Openbox
In one of the last posts we saw how to achieve a lightweight Debian installation with LXDE, a Desktop Environment with netbooks in mind. But there are a lot of reasons to get simple and let behind the Desktop Environment concept (DE from now on) for a Window Manager (WM from now on). The step we are taking now is Openbox.
Openbox is a WM, and just to keep the record, it is the WM LXDE uses (so if we followed the last how-to we are somehow familiarized with it). What is a WM? It is an application that manages the position, size, movement and usually, the decoration (title bar) of windows, besides cool features. The smartest will probably understood by now that every DE uses a WM. There are two types of WM; floating and tiling. The first one is similar to what we can find on DEs: overlapping floating windows we can drag and drop with our mice. The second one is geared towards keyboard users and tries to share the screen space amongst windows following user specified rules, so when the user runs applications the WM adjusts all windows size and position. Openbox is of the first type.
One thing users must deal with with WMs is that a lot of them haven’t panel as is. It is possible to install a lot of different panels, though, but as I see it, Openbox is nearly perfect without one. To realize this, we must think about for what we use panels and how this tasks are accomplished with Openbox:
- In panels we have menus -> In Openbox we can right-click (default) anywhere to get a configurable menu where we clicked.
- In panels we have a list of opened applications -> In Openbox we can middle-click (default) anywhere to get a list of applications in each virtual desktop.
- In panel we have a tray notification area -> In order to achieve this we need to install other software like docker
- In a panel we have widget-like elements like clocks, mixers… -> For this we have to install additional software too, like conky or lal.
Most common features of panels are not only already present in WMs, but usually are better and more usable. Given WMs are simpler than DEs, they are usually more configurable.
The curious thing about this is that as time goes by as a GNU/Linux user and you understand better how things work, you find new ways to achieve what you need easier, getting your user experience better. Those of us who have used Windows for a long time are usually used to getting things in a static, non-customizable way, ad I think it is important to understand what you need and how you can adapt the system to work like you want it to. Habits aren’t that good usually!
Soon I’ll write a Openbox how-to. Stay tuned 
