Openbox + Gnome-Panel

B-Con · 2008-04-20 05:57:40

I've been tinkering around with openbox, fluxbox, pypanel, etc, trying to find the perfect WM setup. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm slow in making decisions as I have to play with everything to my satisfaction before making a choice. I've been a Gnome user for the past year and a half, since that's what I started with in Ubuntu.

One of the possibilities I threw around for a while was using Openbox with Gnome Panel. I eventually decided against it, but it occurred to me that I've never seen nor heard of anyone using OB with gnome-panel, although it is obviously feasible.

So, just curious, anyone out there use that combination?

iphitus · 2008-04-20 06:27:55

Used it heaps. Nothing really wrong with it.

xdeusx · 2008-04-20 10:55:29

I used it for a while and I liked it.

B-Con · 2008-04-20 23:44:41

Hm, cool.

I'm actually still considering using it... No decision is a small one in a perfectionist's world. Sigh.

xdeusx · 2008-04-21 12:15:04

There is even a way to just use GNOME with openbox as the window manager, just choose the Openbox/Gnome Session in your Login Manager...

thayer · 2008-04-21 16:53:39

The reason you don't see many screenshots of Openbox with gnome-panel is because gnome-panel is a resource hog that consumes upwards of 30MB of RAM--and that's without applets. Add a bunch of applets to it and you'll see it increase further.

As has been commented here, many users run Openbox/GNOME. This is basically a full GNOME session, except that the Metacity window manager is replaced by Openbox.

At any rate, try it for yourself...you might like it. Then again, if you're a speed/minimalist perfectionist, I can guarantee there are faster & lighter solutions, such as:
* Pypanel
* Tint
* Visibility

Then there's the seemingly less obvious choice of running no panel at all, which is what I do when I run Openbox. After all, it includes a desktop managing menu by default--all that's missing is a clock and a system try (ala conky/trayer).

Misfit138 · 2008-04-21 17:05:54

I recently ran Gnome-panel with OB, on a fresh install, but I didn't tinker with it enough to straighten it out. For instance, the panels were devoid of all icons. The icon for "Applications" on the top bar, the "show desktop" icons, etc. They were all replaced by a red "X", and I could not figure out which packages and configurations would provide them. I didn't give it much more effort, and installed xfce4-panel instead.

filenox · 2008-04-21 17:07:59

I used Openbox + GNOME-panel, but now i'm running the complete gnome with openbox as WM (more option etc)

B-Con · 2008-04-21 17:55:31

I've seen plenty of people use Gnome w/ OpenBox (I used it myself). Just curious about the explicit OB+gnome-panel combination, because it seemed like anyone willing to use gnome-panel was willing to use all of gnome.

faelar · 2008-04-22 22:37:50

I'm an ex gnome user.
Now I don't use taskbar, but I really like the openbox/xfce4-panel/thunar combinaison.
Another point which could make you balance more toward gnome's panel is the network manager. With xfce's panel you need extras deps to run it, but if you use anything else (netcfg2, wicd ) I really recommand xfce4-panel.
I only use peksystray to see when someone is talking to me on pidgin (please, don't tell me about guifications...)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-04-20 05:57:40

Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#2 2008-04-20 06:27:55

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#3 2008-04-20 10:55:29

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#4 2008-04-20 23:44:41

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#5 2008-04-21 12:15:04

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#6 2008-04-21 16:53:39

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#7 2008-04-21 17:05:54

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#8 2008-04-21 17:07:59

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#9 2008-04-21 17:55:31

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

#10 2008-04-22 22:37:50

Re: Openbox + Gnome-Panel

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