Do you like minimalism ? ;)

Running in-build terminal (geany tab or even separate terminal opened from geany at run event) with gdb in it is enough for me. Its not like you need hotlinks as lines are easy to find unless your source files go over few thousand lines.
 
Probably my fault, for making a joke about Perl.

For the record, not all Perl code is as obfuscated (or as dangerous?) as the snippet above.
 
What is the less gui window manager? Gnome,kde,lxde of xfce are huge!
I like jwm or ede but ede is not suppoprted for x64 :(
Something that have desktop, bars, button etc but to small without 50 dependencies. 5 the most!
 
x11/lxde-meta is pretty light (comparatively). Though honestly, if you don't want all the baggage, just RYO: install a wm and a few apps that you like and leave it at that.

Most DEs are not really much more than a wm, a custom terminal client, a custom file manager, maybe an editor, a clock, some games, and a preferred browser, mail, & office package (maybe with custom widgits). So, install x11-wm/fvwm2, x11-clocks/bclock, rxvt-unicode, mc, vim, use good ol' xcalc, I dunno about games, joe (/usr/local/bin/jstar rocks for real word processing), scribus, err some spreadsheet (they all suck, frankly), graphics/xv for desktop images, you already have x11/xwd, etc etc.
 
@sk8harddiefast

Propably LXDE, or if You take it from the other perspective (minimalist to say), then all software from http://suckless.org/ can be treated as a 'de' in terms of completeness, they provide software for many tasks, as casual desktop environment like GNOME/KDE, but their own minimalistic way.
 
icewm could be just fine.
By default has only a menu and a bar on bottom with 4 desktop,menu bar and clock. But i need idesk for desktop icons :(
 
x11-wm/dwm is probably the most minimalistic window manager, but users unfamiliar with C programming often find its use of config.h to do configuration off-putting.

It's not as minimalistically elegant as dwm, but I like x11-wm/musca. It installs dmenu by default, but otherwise eschews all the usual window decorations, taskbars and other junk.

Minimal dependencies: all it needs is to build and run is libX11 and dmenu.

Configuration is done in ~/.musca_start, using a fairly easy-to-understand syntax.

Musca supports both tiled and floating windows. There's no automatic layout of the tiles, however: you have to do it manually. But the commands to do so are intuitive, and like everything else in musca, you can do it all at the keyboard, without touching your mouse.

No desktop icons, but if you insist on using point and click in order to launch your favorite apps, you can install x11/fbpanel or similar tool.
 
dwm is my default wm.
This i am using the last 1 year. just try something new. i wanted fvwm but is extremely difficult!
Icewm is really nice. Have a lot of tools for configure it but none by default!
So i use all i had from dwm (for example rexima for my sound) and all i want are loaded from .Xdefaults and .xinitrc :)
I dont need gui tool to have transparency on my urxvt :)
Has only 1 dependency and is simple a bar with menu and nothing else.
But i want to setup it and i will see and the disadvantage.
The first i saw is that have not a lot themes and this is really bad.
But the worst is that the themes they exist are not good :(
 
Themes are a symptom of non-minimalism.

If there are no titlebars and other window decorations, what's left to "theme"?

Scrollbars? Those are passé. Have been ever since we got mice with scrollwheels (or touchpads with gestures). Keyboard junkies will tell you they were always unnecessary, since we already had PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys.
 
I don't believe that themes are a symptom of non-minimalism.
You could have a very simple wm without dependencies like jwm or icewm with only 1 theme (that you like) for you panel and your window decoration, idesk with 2-3 icons on your desktop and nothing more.
All the others are config files like the menu, xterm transparency, sound,etc.
The only exception is a new config file for wm's menu. All the others still exists on dwm too. No gui & useless tools, no 1000 dependencies, no gui settings. Just a panel & a menu.
This is still minimal. You went from 618 packages to 620. But because icewm have a clock on his panel by default, you remove dclock! Ok.619 packages ! And because you will keep icewm remove dmenu also. Now you are on the same number of packages that you were before and the only thing you have changed on relation with the previous wm is the theme and you make a menu configuration on the new one ! There is balance !
Never mind.I am back to dwm. I am using it so long and i can't change wm :)
 
use the right tool for the job

Interesting thread. On the original topic, I like to use a good tool for the job. It may or may not be minimalist.

I run gnome because I'm familiar with it from ubuntu. KDE is too cluttered IMO. I'm getting problems with compiz though. Thinking of going back to using wmctrl to emulate the tiling functions of winsplit revolution, rather than compiz grid. The only reason I use compiz is for grid, because it's easier to set up than using wmctrl. However, it is giving me grief. FreeBSD does tend to make one turn minimalist I think, simply because it reduces compile times, reduces opportunity for error in picking compile options, and chance for things to break.

Gnome includes the disk usage analyzer, which is very handy. Thunderbird, the file browser, archive manager. Firefox, because it has so many useful addons (noscript, and a few others I've used in the past).

I use vim, which may or may not be minimalist. It's pretty fast, but there is very little you can't do with it - lots of functions I will never use. But as is said with things like Office - everyone only uses 20% of the features, but everyone uses a different 20%. But vim is completely awesome. So quick, efficient, and powerful. Macros are awesome. Syntax highlighting is cool. Visual mode rocks. And after you wrap your head around it, it's intuitive.

For a calculator I use grpn, but control it with the keyboard. The keys are nice to have because they remind you of the functions available and the correct syntax to use. If it loads instantly, I don't consider it bloated.

I used to use Amarok for music until the new version made it worse (not minimalist). Now I use vlc player, which is more minimalist.

Openoffice is good, not minimalist at all. But I don't want to hamstring myself by using a less featureful office suite.

Editing pictures, GIMP. Drawing stuff, kivio. Neither of them minimalist.

Todo lists - tasque, or gtodo. Neither are minimalist. Sorely tempted to fork one of them and make it do everything I want it to do, as I haven't found any of them function exactly as I think they should.

For programming languages I like to use a good tool for the job - gluing together userland utilities, shell scripting is good. Manipulating text, Perl - and other stuff as well. (Remember that Perl is not just Perl, it has CPAN. So much code to reuse.) Simple calculations, spreadsheets. Complex non-relational calculations, I still use a spreadsheet, probably should learn R. Storing large and complex related information that I want to analyze, especially over and over again, PostgreSQL. When I meet a job that best suits Python, I will learn it. Until then I haven't found I needed to. I will learn Django soon, which will involve Python.
 
I don't like minimalism for the sake of minimalism, but merely because it seems to have a number of advantages when implemented in a work environment, such as keeping my rather old hardware from being crushed under the weight of exorbitant resource demands. I also find that minimal apps and window-managers tend to be more economic in terms of configuration and usage, eschewing as they often do clumsy point-and-click interfaces with endless submenus that one has to navigate through in order to accomplish anything.

They also suit my laziness. Xmonad, for instance, keeps me from having to move my hands from a rather comfortable resting position on the keyboard, and vim+LaTeX keeps me from having to bother to manually format my essays and research reports, or actually learn how to properly format my references in the prescribed APA style.

It's true that sometimes the learning curve is somewhat greater, and minimalist apps are less 'intuitive', but in most instances, they're much easier to actually use once you get to grips with them... which makes my preference pretty cut-and-dry, really.
 
sk8harddiefast said:
with only 1 theme (that you like) for you panel and your window decoration
I understand minimalism as keeping things to the bare minimum while not sacrificing functionality. Having simple vector or XPM window decorations and a completely row panel (i.e. a bar with buttons) as is possible in fvwm and the likes is what I would call minimalist.

sk8harddiefast said:
idesk with 2-3 icons on your desktop
Icons "are a symptom of non-minimalism." ;) They are superfluous since you can execute the same commands using the historical X "root menu".

sk8harddiefast said:
No gui & useless tools, no 1000 dependencies, no gui settings. Just a panel & a menu.
^ These are mostly characteristics of DEs. You're describing virtually every WM out there that isn't based on a major TK. Look at all the *boxen, aewm, evilwm, golem, ion, lwm, musca, pekwm, ratpoison, twm, etc.
And if you already have GTK+-based (not particularly minimalist, I concur) applications, even metacity (GNOME's WM) won't look so big when it comes to dependencies.
 
Icons "are a symptom of non-minimalism." They are superfluous since you can execute the same commands using the historical X "root menu".
Ok. I will agree with that.
But general i believe that minimalism is not a lot of packages, packages without a lot dependencies, a wm like dwm, fluxbox etc and not a lot gui !
The most things running from terminal but sometimes a simple icon for your music which is on a subsubsubsub folder on the 1 of 5 hdds 1 tb each one is not against minimalism !
Ok. You can do a link on your home folder but an icon on your desktop is not so bad !
 
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