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baslinux - Re: [BL] Re: ratpoison and other small windowmanager

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  • From: ichi AT aggies.org
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Re: ratpoison and other small windowmanager
  • Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 10:00:21 +0000

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




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