Openbox Was My First Window Manager (It's Still Great!)

The very first standalone window manager that I ever used was Openbox. That was about 15 years ago, but I have used Openbox off-and-on several times of those years. But not recently. So today, I'm revisiting my old Openbox configs that I haven't tried out in probably 4 or 5 years.
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Your support is very much appreciated. Thanks, guys!

[@penguin2137]

Openbox content is always delight to watch. Even though I had a hard time customising OB on my own, because I wasn't able to sort some things out, I might try this again some other day.

[@somethingcoolgoeshere]

Your video on Linux Mint where you install Openbox was my introduction to Openbox and I love it. Rocking a Dracula theme and its my favorite

[@ariathyf144]

Nice Konata avatar :)

[@somethingcoolgoeshere]

@@ariathyf144 thanks!!

[@ArniesTech]

Standalone OpenBox is my go to solutions for super ancient or really weak computers 💪💪

[@gnuPirate]

Awesome demo dude, very inspiring. Want to try it sometime.

[@mix-n-match834]

LXQT + Openbox is my go to Linux setup to this day and I quite literally don't see myself leaving it in nearest future. It just works and is doing exactly everything I want it to do without going too much into my way.

[@Malloc42]

Having "Exit" and "Web Browser" next to each other on the menu would be fraught with danger for me. ;) Thanks for the demo!

[@LinuxOpenboxFollower.]

I Love Openbox, Its my daly-driver, but not as complicated as yours, but I do wish there would be more info and up to date tutorials around.

[@muddyexport5639]

Thank you! Good vid and talk!

[@christer8964]

Ahh! I miss OpenBox! It was nice and simple.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I always jump back and forth between complete and “cohesive” DEs like GNOME and minimalistic (but still floating) Windows Managers like this. But it’s been a while since I’ve tried Open Box. I’ll have to give it another go, and perhaps do a video about it.

[@cybersechs1368]

BunsenLabs distro has one of the BEST OpenBox setup configs, can you do a revisit review on that? It's a descendent of CrunchBang

[@greatwavefan397]

Could you elaborate on that? I've heard that BunsenLabs is a great lightweight distro.

[@cybersechs1368]

@@greatwavefan397 Yeah it is, you get around ~600mb RAM usage. Uses OPENBOX and Tint2 bars. Has a conky window. And it's based on Debian. I used to use ARCH, but got sick and tired of having to run a system update every day. BL distro is great in that its Debian(SLOW updates) based.

[@BhagwantRai654]

Crunchbangplusplus is better, it's less bloated and stays true to what crunchbang is supposed to be.

[@neilpatrickhairless]

Chiming in from the future to say that Bunsenlabs Linux with Openbox and Tint2 and Conky is secretly the most underrated setup you can have. It's the best Debian based distro imo

[@thomaslee9655]

Hey DT, love your vidioes. One thing I always wonder though, is that an Angels and airwaves record in the back under the mugs?

[@BUDA20]

I always use OpenBox as "failsafe" for X11, is the desktop to fix other desktops

[@thierrybo6304]

3 years i use openbox. I spent a lot of times the fist two months configuring it, almost forget it since.

[@phonewithoutquestion80]

I got a NixOS machine setup and stuff had just been kicking my ass lately, so I returned to Openbox, and it works as flawlessly as it can. So far I've obsessed over my rc.xml to the point it kind of works like Ratpoison, including keychains/keychords to layer my keybindings. Each window opens up maximized, so I have to set rules to unmaximize windows individually. I also use the workspace assignments rules, which are not that easily discovered. Of course this requires more manual intervention, but, overall my experience is very stable and (for me anyways) intuitive for keyboard workflow.

[@m.m3633]

Could you share your dotfiles please?

[@salt6873]

Hey DT, do you think you'll ever check out Hyprland? It's a pretty good looking wm for Wayland with a pretty nice compositor built in.

[@SB-qm5wg]

I enjoyed that.

[@Jeff_Seely]

Man, there isn't any worthy substitute for a nice light window manager with a nicely customized config. These are the heady days of open source. And as each day passes, I find myself only using Windows on my company notebook. I hate that have to use it but there is software that must be run on it to do my work

[@zmlin]

Hey DT! What is your start page in Brave?

[@choulth]

fvwm was my first love back in 1995, the then-standard WM in SuSE Linux

[@cubdukat]

I certainly hope they’re working on a Wayland-friendly version of Openbox.

[@tappistrt]

The devs have stated that won’t be possible, unfortunately.

[@eveypea]

Openbox was my first experience with a window manager when I tried CrunchBang in the mid 2010s

[@marsdrums6298]

I do like this setup. I think it's perfect for people who want to be ex-Windows uses soon and don't want the typical Windows like Linux distros like Mint, PopOS, etc... It's nice but I am so used to the openness of AwesomeWM... Not enough desktops. :)

[@fabricio4794]

You can Fel like a"Hacker"on OpenBox hahaha

[@Ferran-Gnu-Linux]

An OBAL (an Arch's Linux installation with OB... ) flows like the wind on a pendrive USB- This is my experience. Highly recommended.

[@sprinklednights]

What a coincidence that I wanted to tinker Openbox!

[@linuxrant]

My logic is to use two-button keyboard shortcuts for often used keybindings, and three-button shortcuts for rarely used keybindings. Additionally It is also preferred to use one handed keybindings if possible so they can be used both in floating and tiling managers (one hand on keyboard) my closing window binding is SUPER+Q my logging out shortcut is SUPER+SHIFT+Q SUPER+SHIFT+C is a more of a fingerBINDING than a keybinding, as a quit app shortcut it is used too often...I cannot wrap my head around logic of that... SUPER+ENTER to open a terminal requires you to use both hands, which defeats the purpose of having a keybinding if you use floating window manager. SUPER+T makes more sense in that case.

[@louisshipman2929]

DT where are you from brother? We love your accent!!!

[@tylerdean980]

Louisiana

[@kutyajani249]

Since I've been using openbox, I've been at peace. No more tears, no more unpleasant surprises. No more bugs. It just works. Then when a major distro update comes, what will happen? I'll tell you : nothing...

[@sys7emH4cked]

Hey Dt, I have issues with xmobar panel with xft*font, I just use dtos xmonad desktop in my production machine and getting frustrated please tell me how you fix that in your own please please 🥺 I will be always grateful to you help me 🥺.

[@mago2007]

Ey DT, can you make a video about Homebrew?

[@bigmikeobama5314]

i havent switched to a tiling window manager yet, im still on a DE. i want to switch when i get time

[@patpopov]

I'm getting crunchbang feels.

[@besnikrrustemi]

Hey DT, can you please make a video on how to install your emacs (with the plugins you use etc) on a fresh Arch or whatever distro with that new start page (without having to install DTOS completely).

[@extremrams]

Check out his playlists (church of emacs) - there is everything you are looking for

[@LoganKaval]

I have a question. What was your first distro? Mine was MX Linux. Now I use Debian.

[@bhaumikpatel7986]

Have you tried "waybox" sir ? and if yes then can you please share the steps of building it ?

[@rudraneelmandal4741]

Hi!

[@PARACLYTICC]

Hey DT, I am just letting you know that I will never use a window manager because I am very happy with GNOME. This however will not deter from watching your awesome videos. Cheers.

[@zeebpc]

how to just show all list of applications without categories with openbox?

[@fabricio4794]

Mabox...this Can Be Ma Box and Yoe Box...(no IMNABLK)

[@MerkDolf]

😅 👌👍

[@ElbahethAmrSrour]

is it good for gaming and game dev ?

[@DylanMatthewTurner]

I'd probably use OpenBox, but now that I'm used to tiling, I can't ever go back to floating

[@thierrybo6304]

I use rbtile that i setup to automaticallly tiles windows on one specific workspace (one where i run only terminals) whereas other workspaces are floating.

[@pyrokamileon]

as long as we are fixing our old ways: asterisk does not have an "x" in it.. 🤓

[@stevet7522]

Is openbix still being maintained?

[@jr_Linux]

open box sounds cool i just wouldn't care to use a floating desktop as a WM. i'd rather just have xfce and install my TWM awesomeWM along side it,

[@Cowboy-Trucking61]

Will Openbox work on Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.1

[@somethingcoolgoeshere]

Yes it's working for me rn

[@gehadsheha4775]

It should work on any Debian-based distro.

[@Cowboy-Trucking61]

Thank You.

[@somethingcoolgoeshere]

You should watch DT's other videos on Openbox though

[@holeefook3149]

Crunchbang

[@robertotejada8095]

what is your favorite tiling Window manager?

[@penguin2137]

i guess Xmonad, as that's his daily driver

[@fabricio4794]

Open Box is Very Lightweight is a Fluxbox S Evolution And Rox File Manager its another Plume....

[@itsfish8672]

Old school dt Cool. GVDT