[xmonad] New User - Intro

[Kevin Monceaux]

XMonad Fans,

I came across XMonad yesterday, and I think I'm hooked.

I've been using XFCE for quite a while.  But, I usually kill the XFCE 
panel, start an XFCE-terminal session, maximize it, then launch 
applications, most of which I also maximize, from there.  Recently someone 
posted to the Debian mailing list asking for window manager suggestions on 
maximizing screen real estate.  I replied detailing my XFCE habits.  I then 
received a few replies asking why I was using XFCE, and got some 
suggestions of other window managers I might try that would be more to my 
liking.

Most of the suggestions were for tabbed/tiling window managers, such as 
Ion, etc.  I had looked briefly at similar window managers in the past and 
didn't think I'd like them because I prefer to run most apps full screen. 
After taking a closer look at some of the suggested window managers I 
discovered some of them had a full screen mode with minimal or no window 
decorations, and could be used almost entirely from the keyboard which is 
just what I've been looking for all along.  After trying a few I had just 
about settled on Ion.  Then ...

Yesterday while surfing the net to make sure I hadn't overlooked any 
possibilities I came across info on XMonad.  I'm currently running Debian 
Lenny but the only Debian XMonad package I could find was for Sid.  I 
dropped the Sid package into my local repository and was able to install 
and run it successfully.  I hit a snag when I started trying to tweak the 
configuration.  After a little trial and error I discovered I had to 
install Haskell and a few Haskell libraries, also from Sid.  But after 
doing so I was able to start customizing XMonad and so far all is working 
well.

Sorry for rambling on so much.  Bottom line - my congratulations and many 
thanks to the XMonad developers for such a well designed window manager.



Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla!!!