For a variety of reasons too numerous to go into, I'm getting a yen really to simplify computing things as much as possible -- within reason, I guess, though maybe even unreasonably at first. Call it a learning experience. 2 thousand 0 0 party over oops out of time, tonight we're gonna compute like it's 1999.
So I'm looking at various elements I have installed, currently, which is already much reduced from what I had installed in the past, and wondering what else I can free myself from. It's a little more difficult to figure out, in some cases, than I thought it would be. I think this is partly due to the inexorable march toward automation and "ease-of-use" efforts brought to bear on the Linux ecosystem in recent years. Case in point: the display manager. I can't really find a good explanation of what is does in a single-user/simple-needs/home-user set-up, aside from provide a pretty place to type in one's user name and password. The [1] Wikipedia entry and some [2] TLDP guides explain its usefulness in situations involving dumb terminals and multiple screens or monitors; Carla's excellent "Linux Cookbook" explains how to change it (Problem: "You don't like your login display manager, and you want to try a different one") and how to use 'startx' instead, but not what using a display manager gets you; even the [3] SLiM (which calls itself a "login manager," rather than a "display manager") website says SLiM "is suitable for machines on which remote login functionalities are not needed" without saying, exactly, what it does that 'startx' doesn't do or what a display manager does that it doesn't do, beyond "remote login functionalities." Though it also says this, which I don't understand: "Single (GDM-like) or double (XDM-like) input control." What does that mean? So, assuming I'm not interested in a multi-head setup, not connecting to remote terminals or something, not at all put out by logging in from a console rather that a pretty screen with flowers and butterflies, nor by editing .xinitrc if I want to change my window manager, do I really need a display manager? Are there any other essential or desirable functions I'd be missing? I just thought, since most distros seem to use one by default, it must do Something Important. But I don't know what that might be. Michael M. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_display_manager [2] http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/sect_07_03.html [3] http://slim.berlios.de/ _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
