Openbox vs XFCE?

jotapesse · 2010-03-25 14:16:53

I really hope that Philip gives us a final release with both Openbox and Xfce. This way will be able to choose either one, change when we're bored or facilitate our home/family users with an friendler desktop.

snowpine · 2010-03-25 14:21:11

jotapesse wrote:

I really hope that Philip gives us a final release with both Openbox and Xfce. This way will be able to choose either one, change when we're bored or facilitate our home/family users with an friendler desktop.

+1 I was curious why this wasn't done in the first place.

And please bring back dwm; I miss it.... NOT! wink

fox · 2010-03-25 16:56:01

I have been very happy with openbox in CB 9.04, but I downloaded and installed both Statler versions (as virtual machines), just so I could see what CB-xfce is like. As omns has noted, I was pleasantly surprised. I notice no difference between the two in responsiveness. I like having the additional xfce panel for its functionality, but I hide it so that the desktop looks like openbox. In virtual machines, xfce has the additional benefit of being able to standardize the text size (to 96 dpi in my case), so that when you expand the virtual machine window, the text doesn't magnify (most noticeable on Conky). Of course, that won't be an issue when I install Statler on my netbook, but at the moment I have a slight preference for the xfce version.

Piraja · 2010-03-26 09:09:34

Tree Bito wrote:

brokenpike wrote:
I s there a clever way to get the #! configured xfce from the statler openbox install?
I was wondering this also; I'd prefer to wait to perform a fresh install of CrunchBang again until some of the LiveUSB bugs are ironed out.
Is there a way to install the xfce packages and choose which environment to boot into at the GDM?

Have I understood correctly if I claim that all you have to do is to install the XFCE4-base packages...

xorg xfce4 xfce4-terminal xfce4-power-manager xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-notes tint2 catfish notify-osd hotkey-setup gksu gdebi gdm

...and that you can strip the list to include only those packages you have not already installed when installing the Openbox version, so that the installation command stands as follows:

sudo aptitude install xfce4 xfce4-terminal xfce4-power-manager xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-notes

See Corenominal's base package list for CrunchBang Xfce4 system and his post in the CrunchBang 10 "Statler" Alpha 1 Released thread. Quoting Mr. /root himself:

Note, these lists are likely to change, but the above should make it easy to work out what is needed to install the missing session. I will be looking at converting these package lists from their current form into meta packages for the next alpha. I have added this to the todo list. I am also looking at project hosting so we can get some versioning control going on. :)

EDIT: Reporting the installation process:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  aumix{a} aumix-common{a} desktop-base{a} fortune-mod{a} fortunes-min{a} 
  gtk2-engines-xfce{a} libfont-afm-perl{a} libhtml-format-perl{a} 
  libhtml-parser-perl{a} libhtml-tagset-perl{a} libhtml-tree-perl{a} 
  libmailtools-perl{a} librecode0{a} libwww-perl{a} libxfce4menu-0.1-0{a} 
  libxklavier15{a} libxml-parser-perl{a} xfce4 xfce4-appfinder{a} 
  xfce4-notes xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-session{a} xfce4-settings{a} 
  xfce4-terminal xfce4-utils{a} xfdesktop4{a} xfdesktop4-data{a} xfwm4{a} 
  xfwm4-themes{a} xinput{a} 
0 packages upgraded, 30 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 17.1MB of archives. After unpacking 58.5MB will be used.

And here I am with my fresh experience of #! XFCE (hmm... what's "gs" by the way... a-ha, Ghostscript – so it's evoked by xfce4-screenshooter, I guess – maybe I'll use scrot the next time...):

Last edited by Piraja (2010-03-26 09:30:31)

pek · 2010-03-26 14:50:10

I'm lost here... roll

I switched to #! because of Openbox... And REALLY LOVING IT..!!!

Now... to switch to xfce... Why wouldn't I just use XUBUNTU instead?? (It's Ubuntu with XFCE already done)

Sorry without any disrespect... What will make XFCE #! better than XUBUNTU??

snowpine · 2010-03-26 15:00:35

pek wrote:

I'm lost here...
I switched to #! because of Openbox... And REALLY LOVING IT..!!!
Now... to switch to xfce... Why wouldn't I just use XUBUNTU instead?? (It's Ubuntu with XFCE already done)

Sorry without any disrespect... What will make XFCE #! better than XUBUNTU??

There is no "better," only "different." Try both and decide for yourself. smile

CrunchBang will still be available in an OpenBox version if you prefer. It is not "switching" to XFCE, just another option...

pek · 2010-03-26 15:10:45

@snowpie

Oooh.. so the next version will have both OB and XFCE..!!
That's Neat..!! big_smile

#! with more options... Sounds Great

Thanks for your info...

DixieDancer · 2010-03-26 19:28:59

Omygosh! There's no comparison between Statler and Xubuntu! Both are fast on most hardware newer than 5 years old, but Statler's Xfce is much lighter on resources and has a much lighter choice of applications. Once you try it, I think you'll see what we mean. For another thing the Debian base makes it alot more stable than Xubuntu. Both are really nice though!

-Robin

Tree Bito · 2010-03-26 21:00:25

Piraja: That looks promising, thanks! I'll give that a try.

brokenpike · 2010-03-28 00:43:51

Piraja

The only discernable difference i have found so far between the #!-xfce and #!-openbox+

sudo aptitude install xfce4 xfce4-terminal xfce4-power-manager xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-notes

is that I had to installl terminator or edit the thunar setting for the right click open terminal to work in thunar.

All of the #! settings seem to have translated well.

Cheers

Brokenpike

Tree Bito · 2010-03-28 02:09:25

Thanks, Piraja, that worked fine!
I notice for XFCE that the default key combo for the menu is Super-Alt - is it impossible/very difficult to make it Super-Space in XFCE?

pvsage · 2010-03-28 02:52:19

It should be neither impossible nor very difficult. Just open XFCE 4 Settings Manager (it's in the right-click menu under Applications >> Settings), click the Keyboard icon, and edit the settings in the Application Shortcuts tab.

configX · 2010-03-28 15:55:25

Piraja wrote:

What music player is that?

pvsage · 2010-03-28 16:03:16

^ I think that's ncmpc++?

Piraja · 2010-03-28 16:28:18

pvsage wrote:

^ I think that's ncmpc++?

Indeed. You can install it from the repos (ncmpcpp). It is an absolutely splendid MPD frontend.

pvsage · 2010-03-28 16:38:39

Getting a bit off-topic, but are you sure ncmpcpp is in the Jaunty repos? I've tried several different mirrors, and I'm only finding ncmpc.

FiniteStateMachine · 2010-03-28 17:02:30

pvsage wrote:

Getting a bit off-topic, but are you sure ncmpcpp is in the Jaunty repos? I've tried several different mirrors, and I'm only finding ncmpc.

could be talking about the statler repos.

Piraja · 2010-03-28 17:03:06

pvsage wrote:

Getting a bit off-topic, but are you sure ncmpcpp is in the Jaunty repos? I've tried several different mirrors, and I'm only finding ncmpc.

Oops, sorry, my bad. It's not in Jaunty, but in Debian Testing. To #! 9.04 I installed it from Arnaud Guignard's PPA: https://launchpad.net/~aguignard/+archive/ppa.
Add these entries to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/aguignard/ppa/ubuntu Jaunty main 
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/aguignard/ppa/ubuntu Jaunty main

Add the signing key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 9058FBF6

Then update your sources and install mpd and ncmpcpp:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mpd ncmpcpp

Last edited by Piraja (2010-03-28 17:37:17)

pvsage · 2010-03-28 18:43:32

Oh, mpc doesn't play very nicely with my Mini (my only PC at the moment); it gets kinda staticy. I'd tried different buffer sizes etc. to no avail. I think it has something to do with how the Diamondville Atom handles multithreading. I was just pointing out the "not in the Jaunty repos" thing for clarification.

mpc + ncmpc++ is a really nice combination, but I'm happy with my MoC. big_smile

rizzo · 2010-03-28 20:10:38

pek wrote:

ISorry without any disrespect... What will make XFCE #! better than XUBUNTU??

All you have to do is try #! Xfce and Xubuntu and your question will be answered. They are like chalk and cheese. One clunky and awkward, the other refined and sleek. smile

rizzo · 2010-03-28 20:17:16

jotapesse wrote:

I really hope that Philip gives us a final release with both Openbox and Xfce. This way will be able to choose either one, change when we're bored or facilitate our home/family users with an friendler desktop.

You can do that yourself by adding a few Openbox (openbox, nitrogen, obconfig etc) packages to the Xfce version (A definitive list would make a nice wiki article). Both versions contain both sets of configs so once added your Openbox session will look and feel just like the Openbox iso.

This approach does however give you a lot of unnecessary menu entries in your Xfce session which is why corenominal decided to split the release into two isos.

smile

jotapesse · 2010-03-29 08:56:15

omns wrote:

jotapesse wrote:
I really hope that Philip gives us a final release with both Openbox and Xfce. This way will be able to choose either one, change when we're bored or facilitate our home/family users with an friendler desktop.
You can do that yourself by adding a few Openbox (openbox, nitrogen, obconfig etc) packages to the Xfce version (A definitive list would make a nice wiki article). Both versions contain both sets of configs so once added your Openbox session will look and feel just like the Openbox iso.
This approach does however give you a lot of unnecessary menu entries in your Xfce session which is why corenominal decided to split the release into two isos.

True, but if Philip manages to solve those issues I do think that the release would benefit all #! users with both desktops, so that's why I encourage it.

johnraff · 2010-03-30 04:07:05

omns wrote:

This approach does however give you a lot of unnecessary menu entries in your Xfce session

You could edit the .desktop files to add a 'NotShowIn=XFCE;' line? A bit messy maybe.

Andreas · 2010-03-30 20:06:16

Zwopper wrote:

danielrmt wrote:
ErSandro wrote:
I love openbox.
Because i'm a geek.
Friend of mine: "can i use your pc to check the email?"
Me: "Help yourself mate"
Friend of mine:"...oh my god...WHERE ARE THE ICONS?"
Priceless.
yeah, because you can't be iconless on WinXP/Vista/Seven/Gnome/KDE/XFCE/LXDE, and you cant have icons on Openbox.
In Win 7 you can go iconless out of the box if you want. in xp and vista you need to hack the registry though,,,
All the linux desktops can be iconless as well.

Just rightclick the desktop > View > Show Desktop Icons. Works also in XP (non pro) and Vista..

user700 · 2010-03-30 20:29:26

if there going to be on separate iso's then I'll be more likely to go with openbox. I'm not really one for the fancy gui and such anyway. Openbox, tint2, & conky all compliment one another very nicely with a very minimalistic "not in your way" gui.

CrunchBang Linux

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#101 2010-03-25 14:16:53

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#102 2010-03-25 14:21:11

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#103 2010-03-25 16:56:01

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#104 2010-03-26 09:09:34

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#105 2010-03-26 14:50:10

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#106 2010-03-26 15:00:35

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#107 2010-03-26 15:10:45

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#108 2010-03-26 19:28:59

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#109 2010-03-26 21:00:25

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#110 2010-03-28 00:43:51

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#111 2010-03-28 02:09:25

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#112 2010-03-28 02:52:19

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#113 2010-03-28 15:55:25

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#114 2010-03-28 16:03:16

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#115 2010-03-28 16:28:18

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#116 2010-03-28 16:38:39

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#117 2010-03-28 17:02:30

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#118 2010-03-28 17:03:06

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#119 2010-03-28 18:43:32

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#120 2010-03-28 20:10:38

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#121 2010-03-28 20:17:16

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#122 2010-03-29 08:56:15

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#123 2010-03-30 04:07:05

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#124 2010-03-30 20:06:16

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

#125 2010-03-30 20:29:26

Re: Openbox vs XFCE?

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