Subject: Re: Look and feel
To: Iggy Drougge <optimus@canit.se>
From: Wes Peters <wes@dobox.com>
List: netbsd-advocacy
Date: 02/21/2002 17:09:03
Iggy Drougge wrote:
> 
> Ram Chandar skrev:
> 
> >There should be a consensus to develop a
> >desktop look and feel for NetBSD.
> 
> ...
> NetBSD is a UNIX.

Do we have to re-fight the Wyse 50 vs. TeleVideo 925 wars?

> >Some people has suggested that opting for
> >a default X setup with a particular WM/DE will
> >promote a false notion of NetBSD's endorsement
> >of that Software.
> >
> >This can be nullified by providing choices during
> >install time  for say, GNOME,  KDE,  XFCE, WM etc.
> >and by default theming the chosen environment
> >to have the aforementioned NetBSD theme/look-n-feel.
> 
> Apart from the traditionalist perspective, one big problem would be finding
> something which would run on all NetBSD platforms. Gnome and KDE are too
> bloated even on modern high-end hardware, I don't want to think of how it
> would run, or even compile, on my HP300 or Mac68ks.
> I don't think a NetBSD-related solution would be out of place here, instead of
> one of the Linux-derived everything-but-the-kitchen-sink bloat monsters.

It doesn't have to waste a lot of CPU, pixels, and RAM on eye-candy to
be a "standard."  Twm could be the standard if you declare it to be so.

Meta-packages can accomplish a lot of this, by installing a window manager
and then a customized (NetBSD-ized?) default configuration.

WindowMaker gets my vote for being reasonably feature-full, reasonably 
fast on moderate hardware (it works acceptably well on my SPARCstation 5
with TGX), but I'm sure others will differ.

-- 
                                 Boats love me
                                 Sails fear me
Wes Peters <wes@dobox.com>                                     System Architect
http://www.dobox.com/                                                DoBox Inc.