Metacity

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Metacity

Developer:	GNOME Team
Latest release:	2.16.3 / 3 October 2006
Preview release:	2.17.3 / 11 December 2006
OS:	Linux, Solaris, BSD, other Unix-like
Use:	Window Manager
License:	GNU General Public License
Website:	[1]

Metacity (pronounced to rhyme with "opacity" with the stress on the second syllable^[1]) is a compositing window manager used by default in the GNOME desktop environment. The development of Metacity was started by Havoc Pennington and it is released under the GNU General Public License.

Before the introduction of Metacity in GNOME 2.2, GNOME used Enlightenment and then Sawfish 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 is implemented in GTK+, which makes it themeable and makes it blend in with other GTK+ applications.

1 Philosophy
2 Themes
3 Controversy
4 References
5 External links

[edit] 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; Metacity is like Cheerios."^[2]

[edit] 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, art.gnome.org. The most popular theme is Clearlooks^[3], which has been GNOME's default theme since version 2.12.

[edit] Controversy

Metacity, unlike the previous choices for GNOME window manager, has few configuration options and its introduction as the default choice was a controversial one. Those in favour of Metacity say that GNOME is aimed at new computer users who do not need the extreme configurability of Sawfish or Enlightenment. Havoc Pennington wrote an essay explaining why he wrote Metacity and simplified the GNOME desktop^[4]. Critics claim that Metacity has sacrificed the flexibility and control usually associated with Unix applications. This perceived lack of flexibility has led to the development of such add-ons as devilspie and Brightside.