Window Maker is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

window manager A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunct ...

for the

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting ...

, allowing graphical applications to be run on

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating-systems. It is designed to emulate

NeXTSTEP NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...

's GUI as an

OpenStep OpenStep is a defunct object-oriented application programming interface (API) specification for a legacy object-oriented operating system, with the basic goal of offering a NeXTSTEP-like environment on non-NeXTSTEP operating systems. OpenStep wa ...

-compatible environment. Window Maker is part of the

GNU Project The GNU Project () is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and Computer hardware, computing devi ...

Overview

Window Maker has been characterized as reproducing "the elegant look and feel of the

GUI" and is noted as "easy to configure and easy to use." A graphical tool called Wprefs is included and can be used to configure most aspects of the UI. The interface tends towards a minimalist, high performance environment directly supporting XPM, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF and PPM icons with an alpha-channel and a right-click, sliding-scrolling application menu system which can throw off pinnable menus, along with window-icon miniaturization and other animations on multiple desktops. Menus and preferences can be changed without restarting. As with most window managers it supports themes and many are available. Owing to its NeXT inspiration, Window Maker has a

dock A dock (from Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The exact meaning va ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

, but Window Maker's look and feel hews mostly to that of its NeXT forebear.

Architecture

Window Maker has window hints which allow seamless integration with the

GNUstep GNUstep is a free software implementation of the Cocoa (formerly OpenStep) Objective-C frameworks, widget toolkit, and application development tools for Unix-like operating systems and Microsoft Windows. It is part of the GNU Project. GNUst ...

, GNOME,

KDE KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...

Motif Motif may refer to: General concepts * Motif (chess composition), an element of a move in the consideration of its purpose * Motif (folkloristics), a recurring element that creates recognizable patterns in folklore and folk-art traditions * Moti ...

and OpenLook environments. Significantly it has almost complete

ICCCM In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM or I39L short for "I", 39 letters and "L")widget set which was built specifically for Window Maker as a way to skirt what its developers said would have been the "overkill" (or bloat) of using

. WINGs is common to other applications including a login display manager called WINGs Display Manager ( WDM) and many dockapps. Window Maker dock and clip applets are compatible with those from AfterStep's wharf.

History

Window Maker was written from scratch primarily by

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian programmer Alfredo Kojima as a window manager for the

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphi ...

and originally meant as an improved take on the AfterStep window manager's design concept. The first release was in 1997. For a time it was included as a standard window manager in several

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

distributions and is also available in the

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

and

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking N ...

ports collection. Since the goal of the project has been to closely emulate the design of the defunct

NeXTstep NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...

and

GUIs, further development has been light. In late 2007 the widely available, stable release version was at 0.92 from July 2005 with subsequent maintenance updates having been made to some distribution packages and ports. In late June 2008 a post on the project's website said active development would resume, noting, "...we are working very hard to revitalize Window Maker's presence on X Window (and perhaps beyond) desktops... We expect to once again provide the de-facto minimalist yet extremely functional window manager to the world." On 29 January 2012, Window Maker 0.95.1 was released, making it the first official release in almost seven years. This was followed by a number of releases; the latest release was 0.95.9, released on 4 April 2020.

Name

The program's original name was ''WindowMaker'' (

camel case Camel case (sometimes stylized as camelCase or CamelCase, also known as camel caps or more formally as medial capitals) is the practice of writing phrases without spaces or punctuation. The format indicates the separation of words with a single c ...

d and without the space) but a naming conflict arose with an older product called Windowmaker from Windowmaker Software Ltd, a UK company producing software for companies that manufacture

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mate ...

s and

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...

s. A 1998 agreement between the developers of Window Maker and Windowmaker Software specified that ''Window Maker'' (in the X sense) should never be used as a single word.

Usage

Though adhering closely to the NeXT interface, the default appearance can be confusing to someone expecting a Microsoft Windows-style

taskbar A taskbar is an element of a graphical user interface which has various purposes. It typically shows which programs are currently running. The specific design and layout of the taskbar varies between individual operating systems, but generally a ...

and start menu. All applications can be accessed by right-clicking on the desktop background to access the fully configurable main menu. The menu can also be displayed using the keyboard, with for the application menu and for a window menu. A_full_wmaker_desktop_run_on_top_of_manjaro_openrc

A_full_wmaker_desktop_run_on_top_of_manjaro_openrc

Window Maker can be configured by double-clicking the screwdriver

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most c ...

on the dock. An icon depicting a computer monitor is used to launch a command-window and a paperclip icon is used to cycle between workspaces. Any icon in Window Maker, including application icons, can be easily changed. Icons representing running applications appear at the bottom of the screen (the user can extend application windows to cover these). By default, the dock appears at upper right. Icons can be dragged onto the dock to make them permanent. The edge of an icon can be right-clicked to adjust its settings. A separate, dockable application called ''wmdrawer'' features a slide-out drawer which can hold application and file launching icons.

Basic apps

While any X application can be docked in Window Maker, the

archetypical The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...

WM dockable applications are called ''dockapps''. These tend to be clocks and system monitoring applications. There are many clock implementations, including wmcalclock, , wmclock (a NeXTStep-like calendar clock clone) and wmclockmon. Monitoring applets include , , wmmon, wmnet and . Many other dockapps are available, typically ones intended to interact with other "full fledged" applications. The WPrefs configuration tool enables tuning of most Window Maker preferences. ''wmakerconf'' was developed to provide more configuration options, notably theme customization. Configuration files are typically stored in ~/GNUstep/. The background can be changed from the command line with

wmsetbg -s -u  ilename.jpg/code> (wmsetbg stands for "window maker set background").

''FSViewer'' is a separate, configurable  Miller Columns file browser 



A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and  folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or print ...
 developed for Window Maker in 1998 by George Clernon as a visual and functional analogy to NeXTstep's Workspace Manager. In 2002, it was adapted to later versions of the WINGs libraries and Window Maker by Guido Scholz.

''aterm'' is an  rxvt based terminal emulator 



A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that  emulates a video  terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a  shell or  text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote ter ...
 developed for  Afterstep mainly for visual appeal, featuring a NeXTstep style scrollbar (which matches Window Maker's look and feel) along with pseudo-transparency 
''Pseudo-transparency'' is a term used for X Window System clients that simulate the appearance of  translucency or transparency by manipulating the same pixmap that has been drawn on the root window, or by instructing the X Server that the Backgro ...
.

  Menu 

The application menu can be edited graphically with much versatility. The configuration is recorded in ~/GNUstep/Defaults/WMRootMenu as a text file which can be easily read and edited (in versions after 0.94.0 it can also be automatically generated from a list of installed applications using a program called wmgenmenu).

Menu items can be set to:
*Launch a  program or  application with or without a filename and other arguments
*Launch a command line interface 




A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...
 with or without further arguments
*Run a WM command, such as exiting a Window Maker session or listing windows and workspaces
*List a submenu containing any of the above tasks

Many Linux distribution 


A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a  package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading on ...
s define their own applications menu for Window Maker. This cannot usually be edited using the configuration tool (which will instead offer to replace it with a generic default menu which ''can'' be edited).

 Mascot


Amanda the Panda is the mascot of Window Maker. She was designed by Agnieszka Czajkowska.

  See also 

*  Extended Window Manager Hints
*  List of computing mascots
*  :Computing mascots

  References 



  External links 


Window Maker Mailing Lists

Window Maker Live
 an installable Debian/Wheezy based Linux Live CD using Window Maker as default graphical interface




{{FOSS

 1997 software
 Free X window managers
 GNU Project software
 GNUstep











	
        












 HOME 


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


 Consider donating to Wikimedia 



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases