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Metacity (rhyming with "capacity" with the stress on the second syllable) is a compositing window manager
Compositing window manager

A compositing window manager is a component of a computer's graphical user interface that draws windows and/or their borders. It also controls how they are displayed and interact with each other, and the rest of the desktop environment....
 used by default in the GNOME
Gnome

A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and wiktionary:subterranean lifestyle. The word gnome is derived from the New Latin gnomus....
 desktop environment
Desktop environment

In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface that is based on the desktop metaphor which can be seen on most modern personal computers today....
. The development of Metacity was started by Havoc Pennington
Havoc Pennington

Robert Sanford Havoc Pennington is well-known in the free software community due to his work on GNOME, Metacity, GConf, and D-BUS. He works for startup , "developing a consumer product that involves hardware, software, and online services"....
 and it is released under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
.

Before the introduction of Metacity in GNOME 2.2, GNOME used Enlightenment and then Sawfish
Sawfish (window manager)

Sawfish is a window manager for the X Window System. Formerly known as Sawmill, the name was changed because another software program had the same name ....
 as its window manager. Although Metacity is part of the GNOME project and designed to integrate into the GNOME desktop, it does not require GNOME to run, and GNOME can be used with different window managers provided that they support the part of the ICCCM specification that GNOME requires.

Metacity uses the GTK+
GTK+

GTK+, or The GIMP Toolkit, is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt ....
 graphical widget toolkit
Widget toolkit

A widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of GUI widget for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces ....
 to create its user interface components, which makes it themeable and makes it blend in with other GTK+ applications.

city's focus is on simplicity and usability rather than novelties or gimmicks.






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Encyclopedia


Metacity (rhyming with "capacity" with the stress on the second syllable) is a compositing window manager
Compositing window manager

A compositing window manager is a component of a computer's graphical user interface that draws windows and/or their borders. It also controls how they are displayed and interact with each other, and the rest of the desktop environment....
 used by default in the GNOME
Gnome

A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and wiktionary:subterranean lifestyle. The word gnome is derived from the New Latin gnomus....
 desktop environment
Desktop environment

In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface that is based on the desktop metaphor which can be seen on most modern personal computers today....
. The development of Metacity was started by Havoc Pennington
Havoc Pennington

Robert Sanford Havoc Pennington is well-known in the free software community due to his work on GNOME, Metacity, GConf, and D-BUS. He works for startup , "developing a consumer product that involves hardware, software, and online services"....
 and it is released under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
.

Before the introduction of Metacity in GNOME 2.2, GNOME used Enlightenment and then Sawfish
Sawfish (window manager)

Sawfish is a window manager for the X Window System. Formerly known as Sawmill, the name was changed because another software program had the same name ....
 as its window manager. Although Metacity is part of the GNOME project and designed to integrate into the GNOME desktop, it does not require GNOME to run, and GNOME can be used with different window managers provided that they support the part of the ICCCM specification that GNOME requires.

Metacity uses the GTK+
GTK+

GTK+, or The GIMP Toolkit, is a cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. It is one of the most popular toolkits for the X Window System, along with Qt ....
 graphical widget toolkit
Widget toolkit

A widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of GUI widget for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces ....
 to create its user interface components, which makes it themeable and makes it blend in with other GTK+ applications.

Philosophy

Metacity's focus is on simplicity and usability rather than novelties or gimmicks. Its author has characterized it as a "Boring window manager for the adult in you. Many window managers are like Marshmallow Froot Loops
Froot Loops

Froot Loops is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by Kelloggs and sold in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Germany and Latin America as well as South Africa....
; Metacity is like Cheerios
Cheerios

Cheerios is a brand of breakfast cereal created on June 19, 1941 and marketed by the General Mills cereal company of Golden Valley, Minnesota, Minnesota, as the first oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal....
."

Themes

Despite the incomplete state of Metacity theme development documentation, many themes have been written for Metacity. A huge number of such themes can be downloaded from GNOME's art site, . The most popular theme is Clearlooks
Clearlooks

Clearlooks is a theme engine for GTK+, the main widget toolkit used by the GNOME desktop environment. It is based on Red Hat's Bluecurve theme....
, which has been GNOME's default theme since version 2.12.

Controversy

Metacity, unlike the previous choices for GNOME window manager, has few configuration options. Those in favour of Metacity say that GNOME is aimed at new computer users who do not need the extreme configurability of Sawfish
Sawfish (window manager)

Sawfish is a window manager for the X Window System. Formerly known as Sawmill, the name was changed because another software program had the same name ....
 or Enlightenment. Havoc Pennington wrote an essay explaining why he wrote Metacity and simplified the GNOME desktop. Some applications to give more control over windows are Devil's Pie
Devil's Pie (software)

Devil's Pie is a window-matching utility that gives great control over the placement and properties over windows in the X Window System. Although it manages windows it is not a window manager as it does have any key bindings....
 and Brightside. However, these applications cannot overload or override Metacity's key bindings.

See also

  • Comparison of X window managers
    Comparison of X window managers

    This article lists comparisons between X window managers.See also * Comparison of X Window System desktop environmentsReferences ...


External links

  • , Translation into German by Ingo Rybaczyk