 Visitor Reviews |
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Reader supplied reviews for Window Maker Live
Average rating
9.2 from 5 review(s)
Version: 12.12
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-25
Votes: 1
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I have always enjoyed WindowMaker and have tried WM Live in the past, but I have rarely stuck with it for very long. I installed this on a Panasonic Let's Note CF-MX5, thinking it would be fun to try for a bit, and then move on.
To my surprise it has been perfect for this little laptop, and I find myself wanting to continue to use it. Everything works wonderfully, including the touchscreen. Installation was standard Debian, and boot times and usage are blazing fast.
WindowMaker is highly configurable, and I have set keyboard shortcuts such that I rarely use the touchpad. Stability is fantastic and I have encountered no freezes or crashes.
The only thing negative I will say is that the included Pale Moon and Otter browsers are subpar, but that was easily remedied by installing Firefox. There is also the WebSurf browser (I believe part of the GNUStep environment), which is nice for basic, non-Javascript browsing.
This version of WM Live is based on Debian 12 (bookworm), but it sounds like a Debian 13 (trixie) version will be forthcoming.
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Version: 0.96.0-0
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-01-18
Votes: 9
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I installed it expecting to experience some nostalgia. I used to use "Window Maker" when I was young. To my surprise, the experience was not just nostalgia but a complete desktop experience.
This software has evolved to provide every comfort of a today's wordkflow. There is a system tray, a task manager, a handy dock panel, the mouse wheel works everywhere, easy and customizable. The memory footprint is extremely small for what it provides.
I like that it includes the vintage WMapplications but they aren't as useful today.Maybe I'll keep some of them for some basic tasks because they're so fast and small that I can run thousands of them spending almost zero system recourses.
As a system, it is a Debian Bookworm, it works, plenty of sofware, plenty of documentation, standard and solid GNU/Linux Distro, very good support everywhere.
Kudos to the developers!!!!
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Version: 0.95.9-0
Rating: 6
Date: 2023-10-06
Votes: 3
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I currently use Window Maker, on MX Linux 21. WM is my favorite window manager and prefer it to any desktop. I have missed Window Maker Live and am glad to see it is back. I have just installed it, however it only includes the Debian graphical and expert installs. Since the expert is too detailed for my needs, I used the graphical installer which has missing settings that are found in the Debian text install.
What is missing is completing the system name, as in: 'computer.something.com', only "computer" can be set. Although I could locate myself in North America, there was no option to set the timezone, thus my clock was inaccurate. There was no option to create a root account. Having installed Debian 12 recently, all those settings were available in the text install. I had to set these by hand. Upon updating the system via Synaptic, I found the "update menus" did not do so. Since I write my own WM menu, this is not a big deal for me.
I will continue using WML, however, I do think the original WML did not have these issues.
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Version: 0.95.9-0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-09-27
Votes: 4
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Ok, this might just be crazy overkill. I'm running Window Maker Live on a Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14-Gen7. This is a monster of a 14" laptop with 20 cores, 2TB nvme disk and 64GB memory.
I have never, ever seen anything as fast as this. Launching e.g. google-chrome takes about 1/5th of a second from I click in the menu and until the browser window is open. Libreoffice takes about a second. This is from a freshly booted OS.
Stability and ease of use is as always unparalleled, as one would expect from Window Maker.
This new release comes with systemd, which just works. There are also a few other things that have been added.
Only thing I've actually felt the need to install is pulseaudio, since alsa by itself doesn't work that well when you attach different docking stations etc.
I've also removed a few of the preinstalled packages, but that's mostly because I use something else or I simply don't need their functionality.
One really good thing is the integration of specific stuff from mate and xfce, this makes e.g. multi-monitor setups, keyboard layout changes on the fly etc. a bit easier.
I've been using Window Maker on and off since the very first release, and this distro is a really good combination of an excellent OS and an excellent window manager.
I can only recommend it, even for brand new computers.
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Version: 0.95.9-0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-08-12
Votes: 4
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Nice this still exists. Windowmaker used to be my fave WM. I agree that keeping systemd while using Debian as base is too difficult. This is what the very popular MX linux distro tries to do but it creates big problems. Will try it, I hope that with systemd it now uses networkmanager applet for wifi/internet connections. Last time I tried it I think it was lack of an easy gui way to connect online and some for me weird choices in setting up the WM that made me move on. But it was still very solid.
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Latest Reviews
Project: Window Maker Live
Version: 12.12
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-09-25
Votes: 1
|
I have always enjoyed WindowMaker and have tried WM Live in the past, but I have rarely stuck with it for very long. I installed this on a Panasonic Let's Note CF-MX5, thinking it would be fun to try for a bit, and then move on.
To my surprise it has been perfect for this little laptop, and I find myself wanting to continue to use it. Everything works wonderfully, including the touchscreen. Installation was standard Debian, and boot times and usage are blazing fast.
WindowMaker is highly configurable, and I have set keyboard shortcuts such that I rarely use the touchpad. Stability is fantastic and I have encountered no freezes or crashes.
The only thing negative I will say is that the included Pale Moon and Otter browsers are subpar, but that was easily remedied by installing Firefox. There is also the WebSurf browser (I believe part of the GNUStep environment), which is nice for basic, non-Javascript browsing.
This version of WM Live is based on Debian 12 (bookworm), but it sounds like a Debian 13 (trixie) version will be forthcoming.
|
Project: Window Maker Live
Version: 0.96.0-0
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-01-18
Votes: 9
|
I installed it expecting to experience some nostalgia. I used to use "Window Maker" when I was young. To my surprise, the experience was not just nostalgia but a complete desktop experience.
This software has evolved to provide every comfort of a today's wordkflow. There is a system tray, a task manager, a handy dock panel, the mouse wheel works everywhere, easy and customizable. The memory footprint is extremely small for what it provides.
I like that it includes the vintage WMapplications but they aren't as useful today.Maybe I'll keep some of them for some basic tasks because they're so fast and small that I can run thousands of them spending almost zero system recourses.
As a system, it is a Debian Bookworm, it works, plenty of sofware, plenty of documentation, standard and solid GNU/Linux Distro, very good support everywhere.
Kudos to the developers!!!!
|
Project: Window Maker Live
Version: 0.95.9-0
Rating: 6
Date: 2023-10-06
Votes: 3
|
I currently use Window Maker, on MX Linux 21. WM is my favorite window manager and prefer it to any desktop. I have missed Window Maker Live and am glad to see it is back. I have just installed it, however it only includes the Debian graphical and expert installs. Since the expert is too detailed for my needs, I used the graphical installer which has missing settings that are found in the Debian text install.
What is missing is completing the system name, as in: 'computer.something.com', only "computer" can be set. Although I could locate myself in North America, there was no option to set the timezone, thus my clock was inaccurate. There was no option to create a root account. Having installed Debian 12 recently, all those settings were available in the text install. I had to set these by hand. Upon updating the system via Synaptic, I found the "update menus" did not do so. Since I write my own WM menu, this is not a big deal for me.
I will continue using WML, however, I do think the original WML did not have these issues.
|
Project: Window Maker Live
Version: 0.95.9-0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-09-27
Votes: 4
|
Ok, this might just be crazy overkill. I'm running Window Maker Live on a Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14-Gen7. This is a monster of a 14" laptop with 20 cores, 2TB nvme disk and 64GB memory.
I have never, ever seen anything as fast as this. Launching e.g. google-chrome takes about 1/5th of a second from I click in the menu and until the browser window is open. Libreoffice takes about a second. This is from a freshly booted OS.
Stability and ease of use is as always unparalleled, as one would expect from Window Maker.
This new release comes with systemd, which just works. There are also a few other things that have been added.
Only thing I've actually felt the need to install is pulseaudio, since alsa by itself doesn't work that well when you attach different docking stations etc.
I've also removed a few of the preinstalled packages, but that's mostly because I use something else or I simply don't need their functionality.
One really good thing is the integration of specific stuff from mate and xfce, this makes e.g. multi-monitor setups, keyboard layout changes on the fly etc. a bit easier.
I've been using Window Maker on and off since the very first release, and this distro is a really good combination of an excellent OS and an excellent window manager.
I can only recommend it, even for brand new computers.
|
Project: Window Maker Live
Version: 0.95.9-0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-08-12
Votes: 4
|
Nice this still exists. Windowmaker used to be my fave WM. I agree that keeping systemd while using Debian as base is too difficult. This is what the very popular MX linux distro tries to do but it creates big problems. Will try it, I hope that with systemd it now uses networkmanager applet for wifi/internet connections. Last time I tried it I think it was lack of an easy gui way to connect online and some for me weird choices in setting up the WM that made me move on. But it was still very solid.
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