Help me pick a new panel

pogeymanz · 2008-07-11 22:39:53

Hello All,

I'm in the market for a new panel to go with my Openbox setup. Right now I'm using XFCE4-panel, mostly because it required no configuration and I was busy configuring Openbox, conky, the Arch install at the time. Plus, out of the DE's, I like XFCE the best.

Truthfully, xfce4-panel has served me very well and I don't really have any problem with it at all... I just want to fiddle.

There are three important things I "need" from a panel:
1. A Volume control
2. Desktop preview/pager/switcher thing
3. This one is really trivial and vain. I need the taskbar to not be filled when I only have one or two windows open. For some reason, this really bugs me. The default fluxbox taskbar does that and I hate it. It also looks like PyPanel does it. So, I need a panel that can at least be told to not behave this way.

I do want to try something new, so don't tell me to just stick with what I have, please. If a panel is super-cool, but only meets 2 out of 3 of my requirements, list it anyway.

Make sure to tell me why a particular panel is good!

Thanks. I'll be installing a bunch of panels while waiting for responses!

thayer · 2008-07-11 22:50:15

I think nearly ANY panel will do what you're looking for, except for the volume control which isn't what panels do (panel applets for gnome-panel and xfce-panel provide this however.)

Check the Openbox wiki for a decent list of lightweight panels and start testing them out...it really is that simple. Regarding #3, it's true that pypanel does this by default, but if you disable task borders you'll never see it--that's what I've always done.

Inxsible · 2008-07-11 22:59:44

1) fbpanel - I use this provides system tray and pager. supports 3
2) pypanel - has a system tray, i think this supports 3
3) perlpanel
4) lxpanel

Last edited by Inxsible (2008-07-11 23:01:49)

moljac024 · 2008-07-11 23:00:58

pogeymanz wrote:

3. This one is really trivial and vain. I need the taskbar to not be filled when I only have one or two windows open. For some reason, this really bugs me. The default fluxbox taskbar does that and I hate it. It also looks like PyPanel does it. So, I need a panel that can at least be told to not behave this way.

Dang, is that annoying! I thought I was the only one having problems accepting that

Ever tried living without a panel ?
I've only used pypanel for a short while before ditching it and running openbox without a panel, so I can't speak from much experience about panels here.

Anyway, you might want to try tint, fbpanel or lxpanel....can't think of anything else off the top of my head now. Just do a pacman -Ss "panel"

Inxsible · 2008-07-11 23:03:39

I tried going panel less...but it seemed a bit weird for me. and I tried using docker for my tray...but I could not get it to be in my bottom right corner.

So I just went back to using fbpanel

Last edited by Inxsible (2008-07-11 23:03:50)

pogeymanz · 2008-07-11 23:30:24

Alrighty, I'm going to try these panels in order first. If I don't find what I like, I'll keep trying.

BMPanel
Tint + Stalonetray
PyPanel

I've decided that the desktop switcher thing isn't all that important. I really would like a quick way to change the volume. Can anybody suggest something other than panel plugins?

DonVla · 2008-07-12 00:09:37

pogeymanz wrote:

I've decided that the desktop switcher thing isn't all that important. I really would like a quick way to change the volume. Can anybody suggest something other than panel plugins?

volwheel

heleos · 2008-07-12 01:03:26

adesklets also has a volume changing app

pogeymanz · 2008-07-12 01:39:44

DonVla wrote:

pogeymanz wrote:
I've decided that the desktop switcher thing isn't all that important. I really would like a quick way to change the volume. Can anybody suggest something other than panel plugins?
volwheel

Wonderful! That's exactly what I needed. Now I can use any panel with a tray.

I didn't really like BMPanel. It seems okay, but maybe not my style.

simple · 2008-07-12 02:39:03

You can set the width of each task in fluxbox's panel so it doesn't fill the entire thing. Right click the panel and under iconbar mode menu, the second row with the options Left Relative and Right, choose left or right and it'll condense it.Then under ~./fluxbox/init you can change the pixel width under "session.screen0.iconbar.iconWidth:" Hope that helps with that, if you so choose to stick with fluxbox.

Sjoden · 2008-07-12 04:55:22

Tint and Stalonetray are great together. There is also Tint 2 on google code. If you have kde apps, I think kmix is a decent volume manager.

Last edited by Sjoden (2008-07-12 04:55:53)

pogeymanz · 2008-07-12 06:12:46

So what's the difference between Tint and Tint2? Any compelling reason to use one over the other? I actually really like the way my desktop looks with Tint and Stalonetray. Very elegant, yet functional.

Actually, I used fluxbox a little bit, but don't anymore. I just like Openbox a little better.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-11 22:39:53

Help me pick a new panel

#2 2008-07-11 22:50:15

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#3 2008-07-11 22:59:44

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#4 2008-07-11 23:00:58

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#5 2008-07-11 23:03:39

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#6 2008-07-11 23:30:24

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#7 2008-07-12 00:09:37

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#8 2008-07-12 01:03:26

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#9 2008-07-12 01:39:44

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#10 2008-07-12 02:39:03

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#11 2008-07-12 04:55:22

Re: Help me pick a new panel

#12 2008-07-12 06:12:46

Re: Help me pick a new panel

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