. So I had my inspiration and I began my journey.
The first real issue was that I have become largely dependent on gnome-based GUI tools (since Fluxbox let me still use them) but with Xmonad you don't get the luxury of Gnome daemons getting your back. So this meant no Nautilus, no toolbar icons, no desktop icons, no Gnome-terminal, etc. So I had to do some hunting for equivalent programs that were written in GTK (I'll share what I found later). Next there's getting a config file setup. What I ended up doing was finding someone elses config file and then further modifying it to fit my needs (the xmonad.hs link below is the one I first started with, the .xmobarrc is supposed to go it).
Xmonad [==========================
First, install (via your package manager) xmonad, xmonad-contrib, xmobar, and dzen2. Put the xmonad.hs file into ~/.xmonad/ and put the .xmobarrc file in your home directory.
Programs [==========================
([Previous util] --> [GTK util])
- Nautilus --> Rox [here]
- Gnome-Theme-Manager --> gtk-chtheme [here]
- Gnome-Terminal --> aterm [here]
- Nano --> vim [here]
- Eye of Gnome --> gpicview [here]
My current Xmonad setup... but it changes as I learn more.
