AfterStep is a Window Manager for X which started by emulating the NeXTSTEP look and feel, but which has been significantly altered according to the requests of various users. This release has improved stability and speed, an Ident module, updated docs, and added menu keyboard shortcuts. Wharf animation has been fixed, and there are many other bugfixes.
AfterStep 2.0 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Is it me or does it seem to be frozen in the RedHat 5.1 era. Would AfterStep still have any users?
… compile on Slackware-10? i always have room for another wm
Is it me or does it seem to be frozen in the RedHat 5.1 era.
Hehe… maybe so, but it was the coolest thing in the world back then ;-). I remember when I was first getting acquainted with Linux, and discovered that Afterstep could actually give me an *animated* desktop background, as well as other cool features that you could never accomplish in Mac or Windows.
WindowMaker has been my favorite Next-ish desktop, simply because of its speed and keyboard integration, but maybe it’s time to check out Afterstep again.
WindowMaker has been my favorite Next-ish desktop, simply because of its speed and keyboard integration
Same reasons here, plus GUI configuration. I installed Afterstep a couple of weeks ago because it has similar looks than WMaker (nothing like Mac or Windows). It’s been fun playing around with Afterstep but whenever I need to get something done, it’s back to WMaker.
Is there a GUI config utility for Afterstep 2.0?
I use AfterStep as my WM on every PC I own or have access to. It’s simple, lightweight, and does everything I need a WM to do. All the extra bells/whistles that come with modern WMs are of little use to me.. so personally, I’ll stick with what got me here.
I remember using AfterStep 1.0 like back in ’97 or something like that on Slackware Linux. I would spent a great amount of time tweaking the rc file and stuff to get things just how I liked it. Man, that was ages ago. I need to check to see what AfterStep 2.0 has to offer.
I’d love to have a configurable Afterstep Shell for Windows.
I used to use Litestep, but after it forked and the main tree got all weird and seemed to die for some time, I lost interest.
Also, editing .rc files was a major pain in the ass. I hated it. Fun at first, but lose your configs, and it’s all shitty having to recreate a very tweaked config.
Plus, the graphical errors in litestep were irksome. But I’d love to see some of the shells/gui’s walk over to the windows world.
Wouldn’t that kick M$ in the ass? Oh, we removed MSIE security hole, and now we just use this improved shell… (KDE?). Oh, yes, we use Firefox and Kwrite for all our needs now….
AND WE STILL HAVE GAMES.
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful world?
it compiled nicely on slackware-10, and loaded up good too…
later when i have time to fiddle with it i will customize it to my personal taste…
kudos to the afterstep team :^)
I am running a blackbox port for windows. It has a few issues but more or less makes me feel like I am on a unix machine, which is nice as all my other systems are.
here are the related links:
http://bb4win.org/news.php
http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/
AfterStep IMHO is a terrible looking WM, I wont say it is non-functional, just really crappy looking.
/me will stick with FluxBox
AfterStep IMHO is a terrible looking WM, I wont say it is non-functional, just really crappy looking.
Oh, I dunno. This one looks pretty OK to me:
http://www.afterstep.org/screenshots/Transparent.Stormy_Skies.jpg
I’d love to have a configurable Afterstep Shell for Windows.
There is NextStart/WinStep. I believe it can be used with or without Explorer.
http://www.winstep.net/
I like Windowmaker on *nix.
I would really love to say something good about AfterStep besides that they put a lot of effort into making an interesting product… but I can’t.
I’ve always found AfterStep ugly, and awkward to use, and all the years they’ve spent developing the new foundation for AfterStep haven’t exactly made the situation better.
But anyway, I wish them and anybody who uses AfterStep luck for the future.
I’m learning this Linux stuff on my own — Everyone else I know uses Windows.
I like to use “lighter” window-managers rather than Gnome or KDE on Debian. IceWM works fine. Ditto XFCE. I’ve tried WindowMaker (which seems pretty NEXT?AfterStep-ish, but though it looks fantastic, I never really “got it” in terms of using it effectively.
I’m sure it’s very simple, but I’m too stuck in Windows-thinking to figure. What is the difference between the Clip and Dock/Wharf, and why do I want both?
Merci beaucoup.
I wonder, does Afterstep integrate UTF-8 and antialising. The second one I can live without, but no UTF-8 on my box is a pain (I’m running on a French system and no, I won’t return to ISO8859-1).
I’m running WindowMaker right now, and maybe if Afterstep supported UTF-8 it would be nice to switch to it.
WOAH!!! thanks for those links! I just got a geforce 6800 so ive switched back to windows for the games, and i missed my *box setup on linux ^_^
YOU’RE MY HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-tha luzer
Well, Clip allows you to change from one “virtual desktop” to another by mouse-clicking on the corner of Clip. Clip also acts as a second Dock.
Dock/Wharf is the place where you can “anchor” shortcuts for different apps. When you start an app from the desktop menu, an “appicon” appears somewhere on the lower side of the screen. You can just drag this appicon to Dock with mouse and it sticks there (like a shortcut icon on Windows desktop). You can launch an app by double-clicking its “docked” appicon.
It’s simple and tidy. I like it. And it gets even better when you learn to associate keyboard shortcuts with different apps and window functions.
but though it looks fantastic, I never really “got it” in terms of using it effectively.
Same here. And I even used WindowMaker for a long time. There’s just something about it that I’m attracted to. But every time I mess with it, I find myself spending almost 100% of my time trying to either A.) retrain my brain to work the WindowMaker way or B.) make WindowMaker work in a way that I can understand and be comfortable with.
I’ve never been sucessfull at either. Now I use OpenBox3 and fbpanel.
Holy Cow! Thank you for these links! That’s just awesome!
Both UTF-8 and antialiasing are in, read http://www.afterstep.org/as20.php
Maybe I just like it so much I can’t see what you guys find hard about it… You have square things that launch apps on your dock and clip, and square things that represent minimized windows, and square things that represt apps not on your dock/clip. And dockapps you can’t live without.
easy!
Care to explain?
Maybe I just like it so much I can’t see what you guys find hard about it… You have square things that launch apps on your dock and clip, and square things that represent minimized windows, and square things that represt apps not on your dock/clip. And dockapps you can’t live without.
Well – I guess it’s not that I don’t understand how it works then, I guess I just don’t like it. But am still somehow drawn to it? Weird.
I think if there were an option to shut off those app-icons, I’d be happier. I understand the mini windows … when you minimize a window, you get a mini window representing the full size window. That makes sense. But having an app icon in addition to the mini window? What’s the point? If you have more than a few programs open, a good part of your screen is full of app-icons and mini windows that are difficult to tell apart. Seems counter intuitive to me.
The really annoying part is that you CAN disable the useful and functional mini window, but you CAN’T disable the (seemingly) useless and confusing app-icons.
Follow up to the previous. I realize you can edit the window properties for each and every program and disable the app icon, but like I said in my original statement:
…every time I mess with it (WindowMaker), I find myself spending almost 100% of my time trying to either A.) retrain my brain to work the WindowMaker way or B.) make WindowMaker work in a way that I can understand and be comfortable with.
Firstly, I never knew — when I iconified anything — what would end up attatching to the clip, and what to the dock.
Though I did figure out being able to use the clip for switching workspaces, I couldn’t figure why there were 2 such things — both a clip *and* a dock.
And they didn’t even, despite some comments I saw, even seem to save screen “real estate” — I found that all those icons, or if collaped the clip and the dock, used more space than a panel did.
So… Again. Why have * 2 * such things? What is the advantage? And what (besides workspace switching) makes them different from each other?
The clip attaches icons to a specific workspace and can be hidden by double clicking the clip. The dock shows on all workspaces. I like making certain apps only start in certain workspaces and then I usually attarch the icon to the clip in that particular workspace. I have dedicated workspaces for certain applications or types of applications. I also love being able to hide an app in its icon, either in the clip or the dock. You can also right click the icon and bring up a menu that allows you to bring that program to the workspace you are in. So if I have mozilla in the dock and it is open on another workspace I can just right click the icon and select “bring here”.
Can GNOME have animated backgrounds? Could I set a screensaver or even a film clip into the wallpaper?
So… Again. Why have * 2 * such things? What is the advantage? And what (besides workspace switching) makes them different from each other?
In my tinkering with WindowMaker, I learned that you could use the clip to attach icons that you wanted for a specific work space. For example, work space 1 could have FireFox and Thunderbird attached to the clip. But when you switched to work space 2, you wouldn’t see those but would instead see RhythmBox (for example).
Whether or not you find that concept useful/intuitive/whatever is a personal choice I suppose. I never cared for the clip personally. I set it up so that it would automatically attract those irritating app-icons and then I would collapse the clip and hide it behind the dock. I would much prefer to just disable the clip, however – in doing so – I didn’t have a convenient way to hide the app icons.
So again – using WindwoMaker just required too much screwing around. So I decided it just wasn’t for me apparently. Regretfully though – because there were things I did like about it.
I think *maybe* if you used all GNUStep Apps that it would possibly make more sense? Pure speculation on my part. But I think part of the weirdness stems from the fact that many programs just weren’t designed to work the way GNUStep/WindowMaker works. For example, a lot of programs don’t set an icon that WindowMaker knows about, so you end up with that dumb looking default icon for 90% of your mini windows and app icons. Which you either live with, or manually set yourself for each and every program. Thus (again) going back to my original post about spending almost 100% of my time bending WindowMaker to my will.
Ah Ha ! Thanks!
That makes it pretty clear.
Probably I would have figured that out eventually.
I’ve been teaching myself about Linux, (using Debian precisely because it requires you to learn something). I’ve been busy enough learning about bash, firewall rules, tcp/ip, XFree86, file permissions, win-modems and other stuff. So when WindowMaker didn’t gel, I went back to IceWM to concentrate on fundamentals. The point I’m trying to make is, until quite recently I was using an old pentium “learner” box that didn’t really have the memory to handle multiple workspaces — let alone Gnome or KDE. And as I wanted to learn tools that would be distro-agnostic anyways, I’ve been doing a fair bit with CLI in an xterm or virtual console. I was avoiding doing much in multiple workspaces.
But in the last couple months, I’ve upgraded the hardware on that box (still no Gnome/KDE though) and added a linux harddrive to my main box. I’m using it now. The only thing left to do is moving over my e-mail. As soon as that’s done the only thing keeping me in Windows will be my room-mate.
So I’ll give WindowMaker another go; maybe now that I have room to play I’ll find that I like it. (And if not I’ll still keep it around just to wow some aquaintances who judge an OS by how cool it looks)
… as well as WindowMaker.
Is there much difference?
You almost always have animated background by running mplayer -root.
But first make sure your WM/DE not insisting on controlling root window
I have RSS feeds from freshmeat if I want to be told a window manager has a new release out. It’s hardly ‘osnews’, is it?
“Can GNOME have animated backgrounds? Could I set a screensaver or even a film clip into the wallpaper?”
Any X app can draw to the root window if you ask it. You need to read the docs though
It’S really a pitty that there is no window manager that integrates well with GNUstep.
WindowMaker is the closest choice.. especially the cvs versions; at least they claim so. Meanwhile, 2 objective-C window managers designed _specifically_ for gnustep were being designed but got stagnant a year or two ago, InterfaceWM and another one I forget..
Can this WM, or any other that people know of, use radial application menus when left-clicking on the desktop, rather than drop-down ones? My favorite WM, scwm, could, but it’s so outdated at this point that building it is nearly impossible. For a visual of what I’m looking for, see
http://scwm.sf.net/pie.gif
It’s a really ugly pic, but the radial menu is there…
You may want to give PieWM (http://www.crynwr.com/piewm/) a try. It doesn’t look too hot, from my perspective. It is Open Sourced though, you can make it look/act how ever you like.
Yeah, that’s pretty ugly too, but maybe it can be made to look better. I know the scwm can. Thanks for the link.
Is there a Aqua dock like application for linux?
Funny…I used to love Windowmaker but always hated Afterstep.
Wow I was amzed that afterstep is still alive. Besides Enlightenment it impressed me most many years ago when I installed SuSE 5.3.
I quickly tried it today and liked how it looks. But it didnt feel right for me. I missed ALT+Drag right after I startet it. Somehow the dock didnt draw right on my dual+head. Maybe this is a configuration issue, but I didnt want to spend time to read the documentation and write configfiles, yes I was lazy.
Still I will try it again, thanks for bringing back afterstep!
If I remember correctly this was originally base off of FVWM. Well, it seems more of a mature WM now in terms of apperance alone. I personally like WindowMaker out of the two WMs. If I wasn’t so use to expose I probably would go and put Linux on my powerbook.
Actually, I think enlightenment is the one based off of FVWM.
“Actually, I think enlightenment is the one based off of FVWM.”
It was, a long, long, long time ago. Neither the 0.16.x or 0.17 branches have any FVWM code.
“I think if there were an option to shut off those app-icons, I’d be happier.”
This used to be a compile-time flag but was removed some number of years ago. As a WindowMaker user who also hates app icons, I have discovered (right click on clip)->Clip Options->Autoattract Icons. This is not a 100% solution since it doesn’t work well unless your clip is also set to autocollapse (which mine is, but you might do something useful with your clip).
Window maker is still the best:
True sloppy focus, a must for us *nix users.
Easy to configure keyboard shortcuts, a must for quick accurate desktop/window switching.
The clip and icons etc aren’t useful, I always turn them off.
In WindowMaker to turn off app icons, you right click the title bar and go into attributes and it’s in there, it’s not hard to find.
WindowMaker preferences to turn off the clip itself.
Hope this helps someone.