Flux Box; Do you use it, and why?

[blithen]

I didn't put this in 'Desktop Environments' 'Cause that's for support.
I put this in here 'cause I'm nosey and want to know if you use FluxBox and why. :P
I use it 'cause Gnome...broke, and I have no idea how to fix it, but that's besides the point.

[dizee]

Occasionally I do, it is good at what it does without getting in your way, though the text-based configuration is a bit intimidating at first.

I like the minimalism of it, the right-click-on-the-desktop menu is a great idea.

[Tux Aubrey]

Yeah, I like it and use it - I would generally install it on any distro and use it as either my primary or secondary WM (after Gnome).

I like the configurability, the speed and simplicity - It does take a bit of learning but once you get the hang of it, its really quite easy.

[blithen]

Hey I got replies! :popcorn:

Speed is a big plus with FluxBox.
I mean Gnome is quick, but when you boot into FluxBox, it's done in like 2 seconds. Gnome however brings up that thing and says what's loading etc.
What nautilus like app do you use with FluxBox?

[Dimitriid]

You should put a "Haven't tried it but im curious" option on your poll.

[dizee]

Yeah fluxbox is incredibly fast, I have fluxbuntu dual-booting with Puppy on a pentium II computer and the desktop loads almost instantly from the login screen. In fluxbuntu it uses Rox to draw the desktop and as the filer. I like Rox and am familiar with it from Puppy, and it is well suited to fluxbox as it is very small and efficient.

[fuscia]

openbox.

[blithen]

You should put a "Haven't tried it but im curious" option on your poll.

Opps! Sorry. @__@
I recommend it though

[GSF1200S]

I guess im too spoiled by KDE. While gnome does a great job of simplifying things, it takes a lot of control out of the users hands, even using the gconf editor.

flux is nice and lean, and it does everything extremely fast, but its a bit of a chore to do alot of things.. like changing wallpaper, rearranging the menus, etc. KDE has the availability of layout that I like. I love being able to do anything without minimizing to the desktop, or having a section of desktop available.

I think though, if KDE didnt exist, Id probably use gnome or flux... Either way, the ubuntu kernel is great with its apt and the general perspective of its cutting edge yet stable approach.. All these choices- i f***ing love linux!

[blithen]

Actually I would use KDE but it had some problems with second HDD and didn't mount it.
It looks a lot like windows, that's another reason I kind of stay away.
I come to linux looking for a Complete non windows experience.

[a12ctic]

Before Compiz/Beryl I only used openbox really.

[Celegorm]

I love fluxbox! Ever since I started using it, I can no longer stand to use a window manager that doesn't have a tabbing feature or isn't extremely customizable. Recently I've been trying out ion, which has tabs, is mostly keyboard based, and uses frames instead of windows (although it does also have "normal" workspaces), which basically means that the screen is divided into a bunch of rectangles (frames), which do not overlap each other, instead of the sort of windows most people are used to. It's quite different from anything I've used before. I'll have to see if I'm still a fan after I finish getting used to it and learning the controls. So far I'm having a lot of fun with it.

[karellen]

You should put a "Haven't tried it but im curious" option on your poll.

or "I don't really care, kde and gnome are enough for me"

[wersdaluv]

As for me, now, if I was to choose a DE, it would only be KDE or GNOME. Only the two seem to be complete and "ready for the desktop" to me.

[Sunflower1970]

I love playing around with all the really light WM's. Just for something different and something to learn. Right now the light WM of choice is Openbox. When I get tired of it I'll switch to another one for a while

[Shin_Gouki2501]

U have always to pay a price for speed:
Of course FB is fast. Ok so now what try FireFox or OpenOffice?Oh yeah just slow...
ir ur WM is fast its "basically" useless, UNLESS u have (atleast) a set of applications which run with the same amount of resources. But "most" "usefull" software today is coded far behind that.

[plb]

I've used fluxbox ever since it was first started years ago and before that blackbox.

[plb]

I guess im too spoiled by KDE. While gnome does a great job of simplifying things, it takes a lot of control out of the users hands, even using the gconf editor.

flux is nice and lean, and it does everything extremely fast, but its a bit of a chore to do alot of things.. like changing wallpaper, rearranging the menus, etc. KDE has the availability of layout that I like. I love being able to do anything without minimizing to the desktop, or having a section of desktop available.

I think though, if KDE didnt exist, Id probably use gnome or flux... Either way, the ubuntu kernel is great with its apt and the general perspective of its cutting edge yet stable approach.. All these choices- i f***ing love linux!

What's a chore about setting the wallpaper or changing the menu? To change your wallpaper so that it starts up with fluxbox you can just do something like:

echo "fbsetbg /path/to/wallpaper" >> ~/.fluxbox/startup

or just edit the file by hand if you like. And editing the menu? what's so hard about that...it's a simple text file. All you have to do is copy the menu generated by "menu" from /etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu to ~/.fluxbox/menu

[bonzodog]

I prefer Openbox at the moment,but have used fluxbox before.

[EndPerform]

U have always to pay a price for speed:

What price are Fluxbox (or even Openbox users) paying? I'm curious on this.



Of course FB is fast. Ok so now what try FireFox or OpenOffice?Oh yeah just slow...


I've had totally different results. Firefox and OOo come up faster for me in Fluxbox.



ir ur WM is fast its "basically" useless, UNLESS u have (atleast) a set of applications which run with the same amount of resources. But "most" "usefull" software today is coded far behind that.

Interesting statement here. So basically, if you have a fast window manager, it's useless? I think not, especially if it's using a lot less RAM than a traditional environment. More available RAM is always a good thing, and there's nothing "useless" about a window manager that utilizes less RAM, especially on lower-end hardware.

[plb]

U have always to pay a price for speed:
Of course FB is fast. Ok so now what try FireFox or OpenOffice?Oh yeah just slow...
ir ur WM is fast its "basically" useless, UNLESS u have (atleast) a set of applications which run with the same amount of resources. But "most" "usefull" software today is coded far behind that.

You sir really don't know what your talking about.

[RedSquirrel]

Yes, I love it. Fast, looks nice, ultimately configurable.

With regard to heavier applications in Fluxbox: I find they work much better and are much more stable. On my system, after I 'startx' to run Fluxbox, my system is using about 40 MB of my 320 MB RAM. That leaves quite a bit left over for the applications to use. :)

[blithen]

You sir really don't know what your talking about.

xD He doesn't really.

[blithen]

I love fluxbox! Ever since I started using it, I can no longer stand to use a window manager that doesn't have a tabbing feature or isn't extremely customizable. Recently I've been trying out ion, which has tabs, is mostly keyboard based, and uses frames instead of windows (although it does also have "normal" workspaces), which basically means that the screen is divided into a bunch of rectangles (frames), which do not overlap each other, instead of the sort of windows most people are used to. It's quite different from anything I've used before. I'll have to see if I'm still a fan after I finish getting used to it and learning the controls. So far I'm having a lot of fun with it.
Ion sounds VERY interesting, is it in the repos?

[darsu]

Ion, Ion2 and Ion3 (the last designated "devel") are all available. I tried it (2, I think) and loved it, but it's too much of a paradigm shift for me, and I've never quite had the energy to customize it to my taste.

I've used Openbox (and its ancestors) almost exclusively for the last four years or so, because I find it inobtrusive almost to the point of invisibility.

[plb]

ion is very interesting however the dev is somewhat of a prick. In fact, he said he may stop development altogether after ion3 is released.

[blithen]

Did he give a reason why?
Was he just like "Yep...I think I'm just going to stop"