LiteStep shell: any equivalent under Linux ?

liberte · n00b Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 5 Location: Paris, Fr

The title is a bit provocative maybe, cause I've already seen FluxBox doing well and KDE is good too, but they both lack the millions of possibilities LiteStep (a win32 shell) has:
- a few plugins to control winamp (would be XMMS) through hotkeys and/or with a simili amp buttons
- a VWM that lets you move windows like the KDE one
- a customizable popup menu for BOTH mouse buttons
- a taskbar
- or a systray...

Since I come from a Windows world, and I was there a very advanced user who made his own "skins" for his windows, who used LiteStep with my own theme as my shell, I feel quite frustrated with the lack of very powerfull shell like LiteStep. In fact, every WM under linux has a few of what I'm looking for, but seems like none of them will let me have everything I want in a single place, or i wont be able to configure it the way I want...

If someone wants to educate me on this, please do, i'm willing to learn, I just need to know where to look for info, and when I'm starterd, I'll just make my own window decorations and stuff...[/list][/list]

CYwolf · Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2002 9:25 pm Post subject: Erm

Never heard of AfterStep, I assume?
I'm not sure exactly how the tree of inheritance goes, but AfterStep and LiteStep are both based on NeXTStep. (And LS might be based on AS.)

liberte · n00b Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 5 Location: Paris, Fr

I'm not going after the look and feel, but after the customization capabilities.
Essentially, with LiteStep you get nothing but a very basic shell and a popup, maybe also a "Wharf" module too. What you can do with LS is to draw your own pictures, tell the rc where to put hem on the screen, what to do with them (click that=> open winamp, click here => change workspace), and there is some... 100 or more plugins which with you can do whatever you can ever think about.
I really would like to have 1000000000 different possible configuration with fluxbox but it is not designed to be flexible...

Pigeon · Guru Joined: 21 Jun 2002 Posts: 307

ike42 · n00b Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 5 Location: Boston, MA USA

First I'd like to respectfully suggest that you have not explored all the options KDE has to offer, I'm not a KDE user but I think it can do just about everything you want.

That said, have you tried Gnome?

- a few plugins to control winamp (would be XMMS) through hotkeys and/or with a simili amp buttons

There is xmms applet for the gnome panel

- a VWM that lets you move windows like the KDE one

Gnome has a very nice VMW, like KDE

-a customizable popup menu for BOTH mouse buttons

Gnome's standard is a three button mouse ... but you can customize your popup-menus. However I believe this requires directly editing configuration files, and may not be easy to do a new user

- a taskbar

Gnome panel can be setup to be like the window's task bar.

- or a systray...

No systray in Gnome, although my understanding is that something similar is in the works. Most of the functionality you get from windows systray can be found in Gnome panel applet collection.

However there is one big proviso about adopting Gnome at this particular time ... the move to Gnome2. We have just transitioned from version 1.4 to version 2. Gnome2 is has a much cleaner, faster, and uniform interface but some of the functionality from 1.4 has not been ported up yet. Specifically, many applets from Gnome1 (like the xmms applet you would like) don't work in the Gnome2 panel yet.

Given your feature list, I suggest you get Gnome1.4, then check back with Gnome2 in a few months. But keep in mind that Gnome2 is much faster and cleaner.

grakker · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Apr 2002 Posts: 100

I think that you just need to dig deeper into any of the linux window managers. On another note, this has made me want to look a little more at litestep for work. Last time I looked at it, it didn't seem able to do what I wanted without jumping through a bunch of hoops on one leg, blindfolded, while eating a banana, etc.. Ended up settling on geoShell. Been pretty happy with that, but it's always fun to poke around. I remember last time I poked around a couple years ago windows didn't seem to have any alternative that approached the usability/configurability of any linux wm. Time to look again.

heathkit · n00b Joined: 23 Apr 2002 Posts: 38

I used to be a very religous litestep user, although I never bothered coniguring it much. Just about every litestep idea has a unix based equivalent.

I suggest you first look at windowmaker. It's highly customizable like litestep, has wharf and just about everything you need. Enlightenment is also very customizable, and has a pager I think you'll like.

There are dockapps( http://www.bensinclair.com/dockapp/ ) for just about everything you want, including xmms control. Almost every windowmanager can display dockapps. Also check out gkrellm - it's a great monitor and customizable toolbar.

Remember too that KDE and Gnome are "desktop environments". You can run KDE with fluxbox as a window manager. In fact, I see a great many people using gnome panels with Windowmaker. Mix and match.

The desktop you want is out there, but you're not going to find it in a single source.

heathkit · n00b Joined: 23 Apr 2002 Posts: 38

I almost forgot, check this out: http://www.igs.net/~tril/fvwm/
It's a good introduction to various window managers.

orochi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Aug 2002 Posts: 76

yeh, i havent seen a linux wm with the custmizablillty of litestep, probly because litestep is really simple to configure and u can just place images and modules anywhere on the screen to make it look like and do whatever u want, but i usually have my liitestep setup to look and feel like fluxbox anyway =)

orochi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Aug 2002 Posts: 76

now that i think of it, this sounds like a very interesting project.... source code is available but i imagine it would have to go thru a complete rewrite since it is a a win32 shell and not a wm at all.... any coders up to it? ima compsci major but i don know unix prgramming

Erukian · Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2002 6:37 am Post subject:

The reason litestep is so advanced because it already has something to build off of, the windows envornment. It already has the base, so it was easy to just add features here and there.

If your looking for THE most configurable window manager. Enlightenment is your answer.

best of luck!

AutoBot · l33t Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Posts: 968 Location: Usually Out

MacMasta · Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2002 8:49 am Post subject:

Wamker can do customizable popups for all three mouse buttons, although it's limited to an "app" menu and a "windows" menu and a "workspace" menu.
Combine kde/gnone with windowmaker, and call it good.

~Mac~

friedmud · Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2002 11:40 pm Post subject:

I have to second Enlightenment on this one....

It is a lot like litestep (used to use it when I was in windows more - but now I just dont care 'cause I only use windows once a week or so for a couple of minutes). I used to use E before I switched to KDE (I am a C++ coder and I love QT - so I switched)

You can configure the menus with text files (for ultimate customizability - there are also gui configurators - but I never used them). It is VERY customizable as far as skins go - probably one of the most skinnable WMs around.

Just "emerge enlightenment" - and learn it. If you learn it inside and out it is VERY powerful.

Derek

orochi · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Aug 2002 Posts: 76

ive been checkin out fvwm and from the looks of it , this is the closestst thin to litestep on linux, the config files look alot like litestep rc's , but they are alot more complex and powereful, and even tho most fvwm screenshots so look quite ugly, i think its posible to make it look better than any other wm with alot of work, and from some screen shots it looks like u can even emulate any other wm, im gonna give it a try

wimac · n00b Joined: 20 Jun 2002 Posts: 28 Location: st. louis, mo

I only use Litestep on windoze when I actually have to run a win32 machine. I use fluxbox on my *nix boxes but I have to say the closest thing to LS in a *nix window manager has to be Enlightenment. have fun.
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liberte · n00b Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 5 Location: Paris, Fr

After fiddling with Fluxbox a little more, and downloading all the styles I could find (yes I did...), I decided to go back to KDE ;)

I set KDE so there's the least bloat, kicker is almost invisible (it can autohide anyway), and I discovered that kdesktop_custom_menu1 and 2 can be exactly what I wanted: 2 popup for when I click the desktop.
IceWM will let me port my WindowBlinds skin from Windows, so I'll have an environement that is very very close to my Win32 environement. (note: I have 2 comps, one running Win2k, highly customized, the other one Gentoo).

I'll try to configure fluxbox when I have more time since FluxBox is so much faster than KDE.... KDE is sooo slow on my poor machine.

Thanks for all the answers, the community is so nice. Just for the community I'll stick to Gentoo. Screw other distros!

Pigeon · Guru Joined: 21 Jun 2002 Posts: 307

FYI- all blackbox (and openbox, I think) themes are usable in fluxbox. They use the same config file options... you just have to un-tar them in a different directory. This is nice because there are ~10 times as many bb themes as flux themes.

I used to use a blackbox them under flux for a while, until I spent the time to make my own.

(it's pretty easy btw... the theme files are fairly self explanatory)