Baslinux mailing list

[ichi AT aggies.org]

sindi keesan wrote:
> 
> Ran Netscape and lynx without a window manager as follows:
> 
> 1.  Login on VT1 - load X with xinit (VT7)
> 2.  Ctrl-Alt-F2 to VT2 - wvdial (connect to ISP)
> 3.  Ctrl-Alt-F7 - load Netscape 4.61, access the suse.de home page

You can probably combine steps (1) and (3)
-----------------
xinit -e netscape
-----------------
Then CTRL-ALT-F2 to do wvdial.  Or you could do wvdial first
and (while it is dialing) run your xinit line.

> Would anyone else like to try running Netscape with no 
> window manager?  

I ran Netscape for three months without a wm.  Then I discovered
icewm.  Netscape ran better under icewm than with no-wm *and*
there was no noticeable performance hit (on a 486-66 with 20mb
RAM).

> The other problem is that after exiting Netscape, I could not 
> enter any commands in the xterm 

Without a wm, you have very limited options.  Only the current 
process running in X is responsive.  The only way to get control
of the original xterm is to cleanly shut down every subsequent
process.

>  nor could I exit X, or even reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del.  

Try CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE.  That should terminate the Xserver.

> Does Netscape require a window manager to behave properly?  

My experience is that Netscape 3.04 performs better with a wm.

> I did not have the problem of being unable to use xterm after 
> exiting Netscape 

You probably had a clean exit of Netscape.  

> when I did not first use it online 

When you used it online, it probably started a sub-process that
was not cleanly exited.  For example, Netscape sometimes displays
a warning message in a separate window.  It is possible that you 
didn't see that window (perhaps because there was no wm).  If you
don't click the OK in the message window, you won't get a clean 
exit.

> Since even twm or mwm seem to take up over 1.5M RAM, it would 
> be nice not to bother with them.  

That's why I recommend icewm.  It uses less than that.
Many people think that twm is the slimmest wm (probably
because it has so few features); however, icewm is slimmer
than twm (and it offers many more features).

> Netscape plus X (on a 16M RAM computer) uses nearly
> 14M even without a window manager, 

Which Netscape?  I've successfully run Netscape 3.04
with icewm in 12mb RAM.

> Does Opera use less RAM?  Does Dillon?

Dillo is the smallest:
------------------------------------------------
Current Netscape > Opera > Netscape 3.04 > Dillo
------------------------------------------------

Cheers,
Steven