Window Maker is an X11 window manager originally designed to provide integration support for the GNUstep Desktop Environment. In every way possible, it reproduces the elegant look and feel of the NEXTSTEP user interface.

Window Maker is a fast, lightweight window manager based as closely as possible on the look and feel of the NeXTStep interface. (You may be familiar with NeXTStep an ancestor of Mac OSX, although the look and feel has changed a fair bit between the two.)

AfterStep is a window manager for the Unix X Window System. Originally based on the look and feel of the NeXTStep interface, it provides end users with a consistent, clean, and elegant desktop. The goal of AfterStep development is to provide for flexibility of desktop configuration, improving aestetics, and efficient use of system resources.

If you’ve never used Window Maker on your Linux desktop, you’re missing out. I’ve dabbled in nearly every window manager/desktop environment out there, and while all have their pros and cons, I always go back to Window Maker.

Continuing with our introduction to old-school Linux window managers, I would like to bring to you Window Maker. The Window Maker window manager was designed to look and feel like the old NeXT GUI.

JWM (Joe's Window Manager) is a very lightweight window manager for use with X windows under Linux or Unix. My compiled version weighs in at 138KBytes in size, not the dozens of megabytes like KDE or GNOME. If you are looking for a simple kiosk system interface or a lightweight desktop for a dedicated server, then JWM should fit the bill nicely.

"Recently I switched from GNOME to Stumpwm (wiki), which means that I jumped out of a desktop environment to a simple window manager. So far, I'm very satisfied with such a change and never looked back. Stumpwm, as its website says, 'is a tiling, keyboard driven X11 Window Manager written entirely in Common Lisp'. This definition summarizes the reasons why Stumpwm is so suitable for me..." --

I have used Window Maker for some time and have always made my own custom menus. However, the current maintainer of the Window Maker window manager gave us a small tutorial on how to add the Debian menu to a custom menu. The menu package must be installed prior to beginning this tutorial, check your software repositories. Thanks to John H. Robinson, IV (aka jaqque).

One of the big perks of using a Linux distribution is having a choice of what window manager you want to use. You can check out what’s available for Linux window managers and desktops here. The one I’ll be concentrating on is fluxbox, a window manager.