The switch to openbox
| July 12th, 2009So the other day I saw some screenshots of someone’s openbox desktop at the new linux.com. Intrigued by the beauty achieved in the screenshot, I set out to try and achieve something similar.
It’s very annoying to set up, but once it is running it is very efficient and simple to use.
I switched from Nautilus to Thunar for file browsing; I run bmpanel as my panel; I have also set up a conky monitor on my desktop; and my background is managed by feh. I don’t bother with desktop icons.
What I like is the ability to mix and match applications from different DEs without worrying too much about appearance. I can run GNOME or KDE or xfce apps side by side without having to bother with them fitting in with the desktop, although I do prefer the looks of GTK apps.
The menu system is very nice; everything is stored in a simple xml file which can be easily edited. The structure of the entire menu can be changed without much thought at all.
All in all it provides me with a serviceable desktop which is very RAM-unintensive, although I find myself running a few GNOME daemons to keep everything running smoothly.
Here is a screenshot of my desktop in all its glory. The background is from Anime Paper under InuYasha.
My desktop.