Definitions

There are some words and phrases I should talk about before you read on.

The "desktop" is the graphical space you work in. Some people use "desktop" and "workspace" interchangeably, but because I'm talking about different WMs and the way they behave, it's important to separate those definitions to better be able to describe behaviours. I chose what seems to be the commonest definitions. A "virtual desktop" is a desktop that's larger than the size of your screen. Usually this means that you'll slide around that desktop by pressing the pointer against the side of the screen (although, like anything else, this is handled differently by different WMs). I use "virtual workspaces" to mean a number of these desktops. Most Linux window managers use virtual workspaces. You can only see one of these at a time (and only part of it if you're also using a virtual desktop): one workspace appears on screen, and the others are invisible (or "virtual"). "Sticky" windows are ones that appear on every desktop/workspace in the same place.

I use the phrase "key bindings" to mean the connection of a key (or group of keys) to a command. A couple common examples are the "F1" key which is frequently bound to the "help" command for the application you're using, or "Alt-Tab" (which means "hold down the Alt key and press and release the Tab key), which is often tied to windows cycling (ie. change focus to the next window).

"Iconification" is the process of making a window into a small representative picture that sits somewhere on the desktop. "Icons" are the images used for this process, usually an image 64x64 pixels or 48x48 pixels. Iconified applications are usually attended by a some descriptive text as well. However, iconification is pretty rare these days as most window managers use taskbars or simply make the application disappear entirely when it's minimized. "Minimization" is often used interchangeably to mean the same thing as "Iconification," and is probably more accurate in a time when so few people actually use icons. The taskbar is a strip of screen real estate (usually across the top or bottom of the screen) where some indicator of running windows is given. If you click on the taskbar indicator for a window, that window is usually given the focus. If you minimize a window, it will often show up only on the taskbar and can be retrieved from there.

Having mentioned "minimization," I need to also mention "maximization." The idea may seem intuitive to most: you click the maximize button on the window frame and the window occupies the entire screen. Seems fairly obvious, and that's what I'll usually mean by it. But I mention it here because there are a lot of provisos. Some window managers don't allow a maximized window to cover toolbars and taskbars. Sometimes that means that the maximized window fills the full screen but the toolbar(s) and taskbar(s) are in front of it. Sometimes it means that the maximized window fills only the space not used by the toolbar or taskbar. Occasionally (rarely), if you have a virtual desktop, the maximized window may occupy more than the full size of the screen. And if you have two or more screens using Xinerama (which I use occasionally) then if the window manager is "Xinerama-aware" maximizing the window may mean it occupies all of one screen, but not both.

A "pager" is a utility program that allows you to change to a different part of the virtual desktop or from one virtual workspace to another.

A "toolbar" is an area of screen real estate with pictures or text that, when clicked on, launch other programs. These are usually (but not always) associated with the taskbar, and possibly the pager. Think of the bar at the bottom of the screen in Windows 98/2000. KDE and GNOME behave in a similar manner and incorporate the pager as well.

"Focus" is a word that you'll see used a lot. If a window is "focused," keyboard input goes to it. So if you have a terminal and Mozilla open on the screen and you start typing on the keyboard, those characters will appear in the window that has the focus.

I'll talk a lot about focus styles. Older window managers tended to use what was known as "SlidingFocus." (I run the two words together because that's how they're used in most config files.) This meant that whichever window the mouse pointer was over had the focus. It also meant that if the mouse pointer was over the desktop and not over a window, no window had the focus. Another variant on this is called "SloppyFocus": this behaves like "SlidingFocus," unless the pointer is over the desktop. In that case, focus remains with the last window that the pointer was over. This is much commoner than SlidingFocus these days. Finally we have the focus style that most Microsoft Windows users are familiar with: "ClickToFocus." With this focus style, you can put the mouse pointer anywhere and the focus remains with the last window you clicked on.

Finally, we have stacking. This is something most of us take for granted, but you may need to rethink if you start using another WM. Microsoft Windows users are familiar with the idea that the windows they click on will rise to the top of the stack. This isn't always the case with Unix Window Managers. Does the window rise if it has the focus even if you didn't click on it? That's called "AutoRaise," and is sometimes used with SlidingFocus or SloppyFocus. Some WMs require you to click on the titlebar of the window to raise the window - a click in the body of the window won't raise it.