[arch-general] Another rant on arch way abuse and false promises

[Ng Oon-Ee]

On Wed, 2009-12-02 at 14:15 +0100, ludovic coues wrote:
> > None at all.
> >
> >
> 
> > Now i'm running xmonad, with a mix of gui (gimp,inkscape,browser) and non
> > gui
> >
> 
> 
> My english wasn't one of the best, but isn't a windows manager the same
> thing as a desktop ?
> 
Nope, a WM manages windows, a desktop (typically DE - Desktop
Environment) comprises a window manager (Metacity for Gnome, KWin for
KDE) and some other 'helper apps' to do stuff like display backgrounds,
present a panel and widgets, automate mounting, power-management, file
browsing, copy/paste, etc.

In other words, DEs have WMs, WMs are not DEs. Therefore WMs are by
definition 'lighter' than DEs unless REALLY badly done.

Its a matter of preference, I believe. I prefer to have all the hard
work done for me, perhaps sacrificing some pure performance. Others
don't want ANYTHING they don't need on their systems, DEs wouldn't work
here.