Fluxbox

Fluxbox is very customized and lightweight window manager, that comes with antiX base and full versions.

According to Wikipedia:

"Fluxbox is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, which started as a fork of Blackbox 0.61.1 in 2001,[4] with the same aim to be lightweight. Its user interface has only a taskbar, a pop-up menu accessible by right-clicking on the desktop, and minimal support for graphical icons. All basic configurations are controlled by text files, including the construction of menus and the mapping of key-bindings. Fluxbox has high compliance to the Extended Window Manager Hints specification.[6]

Fluxbox is basic in appearance, but it can show a few options for improved attractiveness: colors, gradients, borders, and several other basic appearance attributes can be specified. Recent versions support rounded corners and graphical elements."

Shortcomings: Perhaps the biggest shortcoming in the version of Fluxbox that is offered in antiX is that it does not support launchers of any kind (you cannot add quick launch icons or even quick launchers in text form). The current beta version does offer the possibility to add text launchers/menu.

Features: Other than lacking launchers on it's toolbar, fluxbox is one of the most costumizable and light window managers around. It also allows users to configure the size and position of any application, allows for tabbed windows (you can group windows inside each other, making them act much like tabbed webpages inside a browser). It has a highly configurable menu, but it's menu does not allow for dinamic entries (ex: it does not directly allow for a "Recent files" menu, that changes accordingly to the files you use)

Installation: Fluxbox is installed by default in the antiX Linux Base and Full editions, and ships with its own customizations. To manually install it (if you removed it accidentally or you are building your system from Core or Net editions), you need the fluxbox package.

$ sudo apt install fluxbox

Configuration


 * Adding/removing/moving quick launch icons to fluxbox's toolbar: the current (non beta) fluxbox version does not allow launchers. You may use desktop icons or install and use a dock (for example: "plank" dock is available from Package Installer).

TIP: if you want to use launcher icons with fluxbox you can center it's toolbar, or place in on the right side of the screen and make sure it does not too wide. Add icons to the desktop (see bellow on how to do that) and remove the icon's name. Move them next to the toolbar. Make sure the toolbar layer is on the "top" level- this way you will always have the possibility to click your desktop icons.

TIP: if you are too used to having a "Menu" icon on your toolbar, you can edit fluxbox's toolbar and add a fixed icon (usually a right pointing arrow) that summons the menu, when clicked. To do this: Menu > Control Centre > Edit Fluxbox... > "init" tab > search for line that starts with "session.screen0.toolbar.tools:" and add, where you want the menu to appear, (usually, it's the first option) "RootMenu," ex: "session.screen0.toolbar.tools: RootMenu, iconbar, systemtray, clock"

Save the file and restart fluxbox. The "Start" menu should be available.


 * Changing Fluxbox's settings: Menu > Control Centre > Edit Fluxbox... for many options, you can also use Fluxbox related entries, on the lower part of antiX's menu to, for example change how it looks (it's style).


 * Show / not show desktop icons: Menu > Desktops > Desktops > choose "fluxbox" in order not to show desktop icons or "rox-fluxbox"/"space-fluxbox" to show desktop icons.

Adding icons to the desktop - in future versions, you'll probably be able to use app-select to place applications icons on the desktop. For now, if you are using (the default) "rox-fluxbox" desktop do this: launch rox-filer > navigate to /usr/share/applications/ > select and copy your app's .desktop file to the desktop (be careful not to move .desktop files to your desktop). To remove /rename icons on the desktop, right click them and choose the desired option.