Software :: Seeking Advice On Finding The Right Window Manager?

I have been running GNU/Linux for quite a few years, and over that time have tried many different looks. I have never seemed to find the `right' one for me, however.

When I first started, I ran GNOME/Enlightenment, straight out of the box. I played with themes a little and liked it, but had not yet learned about the breadth of choice out there. Over time, mainly due to memory issues, I gradually disabled features. I ran this combo for probably three years in the end, with a minor dabble in KDE along the way. I felt like a change. I decided to try fvwm. I hated it! It did teach me something important, however; I did not need a Desktop. I had not realised before now that I never used any of the features of a Desktop. I also learned that my system ran a lot faster without one. I have never looked back.

After a short stint with FVWM, I decided to see if you could have a window manager that looked good. I experimented with several, including IceWM, but finally fell in love with WindowMaker. It looked nice and was not loaded with features I did not use. I ran it for several years before growing bored and moving on. This time, I experimented with other low-resource options, such as Blackbox, Openbox and, finally, Fluxbox. Fluxbox was my new `best thing' for a couple of years, though I quickly found myself getting rid of half its features (tabs, etc), before I found myself being driven mad by the sheer fact it was so minimalist: I wanted more bling I went on another journey where I experimented with the likes of Sawfish and Metacity, before finally settling on Enlightment again. This was fairly short lived, however, and I soon found myself back on WindowMaker. I have continued to use WindowMaker for the past four or five years. It does the job fine, but I am beginning to find it bland. After all, five years of staring at the same screen does get a little samey :P I have just bought myself a new, flashy, wiz-bang system and it has a clean install of Debian Lenny on it. I feel it is time for a new look.

Over the years, I have learned a few things about my preferences. I hate tiling window managers with a passion --- they look cluttered to me. I do not like toolbars or start buttons, and hate the concept of a desktop with icons all over it. In WindowMaker, I hate the clip beyond using it as a way to prevent my applications for leaving those horrid icons down the bottom of my screen. On the Windows system I use at work I also have the taskbar auto-hide, so I guess I do not like anything down the bottom of the screen. I like the dock, but the only docapps I really use are the clock and volume control (which do not really have to be on a dock); I would be happier if these could auto-hide and I just have to mouse-over to get them when I want them, allowing more real estate for the applications themselves. I am lazy when it comes to making themes --- I can do it, but prefer not to --- so I want a good selection from the community I can take from. Virtual desktops are a must, but I do not care for pagers (I just disable them when they are available). I also like it when I can configure which virtual desktop an application opens too, especially if it remembers the window's dimensions (so I do not have to keep resizing). Shading windows is also something I like.