Window Maker 0.96 Released For Window Manager Inspired By NeXTSTEP UI

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Window Maker 0.96 Released For Window Manager Inspired By NeXTSTEP UI

For those that have fond memories of the NeXTSTEP days and in particular its graphical user interface during the pre-Apple times, Window Maker 0.96 was released this weekend for that X11 window manager inspired by the NeXTSTEP GUI...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/WindowMaker-0.96

[uid313]

Sorry, I don't use the old, ancient, insecure X.Org!
I use the modern, secure Wayland on my system.

They should port it to Wayland. But it looks super ugly!

[Vistaus]

Sorry, I don't use the old, ancient, insecure X.Org!
I use the modern, secure Wayland on my system.

They should port it to Wayland. But it looks super ugly!

It looks fine to me. But it's not designed to be a 2023 DE, it's designed to be a 1990's DE. But yeah, they should port it to Wayland. Not just because Wayland is better (I'm a Wayland user, but I'm not the biggest fan), but because it's becoming the default in a lot of distros. So it makes sense to port it over.

[ezst036]

A port to Wayland for desktops like this is needed. Sadly some will not receive it.

[torsionbar28]

I was a college student in 1997 when this was first released. I remember switching to WindowMaker from FVWM, and thinking how slick and futuristic it looked! Slackware Linux ran great on my Pentium 133 with 32 MB of RAM and Matrox Millenium 4MB PCI card. Those were the days!

[schmidtbag]

I also think a Wayland port would make sense. I'd like to see a complete but barebones Wayland-compatible DE.

[Quackdoc]

ohh, Ill have to give this a try, looks good

[waxhead]

They should port it to Wayland. But it looks super ugly!

I agree with the Wayland part, but ugly is not the same as non-functional. While there is room for improvement the basic design is sound. It's clear and obvious where there is a submenu and what is a button etc... Stuff like this is totally gone in modern user interfaces where anything compact is confusing and overlays on top of things is considered a brilliant design. Not to mention that scrollbars are hidden so you have no idea that you can scroll
.. if only the hidden scrollbar actually gave you a couple of extra pixels when it was hidden but that too is apparently to ugly for some.

People that design user interfaces these days should look back at the 90s where user interfaces was at least somewhat consistent as far as the basics goes... The best thing about windows was a ugly but consistent user interface. That went to hell with windows XP... It was then the "modern kids-toy" based user interface disease started all over the place.

[szymon_g]

my first experience with linux was with PLD (now defunct RHL rolling-release variation) with WindowWmaker running some sort of virtual machine installing w2000 on it - I was captivated (by the linux and virtualization concept as well). happy times

[Rallos Zek]

A port to Wayland for desktops like this is needed. Sadly some will not receive it.

Why is it needed? Wayland is way worse than X11 for coding up window mangers and light desktops. X11 is not going away as much as the Wayland cultists would like you to believe.