Fluxbox or Openbox?

[chasha420]

Hi guys...I've been using Gnome3 for quite a while but lately it seems that this environment is better at getting me distracted than actually making me do some real work. I dunno may be it's just me...putting the blame on Gnome3 but also I mainly work on my old laptop which is limited to 1GB of RAM. I know it's quite old Lol...but anyway Gnome3 along with firefox consumes around 450+ mb of ram....so I feel like switching to a minimalist window manager like Fluxbox/Openbox would not only keep the eye candies away from me & let me focus on my work but also make stuff much more faster leaving more free ram for other apps.

So please those of you who have experience with fluxbox or openbox...please give me a suggestion as to which one is better, more customisable, well documented...and if possible leave a link to some guides / themes to get me started.

Also I'm a big fan of Guake - the terminal emulator and last time I tried to run it on fluxbox it failed for some reason...so it made me wonder do gtk apps have difficulty running on such wm? I personally have to code GUI apps...and I don't think I'd feel comfortable working on an environment where there are issues, etc. but then again I have zero knowledge of fluxbox / openbox so may be it's just me getting it wrong.

Thanks.

[dudumomo]

Hi Chasha,
In fact 1 GB is pretty decent already and LXDE could suit you. Easy nothing special, etc...

But if you prefer something still lighter, there is E17 that I appreciate...but a bit eye candy as well some time...(But not as Gnome3, anyway candies are sometimes appreciated)

Otherwise, for having tested Fluxbox and Openbox, I find Fluxbox more customizable but more difficult to manage at the end.
I would recommand it to you if you are willing to spent time on it. (GTK application should works, I don't remember having particular issue when I was on Gentoo+Fluxbox). Also there is plenty of documentation.

But Openbox is also a very good one. Actually my old computer (128Mb) is running Openbox, like a charm. This one is may be more advanced and easier to use tho.

To get started, well...better to check their wiki. (And for fluxbox, the Gentoo wiki is quite good)

So in my point of view: No time to spent ==> LXDE, want lighter and still well developped ==> Openbox, want greater customization, even lighter ==> Fluxbox

(I do notice an improvement of efficiency on fluxbox....so few stuff that you don't loose time.....but to configure...well...)

[chasha420]

@dudumomo: Thanks man....very informative reply.

Well I'm leaning towards fluxbox then...but still I guess I need to read some guides & learn how to customise it.

So far I only get this black background...dunno how to change background either...also what is the default file manager that you use for fluxbox? I mean I start nautilus @fluxbox from terminal, then again if I start using nautilus some weird sh** happens and I lose the ability to right click on the desktop Lol...and gnome desktop appears. Something like a freak magic show...dunno what to do after that. But what is the best looking or better looking file manager for Fluxbox? Cos I don't want something that looks like it's from the 1970's...atleast some decent eye candy :p

Also for some reason...the GTK apps like firefox / thunderbird, etc. just appear with ugly themes man...like it went back to stone age or something...is it possible to customise GTK themes @fluxbox too?

Oh one more thing...guake seems to work perfectly fine @fluxbox so I take that back.

Anyway, I know I'm asking too many questions...you don't have to answer everything cos I like solving mysteries on my own

But if you feel like it please do so.

Thanks,
Chasha

[mélodie]

Hi,

I have installed Openbox on top of Gnome version, then requested a package for openbox-menu, then added my usual config files (which I also provided for others) into Sabayon, then changed some entries from the menu.xml file to get "sulfur" as a shortcut to Sulfur instead of synaptic. Now Openbox is also compiled with the imlib2 flag, and with openbox-menu, with the relevant configuration files, here is what it looks like:
a pic of my desktop with Gnome Sabayon with Openbox on top (chose Openbox alone as a session):


I also use tint2, that I had to reconfigure a little, so to be able to right-click on it, to get the dynamic right-click menu also on it.

Here more infos about openbox-menu:
http://mimasgpc.free.fr/openbox-menu_en.html

and if you wish to get my config files, I'll provide them with pleasure. Just say and you will have them.

I use feh to manage the background (command line all ready in the autostart file provided for the openbox configurations) and it is also possible to get it managed by pcmanfm.

Of course, you can use these config files as a base, reconfigure them to suit your needs. Basically the intention is to help people have an easy start. (They were done based on the personal ones from several people, and are available in 3 languages).

And... what else ? You can reconfigure the keyboard shortcuts at will. (There is good doc on the openbox wiki for that).

Of course, the gayake terminal being in Gnome is still available with Openbox on top of Gnome.

I must say I am very happy that the requests I have brought to the bug place have been taken in consideration so fast. It is a great pleasure for me to discover this distribution and it's community.

[dudumomo]

For the desktop background and some tuneup: http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Fluxbox#Generating_Menus
(Adapt it for Sabayon by using entropy instead of emerge)

You can change your GTK/GTK2 theme of course.
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Toolkit_Beautification

EDIT: Thanks Melodie for sharing Openbox !

[mélodie]

EDIT: Thanks Melodie for sharing Openbox !

I have to share adapted config files too. I'll prepare a tarball and upload as soon as possible. I am happy to share it with the Sabayon community. I am starting to like this place and the people here very much !

[dudumomo]

So do I !
If you need space to share these files, let me know !

[mélodie]

So do I !
If you need space to share these files, let me know !

Hello,

Very nice of you, thanks ! I don't need space, it does not take much and I have plenty in different places.
Here are the files:
http://meets.free.fr/files/openbox-menu ... on.tar.bz2

Inside the tarball all belongs to "root.root", could be copied to /etc/skel/.config, or to /usr/share/openbox-menu to have them at hand if you need to copy for several users.

Else than that, you must have them copied to ~/.config/openbox and make them all belong to your user. The symlinks in the main directory point to the relevant file in the "lang" directory.

What would be a good idea is to test the files, check the translations (en - de and fr), and suggest improvements if needed. ie : look into /etc/xdg/openbox and compare with what the rc.xml file brings there : such as windows cycling throught desktops and such... see if some more added features would be interesting, if there are not some keyboard shortcuts which are provided twice with a different set of commands (I think there is a case, related to jump to the desktop right and desktop left, in 2 block texts).

Have fun !

I forgot : in the ~/.config/tint2/tint2rc configuration file you need the line

Code: Select all

wm_menu = 1

instead of

Code: Select all

wm_menu = 0

to be able to get the Openbox right-click menu on the panel (when a window covers the desktop, it is more practical).