X issues

[Stefan Bruda]

Hi,

I am having some minor problems with Apple-supplied X, in that
"transitory" effects (I am not sure how to call them, but they include the
save progress bar in Openoffice or the window outlines in "technical" or
"box" window movement in E16) do not appear.  This becomes aggravating
when doing image rotation with the Gimp, when the grid lines do not show
up.  In (probably) the same line or thought, the pager in E16 looks good,
except for the desktop currently in front, which shows full white in the
pager.

In some other minor annoyance, as soon as I use a window manager other
than Apple's (tested with E16 and Metacity), I can no longer bring X
windows in front of Aqua windows.  I would use the Apple WM, except that
then I cannnot seem to persuade the windows to appear in GNOME's window
list (they get minimized in the dock instead, and although they do appear
in the window list when unminimized, one cannot interact with them from
there).

In all, here are my questions:

Is there any possibility to convince those transitory effects I was
mentioning to appear?  I believe that this is an X issue, and I also
notice that an XFree86 port is available.  Has anybody tried it, and is it
better (at least in this respect) than Apple's X server?  Is replacing the
X server even recommended?  If so, are there any caveats or special
procedures on the matter?

What WM do you guys use?  I really like E16, but I would switch to
something else if I can convince X windows to live in peace with Aqua
windows (but I would also like to use the GNOME window list).

Thank you in advance for any information.

Stefan