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evilwm is awesome. I use it at least eight hours a day, at least.

evilwm is one of those window managers which doesn't have any thrills or gloss. It's very simple yet allows you all the functional features you'd expect.

Couple evilwm with gnome-terminal xterm and you're able to do day-to-day administration with relative ease.

pseudo hibernation

This isn't really hibernation, or even pseudo hibernation, I just call it that because it's how I get my desktop back to the way it was when I last zapped x.

.xinitrc/.xsession In it's rawest form, you execute a wm which runs until your X session ends, or the program dies;

/usr/bin/evilwm -snap 10

However, I like to have xfce look-and-feel so I execute this prior to evilwm, so I have this above the evilwm line:

/usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager

terminals

Position your screens in the same place every day.

Although not shown in the default --help output, you can pass gnome-terminal the --geometry argument.

/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --disable-factory --geometry 80x24+1+1 & &
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --disable-factory --geometry 80x24+1+637 &
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --disable-factory --geometry 80x24+580+1 &
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --disable-factory --geometry 80x24+580+365 &
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --disable-factory --geometry 80x24+580+637 &

(Of course, you don't have to use gnome-terminal, it is just the terminal that I happened to think the best when I originally wrote this. These days I use xterm, but that's more because of the screen resolution and a very slight performance improvement.)

Although I've removed all the -x (execute command) arguments, you can specify your own, perhaps you want to [[ssh]] to another host when you login?

/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --disable-factory --geometry 80x24+1+1 -x ssh fs0 -t screen -r mega &

Normally you'd just put this in the end of your .xinitrc file, which would be invoked when you run startx (or startx -- :N when N is >1 if you're running gdm/kdm or another X session already). However, all my program invocations are stored in a file named .xpositioning, which is a shell script executed from .xinitrc. The beauty of this is that I can just run it from another wm should I choose.

entire xinitrc

# Merge X resources from ~/.Xdefaults
[ -f $HOME/.Xdefaults ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xdefaults

# Set the background and root cursor shape
feh --bg-scale /usr/share/wallpapers/sunshine-after-the-rain.jpg
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr

# Keys binding
xbindkeys &

# lets lock screens
/usr/bin/gnome-screensaver &

# lets see a clock
/usr/bin/xclock -update 1 -sharp -digital -padding 2 -g -0+0 &

# set some keyboard delays
/sbin/kbdrate -r 500 -d 50

# set up environment
export LANG="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_CTYPE="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_NUMERIC="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_COLLATE="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_MONETARY="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_MESSAGES="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_PAPER="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_NAME="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_ADDRESS="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_TELEPHONE="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_MEASUREMENT="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_GB.UTF-8"
export LC_ALL="en_GB.UTF-8"

# run xsnow if it's december
if [[ $( date +%m ) == "12" ]] ;
then
    # xsnow
    /usr/games/xsnow -ssnowdepth 100 -santaspeed 10
    sleep 0;
fi ;

# start my terms
~/.xpositioning

# load xfce controls
/usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager

# Start evilwm
/usr/bin/evilwm -snap 10

gdm/kdm

If your system has a gdm-style login then you'll need to symlink or copy .xinitrc to .xsession and tell gdm that you're logging in using the system default.