Fluxbox, Blackbox, Openbox? Oh my!

[ViperSnake]

Why are there 3 different types of *box window managers? I'm wondering this because I recently added Openbox to my Ubuntu install and I also have Blackbox. Also the bigger related question is; which one is better? What does Black, Flux, or Openbox have that the others don't? I found Openbox a bit harder to configure, but easy to pair up with different compoents to make a custom desktop.

So, what is your opinion on the Great Box Battle?

[d4t4b0mb]

Think of it likes branches in a tree. Blackbox was the trunk of the tree, it was developed with a certain ideal in mind. Now, being open source, someone can take the source to blackbox, and be like "this is good, but I think it would be better if we did this and this and this", and branch off from there. Basically, its just different ways for different people to envision the same ideal. "We want it to be like this, and this is how we are going to get there". Its all about choice. :)

[markwolfe Veteran]

My first *box was fluxbox. I liked it, so have had no need to look at anything else. Rezza here uses Openbox, I think.

All three are very lightweight, and I cannot distinguish between them (having not tried anything but flux, all I can do is look at screenshots and to compare feature lists). It does appear that Blackbox does not support pixmaps for Window Decorations, it would appear

Once I tried flux, I never went back to any other (heavier) WM or DE.

Edited December 30, 2005 by markjensen

[d4t4b0mb]

I've been considering trying out openbox since apparently it can be used to replace metacity as the WM in Gnome, and is supposedly a lot lighter on resources.

[markwolfe Veteran]

*box would be lighter on resources than metacity, but if you are using it in Gnome, you still have a lot of overhead.

You might want to try a *box environment by itself, if you like lightweight.

Edited December 30, 2005 by markjensen

[ViperSnake]

I've tried Fluxbox on it's own, and now I'm trying Openbox on it's own paired up with Rox-Desktop and Fbpanel right now (check out Unix Desktop Thread for screenshot). Now, just gotta force it to use my configuration in my home folder (Currently, it's in the right spot but it won't work).

[theotherdave]

Openbox does not support pixmap based themes either (or at least I have not found any themes for Openbox that do :p).

Openbox uses XML for it's config files, which can be a little unforgiving if you get the syntax wrong, or if you're unfamilliar with XML.

I find that the level of configuration of mouse and keyboard actions / shortcuts in Openbox is much higher than any other wm I've tried. (is there even a fluxbox mouse config file?)

For example Openbox lets you define mouse actions in every context (whereas most wm's make you use the default actions etc).

As ViperSnake says, Openbox works well when paired up with other apps to make a combined desktop, but I haven't managed to achieve this so well with fluxbox..

I find that Openbox is also more lightweight than fluxbox. Flux can take an extra 5 or 6 seconds to load up, whereas Openbox is almost instantaneous.

Having said this, I would use flux over Open if I could resolve a couple of issues.. :p

[ViperSnake]

My Openbox is Openbox 3.1, and after awhile with the default theme I installed Obconf off of APT and started real configuration! Fluxbox doesn't have a GTK based configuration utility, nah na na nah nah!

[theotherdave]

My Openbox is Openbox 3.1, and after awhile with the default theme I installed Obconf off of APT and started real configuration!

Real configuration involves a text editor, understanding of the system and a precious little else :cool:

Fluxbox doesn't have a GTK based configuration utility, nah na na nah nah!

sudo apt-get install fluxconf

:shiftyninja:

[matt74441]

I really like Openbox, but I don't like the lack of a panel. I've tried a bunch of them and ultimately ended up with pypanel. My only complaint: whenever pypanel crashes, it takes all the tray applications with it.

[theotherdave]

I really like Openbox, but I don't like the lack of a panel. I've tried a bunch of them and ultimately ended up with pypanel. My only complaint: whenever pypanel crashes, it takes all the tray applications with it.

I agree, pypanel rocks :D How stable do you find it? It's only ever crashed a couple of times on startup for me..

[matt74441]

I agree, pypanel rocks :D How stable do you find it? It's only ever crashed a couple of times on startup for me..

I actually really like pypanel. Incredibly fast, but I don't like the lack of the right-click menu on the taskbar items. As for crashing, it doesn't do it very often, but its always out of the blue. Everytime it does it, its always because of a tray application.

[rezza Veteran]

Fluxbox is probably the most popular. Flux is what you get when you take the early blackbox code and run with it - eventually things like rounded window corners, built-in transparency and (*shudder*) menu icons get added. If you like a bit of eye-candy then great, if you're like me, however, and would rather gouge your own eyes out with a spoon than waste cpu cycles on such frivolous nonsense, then maybe another WM is for you. Flux is however a solid WM, far lighter on resources than the Big Three (Gnome, KDE, XFCE4), and still retains some additional features like a panel and some eye-candy to make it a great choice for a first *box.

Openbox was originally a fork of the old blackbox code, but version 3 was written totally from scratch. It has been designed with lightness and simplicity in mind, providing a bare set of features that the devs decided were the minimum required for a good *box experience. It focuses on standards (EWMH and XML for example) and is slightly more limited in terms of theming than flux. It also does away with the panel that flux and blackbox have - if you want a panel, you'll have to use a third-party one. Suggestions include pypanel, fbpanel, and xfce4-panel. Openbox has an extremely flexible keybinding/mousebinding system. More minimal than flux, and personally I think it's more elegant - your mileage may vary.

Blackbox was the original of the three, development died out on it for a while but has recently started up again. I have never used blackbox for more than a few minutes, so unfortunately I can't give you any more info than that.

[markwolfe Veteran]

... and (*shudder*) menu icons ...

:cry:

I rather like the simple aid that a small icon gives in menu navigation...

My 4 year old can find UT2k4 easily that way.

[UltimateGeek]

I've only used Fluxbox, but I dunno, they all look the same, but they probably don't perform the same. I've been thinking about installing Blackbox and testing it out.

My 4 year old can find UT2k4 easily that way.

:laugh:

[Tharius]

If you like a bit of eye-candy then great, if you're like me, however, and would rather gouge your own eyes out with a spoon than waste cpu cycles on such frivolous nonsense,

:rofl:

Actually, I just downloaded fluxbox and openbox. I am trying to force myself to learn "the way of the terminal." :p

Must... fight urge... for eyecandy!

[rezza Veteran]

:cry:

I rather like the simple aid that a small icon gives in menu navigation...

My 4 year old can find UT2k4 easily that way.

Yeah well, there's no accounting for taste, eh? ;)

[Daylene]

I like and use Fluxbox myself. I just found KDE and Gnome to bloated, and like the looks of a customized Fluxbox. The hardest part of moving to a *box is learning to use a right-click menu (There is no start/whatever menu, nor is there any icons on the desktop.) Once you get past the minimalism and learn to edit the menu to your liking, and skin it a bit you can end up with something like I have:

All it takes is a little hard work (IMO its worth it in system responsiveness). (Y)

[markwolfe Veteran]

... The hardest part of moving to a *box is learning to use a right-click menu ...

And the frustrating part for a *box user, is having to work on a Windows box, where you have to go to the bottom-left every time you want to do something new. :p

I rather like the middle-click anywhere on my desktop. I hate desktop icons (clutter). And, I have several keys bound to apps and tasks that I use frequently enough to not want to use the menus (volume upd/down/mute, lock screen, fbrun, konqueror, etc.).

[Daylene]

And the frustrating part for a *box user, is having to work on a Windows box, where you have to go to the bottom-left every time you want to do something new. :p

I rather like the middle-click anywhere on my desktop. I hate desktop icons (clutter). And, I have several keys bound to apps and tasks that I use frequently enough to not want to use the menus (volume upd/down/mute, lock screen, fbrun, konqueror, etc.).

Yeah, I'm starting to get used to and like the minimalism. As for the shortcut keys, I like setting things up such as:

Winkey+T Opens a terminal window

Winkey+F Opens firefox

and so on. I still prefer using the menu most of the time though.

[Tharius]

I really like that Fluxbox theme, bulio. Could you give me a link to it?

While I am at it, any recommendations for good theme sites?

[Daylene]

I really like that Fluxbox theme, bulio. Could you give me a link to it?

While I am at it, any recommendations for good theme sites?

Try the Freshmeat theme section.

As for the theme I use, its here

(Note: I use custom transparency settings, so adjust the window transparencies as you like)

[ViperSnake]

:rofl:

Actually, I just downloaded fluxbox and openbox. I am trying to force myself to learn "the way of the terminal." :p

Must... fight urge... for eyecandy!

Well, my system is Debian, and if you use the Debian packages you automatically get a preset Debian menuset included! Well, it's actually Ubuntu but you get the picture!

[meeseontheleese]

I use fluxbox on gentoo, and as for themes I usually make my own, since I can never really find one I like alot.

[Alex Suraci]

Edit: Sorry, I didn't realize this thread was 6 months old :/

Honestly I think that if there was a LiteStep for *nix that would just be perfect. I used to be a heavy LiteStep user (and skinner) but now I feel sort of out of place having to stick with XML. I use OpenBox, and I honestly really like it, but I hate that you can't use pixmaps for the menus and there isn't as much customizability as LiteStep.

I've been having trouble with Python and locale settings, so I can't use pypanel. I tried perlpanel, fbpanel, and fspanel but I ended up just using gnome-panel. I actually got it to look alright, it's just one bar set to not extend, at the bottom of the screen. I actually find it to be the best out of all of the panels.

I did some customization in OpenBox today, ended up with a pretty slick setup. Is there anything like sort of modules for OpenBox? Also, is there any way to *not* display the titles of the right click menu?

Edited June 13, 2006 by mynimal