Re: What Window Manager/Desktop Environment do you use, and why?

On 2025-07-02, Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 2025-07-02, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>

On Wed, 02 Jul 2025 01:13:07 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
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On 2025-07-02, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
 

On Tue, 1 Jul 2025 14:10:23 -0700, John Ames wrote:
>

I don't care *what* people offer as a novelty geegaw as long as it
doesn't get in the way of the regular workflow.

>
Previously you seemed to have an objection to such things existing in
the first place. So that’s progress, at least.

 
Most of us don't object to these things existing.
We just object to being forced to use them.

>
Thankfully, Free Software/Open Source is all about choice.

>
(... unless/until it involves a grammatical symbol in Freedesktop
stuff?)
>
Do you realize how close this can be to Microsoft claiming they don't
have a monopoly because there are other systems? In practice, that
there's that choice in some corner doesn't change in any way the forces
of peer-pressure and vendor-locking arising from Microsoft and friends,
especially if in practice you're still forced to do things their way.
>
That's what it sounds like when you try to dismiss criticism of forcing
something in FLOSS software with "but there's choice".
>

You are right, there has always been an alternative to using Microsoft.
You could always choose not to use a computer.  It could be argued that
there is choice in everything, as long as you are willing to face the
consequences of your choice.  A specious argument, and a useless one,
but one nevertheless passed on.

Anyone who truly does respect freedom, and I don't think Lawrence comes
across as such, knows that having a choice is not enough, as that always
exists, but that there are options, viable paths where people can
exercise their freedom of choice on a somewhat equal footing.  The
licence alone doesn't convey freedom, it is the autonomy and agency the
software gives the user.  Does the software allow the user to configure
it, to piece it together with other software?  Does it push the
developers vision, or does it give the user the freedom to create their
vision?

Two examples of software which give the user true freedom, are Emacs and
FVWM.  FVWM from my experience does not impose any vision on the user,
but rather, allows the user to configure it as they see fit, and
provides the documentation to do so.  The user is empowered.

Regarding Emacs, Protesilaos Stavrou says it best in this video.  This
is a good description of Emacs, but also about software freedom, taking
a different view than the usual "freedom to copy and modify" argument
used by most Free Software advcates.

https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-03-22-libreplanet-emacs-living-freedom/