[xmonad] Re: background applications

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On Mon, Aug 30 2010, Jim Cheetham wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Sergey Manucharian
> <ingeniware at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I'm trying to get a handle on the different "levels" that xmonad can
>>> run at: either within gnome, or instead of gnome... is that right?
>
> Not quite; XMonad manages windows, Gnome manages "desktop sessions"
> and uses something else to manage windows -- in Ubuntu that's
> metacity.
>
> It's quite possible to have Gnome running with XMonad as the window
> manager -- if you do this you can have the standard gnome-panel with
> menus, application icons and status applets. Mind you, there is a
> little confusion in idiom between a window manager that primarily uses
> the keyboard with a panel that primarily demands the mouse ...
>
> The following command will change the window manager that Gnome uses :-
> $ gconftool-2 -s
> /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager xmonad --type
> string
>
> (set it to gnome-wm to get the old metacity back)

Thanks for all the recommendations and pointers! I think this is the
solution I'll start with, at least until I'm comfortable enough with
xmonad configuration to play with standalone status bars.

Off to give it a shot…

Eric