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#1 2008-10-22 10:18:04

chris_ak
Member
Registered: 2008-03-25
Posts: 64

Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I just went on a little adventure over the past couple of days trying out different WMs and DEs.  I went from XFCE, to gnome, to XFCE, then compiz stand-alone and back again.  I found that in every environment I was trying to make it feel more like my openbox setup.  Finally I realized that I needed to come back to my comfort zone.  I must confess, the main thing I miss from using other DEs is compiz and its wobbly, snapping windows.  Not to mention expo, and the desktop wall.  However, I hate dealing with all the crap that comes with a DE, and compiz standalone is just not there yet.  I also dabbled in awesome because I like the idea of being able to tile my windows, but I don't work enough in terminals to go that far. 

Has anyone else ever tried to leave openbox? If so, why? Did you leave for good?

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#2 2008-10-22 10:31:14

GERGE
Member
From: Turkey
Registered: 2008-09-29
Posts: 157
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I am quite new to Arch. Two months or so. I started with Kdemod, didn't like it. Returned to good, old Gnome. This last week I decided to use something different, something I never used before (coming from an Ubuntu past). I didn't like tiling idea so Openbox was the one I tried. And let me tell you: It was love at the first sight.  She had problems, but with some loving care we bypassed them. She is very shy, but opens herself gradually. How can anyone leave her?

I am no Cassandra, but I simply can not foresee me returning smile

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#3 2008-10-22 10:32:26

chochem
Member
From: Denmark
Registered: 2008-03-02
Posts: 176
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

ha, my experience pretty much mirrors your own. I liked the warm fuzzy feeling of GNOME/Compiz-fusion but it was just not pratical or flexible the way Openbox is. Even the most basic stuff was next-to-impossible. Have you ever tried typing in shortcuts in Metacity/Compiz? Yuch...

So to answer your questions: Yes, eye-candy, and no smile

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#4 2008-10-22 10:37:05

Ashren
Member
From: Denmark
Registered: 2007-06-13
Posts: 1,229
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Left Openbox for tiling wms and I've left for good - until I reinstall OB that is. wink

The reason I like tiling wm's is because I can control everything according to my wishes easier than I felt I could with Openbox.

Atm, I'm using Xmonad and every conceivable window management wish is theoretically possible -  knowing a bit of haskell helps here I guess - heh.

Xmonad can be combined with XFCE, KDE and Gnome if one wishes to.

Openbox might look nicer to some people, though.

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#5 2008-10-22 10:43:34

Stunix
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
From: Reading, UK
Registered: 2008-09-12
Posts: 17

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I have to admit I am completely enamoured with Openbox after 6 years of Linux usage and trying just a wide variety of WM/DE. I had a similar journey of discovery in that I tried gnome, kde, fluxbox, awesome, fluxbox and others.

The reason I left Openbox was that I managed (very quickly) to get the configuration of Openbox exactly how I wanted it. The big issue is that I am a tinkerer when it comes to all things on my PC. If something is so easily configured to the way I want it I get bored with it over time. I think this is Openbox's biggest issue. Configuration is simple and if you are like me and know what you want and how to get there it gets boring.

When I moved away from Openbox I was also aiming for a tiling window manager but I soon realised that GNU Screen is a far better replacement for multiple screens (well that is the case for my working style anyways).

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#6 2008-10-22 11:13:54

chris_ak
Member
Registered: 2008-03-25
Posts: 64

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Ashren wrote:

Left Openbox for tiling wms and I've left for good - until I reinstall OB that is. wink

The reason I like tiling wm's is because I can control everything according to my wishes easier than I felt I could with Openbox.

Atm, I'm using Xmonad and every conceivable window management wish is theoretically possible -  knowing a bit of haskell helps here I guess - heh.

Xmonad can be combined with XFCE, KDE and Gnome if one wishes to.

Openbox might look nicer to some people, though.

Yeah.  It is seldom that I actually wish I could tile my windows - so those WMs wouldn't be very practical for me.  But I've heard rumors about a tiling feature coming to openbox in the future - which of course I wouldn't protest in the least.  Does anyone know any more about that rumor?

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#7 2008-10-22 11:54:03

Heller_Barde
Member
Registered: 2008-04-01
Posts: 245

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

actually the rumours i heard were more along the lines of:

yes, it would be quite easy to implement but no we (the dev team) are not very interested in doing that.

but i might not be as up to date as you are smile

cheers barde

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#8 2008-10-22 12:55:48

molom
Member
From: Australia
Registered: 2008-01-21
Posts: 264
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Does it count if you never used it before? tongue
Going to install it BTW on my machine once I install Arch.

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#9 2008-10-22 12:59:46

Vintendo
Member
From: Netherlands
Registered: 2008-04-21
Posts: 375
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

There was a topic here on the forums about people wanting a tiling openbox and i would like it too, because all the tiling wm's have a sucky floating layer. But i don't care about that because i have all my windows tiled all the time. Xmonad ftw.

Ontopic: I have used openbox, i like it the most off all the floating window managers. Nice and simplistic and no(!) dependecies. But i like tiling more so i left... Maybe for good, maybe not.

Last edited by Vintendo (2008-10-22 13:01:18)

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#10 2008-10-22 13:21:32

moljac024
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 2,676

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Left openbox for Xmonad. Once you finally get used to tiling, I doubt you could go back easily...


The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

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#11 2008-10-22 13:39:19

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

moljac024 wrote:

Left openbox for Xmonad. Once you finally get used to tiling, I doubt you could go back easily...

I have, but not completely, still use "tile" (tile-windows in aur) and "whaw"

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#12 2008-10-22 14:22:43

moljac024
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 2,676

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

iphitus wrote:
moljac024 wrote:

Left openbox for Xmonad. Once you finally get used to tiling, I doubt you could go back easily...

I have, but not completely, still use "tile" (tile-windows in aur) and "whaw"

tile didn't work nicely for me. What is this "whaw" you mentioned ? smile


The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

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#13 2008-10-22 15:04:47

Xyne
Administrator/PM
Registered: 2008-08-03
Posts: 6,963
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

The OP's question implies that you would want to leave Openbox. hmm

Btw, for those who enjoy the merits of tiling WMs, just configure your openbox to behave like one. I have the following in my rc.xml file which lets me very quickly arrange windows in a tiled layout with no wasted space on my desktop using the MoveToEdge and GrowToEdge actions. Using these actions on windows without decorations lets you created any tiled layout that you want (I tried Awesome before Openbox but just couldn't stand the limited layout options). All it takes is a few drags and clicks.

 <mouse>
    <context name="Frame">
      <mousebind button="W-Left" action="Drag">
        <action name="Raise"/>
        <action name="Unshade"/>
        <action name="Move"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-Right" action="Drag">
        <action name="Raise"/>
        <action name="Unshade"/>
        <action name="Resize"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="S-W-Left" action="Drag">
        <action name="Raise"/>
        <action name="Unshade"/>
        <action name="Move"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="S-W-Right" action="Drag">
        <action name="Raise"/>
        <action name="Unshade"/>
        <action name="Resize"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-S-Middle" action="Click">
        <action name="ToggleDecorations"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-Left" action="Click">
        <action name="GrowToEdgeWest"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-Right" action="Click">
        <action name="GrowToEdgeEast"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-Up" action="Click">
        <action name="GrowToEdgeNorth"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-Down" action="Click">
        <action name="GrowToEdgeSouth"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-S-Left" action="Click">
        <action name="MoveToEdgeWest"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-S-Right" action="Click">
        <action name="MoveToEdgeEast"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-S-Up" action="Click">
        <action name="MoveToEdgeNorth"/>
      </mousebind>
      <mousebind button="W-S-Down" action="Click">
        <action name="MoveToEdgeSouth"/>
      </mousebind>
    </context>

You could of course skip the mouse and create some keyboard bindings to handle all of this too.


My Arch Linux StuffForum EtiquetteCommunity Ethos - Arch is not for everyone

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#14 2008-10-22 15:06:01

mrunion
Member
From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Well, I'll be the first -- I've always used gnome.  I've tried KDE (Yuck!), went to XFCE for a day, then back to Gnome, then the next month to OB for a couple of weeks.  Now I'm back to Gnome.  Nothing fits me like Gnome.  I really don't know why either!


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#15 2008-10-22 15:11:37

Xyne
Administrator/PM
Registered: 2008-08-03
Posts: 6,963
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

It seems like some people are comparing WMs and DEs. You can use Openbox as a WM inside Gnome or Xfce for example. What you really need to compare are the WMs of those DEs with Openbox (Xfwm for Xfce, not sure what for Gnome).


My Arch Linux StuffForum EtiquetteCommunity Ethos - Arch is not for everyone

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#16 2008-10-22 15:14:37

Gert
Member
Registered: 2008-01-30
Posts: 28

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I agree with Xyne: moving from DWM to openbox I was missing the tiling feature so I set up those keyboard shortcuts...

  <!-- Resizing windows-->
  <keybind key="W-x">
        <action name="ToggleMaximizeFull"/>
    </keybind>
  <keybind key="W-e">
        <action name="ToggleMaximizeVert"/>
    </keybind>
  <keybind key="W-d">
        <action name="ToggleMaximizeHorz"/>
    </keybind>
<keybind key="W-c">
  <action name="MoveResizeTo">
    <height>371</height>
    <width>630</width>
  </action>
</keybind>

    <!-- Moving windows -->
 <keybind key="W-Up">
  <action name="MoveToEdgeNorth"/>
</keybind>
 <keybind key="W-Down">
  <action name="MoveToEdgeSouth"/>
</keybind>
 <keybind key="W-Left">
  <action name="MoveToEdgeWest"/>
</keybind>
 <keybind key="W-Right">
  <action name="MoveToEdgeEast"/>
</keybind>

<keybind key="W-s">
  <action name="MoveResizeTo">
    <x>-0</x>
    <y>-0</y>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-q">
  <action name="MoveResizeTo">
    <x>0</x>
    <y>0</y>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-w">
  <action name="MoveResizeTo">
    <x>-0</x>
    <y>0</y>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-a">
  <action name="MoveResizeTo">
    <x>0</x>
    <y>-0</y>
  </action>
</keybind>

Anyway now I moved again, to the opposite edge: kde4 and I like it beacouse of integration (with OB you need a separate application for panel or system tray and so on). Openbox is great but i like to change often.


Love will tear us apart

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#17 2008-10-22 15:17:50

XFire
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2008-05-11
Posts: 192

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I have tried GNOME, XFCE, PekWM and Fluxbox but none compared to OB in my mind.


There is a difference between bleeding [edge] and haemorrhaging. - Allan

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#18 2008-10-22 16:39:30

superrad
Member
From: Wales
Registered: 2007-12-15
Posts: 60

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I switched from openbox to KDE4 and have lasted a few months so far, (although I did instal openbox on debian just incase I got the urge) but think I'm going to stick with KDE4 as its constantly improving so 4.2 should be great

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#19 2008-10-22 17:10:41

Reploid
Member
From: Cold Country up North
Registered: 2008-03-27
Posts: 110

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I left Openbox after having configured it using urukrama's guide. Honestly, I missed the eye-candy. Part of the fun with linux is having a free system looking great. So I am down with compiz-fusion again. It has lasted 5 weeks, I think.

Last edited by Reploid (2008-10-22 17:11:09)

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#20 2008-10-22 17:43:44

SomeGuyDude
Member
Registered: 2008-10-09
Posts: 271

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I was a GNOME/Compiz addict for the longest time, I admit. But I got intrigued with whittling the system down, so now I'm on Arch with Openbox and while I don't have my wobbly windows or neat effects, it still looks fantastic. Yeah, I'm stuck here.


And in the midst of such perfection,
I can't help but feel diseased.

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#21 2008-10-22 19:15:35

.:B:.
Forum Fellow
Registered: 2006-11-26
Posts: 5,819
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Openbox has its deficiencies, but if you love minimalist (and aren't into tiling), I think it's the perfect solution.


Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy

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#22 2008-10-22 19:45:54

elstupidos
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
From: Santa Barbara, CA
Registered: 2008-01-14
Posts: 43

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I used OB till I saw a screenshot of Awesome 2.3.

Since then Ive used dwm, xmonad, and eventually Awesome 3.0 Once you're used to a tiling window manager its pretty difficult to go back to any floating wm

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#23 2008-10-22 21:15:08

icetonic
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2008-10-21
Posts: 104

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

I had a quite similar way to OpenBox - At first very long GNOME/Compiz, I tried KDE4 and didn't like it (itll take a looong time to reach the level of the KDE3 series and its much too bloated)... all the critics are right (first I didn't believe) and once I got addicted by making my system small, always looking on consumed RAM and Processor Time and number of installed packeged... I used Fluxbox for about a month (First in Ubuntu, then in Arch after I switched)... I maybe would never leave Fluxbox and I really loved it's configuration files... But at some point the menu just refused to work... I tried everything and found no other solution except of switching to openbox... I think they both have advantages and disadvantages... I hate the OpenBox configuration but I like the themes (in Fluxbox I searched very long for a nice one) - Onyx black ftw big_smile Well if OpenBox would not use XML at least in the menu file and use there Fluxbox-like syntax it would be perfect... Or maybe I shall invest some time in learning the menu xml stuff... I don't like the default menumaker menu for openbox and would like to ban it to a submenu for example... I don't know how long I'll stay with OpenBox, it depends on how long it will take for me to make the menu do what I want...

Last edited by icetonic (2008-10-22 21:18:32)

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#24 2008-10-22 21:27:41

jordi
Member
Registered: 2006-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Left OB to try out tiling wm's and stood pretty long with wmii, but somehow tiling wm's aren't much fun to use with gimp, so I switched back to OB.

edit:
back again to wmii for the time beeing smile

Last edited by jordi (2008-11-04 19:51:21)

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#25 2008-10-22 22:34:11

rine
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2008-03-04
Posts: 217

Re: Has anyone ever been able to leave openbox for good?

Once you go tiling you never go back.

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