Metacity was the default

window manager A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunction ...

used by the

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

until it was replaced by Mutter in GNOME 3. It is still used by

GNOME Flashback A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

, a session for GNOME 3 that provides a similar user experience to the Gnome 2.x series sessions. The development of Metacity was started by

Havoc Pennington Robert Sanford Havoc Pennington (born c. 1976) is an American computer engineer and entrepreneur. He is known in the free software movement due to his work on HAL, GNOME, Metacity, GConf, and D-Bus. History Havoc Pennington graduated from the ...

and it was released under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

. Before the introduction of Metacity in GNOME 2.2, GNOME used Enlightenment and then

Sawfish Sawfish, also known as carpenter sharks, are a family of rays characterized by a long, narrow, flattened rostrum, or nose extension, lined with sharp transverse teeth, arranged in a way that resembles a saw. They are among the largest fish wi ...

as its window manager. Although Metacity was designed to integrate into the GNOME desktop, it does not require it to run, while GNOME can be used with different window managers provided that they support the part of the

ICCCM In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM or I39L short for "I", 39 letters and "L")GTK GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and propriet ...

graphical

widget toolkit A widget toolkit, widget library, GUI toolkit, or UX library is a library or a collection of libraries containing a set of graphical control elements (called ''widgets'') used to construct the graphical user interface (GUI) of programs. Most widg ...

to create its user interface components, which makes it themeable and makes it blend in with other GTK applications. Originally, Metacity used GTK 2 however as of version 3.12.0 it has been ported to GTK 3.

Aim

Metacity's focus is on simplicity and usability rather than novelties. 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 is a brand of sweetened, fruit-flavored breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's. The cereal is sold in many different countries. The cereal pieces are ring-shaped (hence "loops") and come in a variety of bright colors and fruit fl ...

; Metacity is like

Cheerios Cheerios is a brand of cereal manufactured by General Mills in the United States, consisting of pulverized oats in the shape of a solid torus. In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Cheerios is marketed by Cereal Partners under the Ne ...

." People in favour of Metacity say that it is aimed at new computer users who do not need the abundant options and functionality of

or Enlightenment. Havoc Pennington wrote an essay explaining why he wrote Metacity and simplified the GNOME desktop.

Themes

Despite the incomplete state of Metacity theme development documentation, many themes have been written for Metacity. A popular theme engine is

Clearlooks Clearlooks is a theme for GTK, the main widget toolkit used by the GNOME desktop environment. It is based on Red Hat's Bluecurve theme. It was the default theme for GNOME since version 2.12 until GNOME 3 when it was replaced by Adwaita. Many us ...

, which was the default in GNOME from version 2.12 until the release of GNOME 3 and GNOME Shell.

References

External links

Metacity blog

Metacity Download Site

Metacity Themes

Understanding Metacity Themes, Thomas Thurman
{{X desktop environments and window managers Free software programmed in C Free X window managers GNOME Window managers that use GTK

Aim

Themes

See also

References

External links