tlug: another question: webpage-like desktop in Linux

[Matt Gushee <matt@example.com>]

Eric Standlee writes:
 
 > Is there a windows manager in XF86 which can allow a real webpage to become
 > the background (root) of the window?

Interesting question. The "can allow" part is no problem ... I think
you can set this up -- or maybe I should say "simulate this effect" --
with just about any window manager. But as far as I know, there is no
window manager that has a ready-made option to put a webpage in the
background. And actually, although you can make it *look* like the
webpage is on the root window, I doubt you can actually put it on the
root window ... which means you have a big window that buries
the root window, perhaps making it impossible to access the root menu
with the mouse (though you could still run it with hotkeys).

So you probably don't want to do this; but you *could* run a browser
by default in your X session. In order to do that, you need to add a
line to your .Xclients file (or perhapse .xinitrc) to start the
browser in the background before the window manager starts. For
example, if your window manager is FVWM2, you'll find a line looking
something like:

	exec fvwm2

Add a line to start the browser, like this:

	netscape &
	exec fvwm2

Don't forget the ampersand, or the window manager will never start.
You would also probably want to have the browser maximized by default, 
and not have any border or titlebar (which you would do with the
window manager configuration file).

Potential problems:
If your browser is Netscape, you will of course need a lot of memory.
Depending on the window manager, it may be impossible to ensure that other
windows will never get lost behind the browser.

If you're interested in having a web-integrated desktop (regardless of 
whether you start up with a web page), you might check out KDE (the K
Desktop Environment). The KDE file manager is also a simple web
browser, and treats a URL as just another pathname in an extended
virtual filesystem; you can also have desktop icons for URLs. Just be
warned that some people will think you are a Bad Person if you use KDE 
... because it's not purely free software -- that is, it's based on a
library distributed by a commercial software company, which is free
only at the pleasure of that company. Just so you know. However, at
the moment KDE is the most user-friendly desktop available for X.

Hope this helps a little.

Matt Gushee
Oshamanbe, Hokkaido
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