The new version of the IceWM 1.6 window manager has already been released

icewm

The new version of the lightweight IceWM 1.6 window manager has just been released, version in which of the characteristics that stand out are the introduction of transparency to the icons as well as new commands to the administrator.

For those who are unfamiliar with this window manager, they should know that the main objective of the IceWM project is to have a window manager with a good appearance and at the same time light. IceWM can be configured using simple text files that are located in each user's home directory, making it easy to customize and copy the configuration.

The window manager IceWM optionally includes a task bar, menu, network meters and CPU, email check and watch.

As well there is official support for Gnome 2.x and KDE 3.x 4.x menus through separate packages, multiple desktops (four are available by default), keyboard shortcuts, and event sounds (via IceWM Control Panel).

IceWM light is a version with fewer options, without support for quick launch icons on the taskbar for example, consisting only of a simple text menu and the classic taskbar; which makes IceWM an even faster and lighter manager.

From IceWM features you can see full control through keyboard combinations, the ability to use virtual desktops, the taskbar, and application menus.

Built-in applets are available to monitor CPU, memory, and traffic. Separately, various third-party GUIs are being developed for customization, desktop implementations, and menu editors.

It was written from scratch in C ++ and is available under the terms of the GPL license in about 20 languages. It is relatively light in terms of RAM and CPU usage.

Main new features of IceWM 1.6

As mentioned at the beginning, in this new version of IceWM 1.6 new transparency mode for icons is highlighted (–alpha option), which when enabled, provides support for displaying items with 32-bit color depth components.

To set the colors in the settings, now you can use the form "rgba:" and the prefix "[N]", where N determines the percentage proportion of the component.

Also in this new version, in the IceWM configuration, new commands are proposed: sizeto, pid, systray, xembed, motif and symbol.

While for the icesh utility, filter support has been added to select certain open windows and the ability to change the GRAVITY labels that can be applied to filters.

A new window property "startClose" has been added to instantly close unnecessary windows.

In IceWM 1.6 the option TaskBarWorkspacesLimit was added to determine the number of virtual desktop icons displayed on the panel. Implemented the ability to edit desktop names in the panel.

Of the other changes that we can find in this new version that stands out are:

  • Added the ability to display a splash screen at startup
  • Improved build support using CMake
  • Added properties _NET_SYSTEM_TRAY_ORIENTATION and _NET_SYSTEM_TRAY_VISUAL
  • The limit on the number of virtual desktops has been removed.
  • Icewm startup process optimization has been carried out
  • Additional xrandr settings have been added to use the second external monitor as the primary.

How to install IceWM on Ubuntu and derivatives?

For those who are interested in being able to install this new version of the IceWM window manager on their systems, They will be able to do it by opening a terminal and on it they will type the following command:

sudo apt-get install icewm icewm-themes

And that's it, you can start using this manager on your system, you just have to close your current user session and start a new one, but selected IceWM. As for the configuration, you can find many tutorials on YouTube.

Even on the web there are several guides, especially in the Ubuntu Wiki, where they recommend using tools such as iceme, iceconf, icewmconf and icepref.


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