antiX-forum

Howdy all. I have seen a bunch of fine articles here on all sorts of things. I recently wrote a fluxbox guide for sidux that covers some more . . . unusual tweaks. It should compliment the AntiX Fluxbox how-to quite nicely as most of the info is of a different nature. Anyway, here is the link to the wiki article if anybody is interested.

http://sidux.com/index.php?module=Wikul ... xboxGuide1

Nice how-to sleekmason.

Thanks for contributing, every little bit helps.

sleekmason wrote:Howdy all. I have seen a bunch of fine articles here on all sorts of things. I recently wrote a fluxbox guide for sidux that covers some more . . . unusual tweaks. It should compliment the AntiX Fluxbox how-to quite nicely as most of the info is of a different nature. Anyway, here is the link to the wiki article if anybody is interested. http://www.sidux.com/index.php?module=p ... uxboxGuide

sleekmason, nice articles, and nice that you have something in common with several of us - an enjoyment of both sidux and antiX! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the link sleekmason.

I had read some of these fluxbox tips of yours over at the sidux forum.
There are some great ones in there.

Thank you! I really appreciate the positive interest.

I'm glad that the wiki may be of some use to others. I maintain just a few boxes for family/friends, and they will ask from time to time about different features they would like to use with fluxbox, but cannot seem to find articles anywhere on the internet about them. I do my best to implement them. Better than crosswords:)

Anyway, check back on the wiki occasionally if you like what you see, as I will be adding more info as able. Also, any feedback from people that are using any of the items I have posted. Negative as well as positive. I may or may not be able to help you, or make changes, but I won't know if nobody tells me.

As a side note, I now have AntiX installed and set up. Haven't messed with Ice before, Looks pretty interesting. What are others opinions about the differences from users who have used both? If this has already been discussed, I would like a link, please.

~sleekmason

sleekmason wrote:Thank you! I really appreciate the positive interest.

I'm glad that the wiki may be of some use to others. I maintain just a few boxes for family/friends, and they will ask from time to time about different features they would like to use with fluxbox, but cannot seem to find articles anywhere on the internet about them. I do my best to implement them. Better than crosswords:)

Anyway, check back on the wiki occasionally if you like what you see, as I will be adding more info as able. Also, any feedback from people that are using any of the items I have posted. Negative as well as positive. I may or may not be able to help you, or make changes, but I won't know if nobody tells me.

As a side note, I now have AntiX installed and set up. Haven't messed with Ice before, Looks pretty interesting. What are others opinions about the differences from users who have used both? If this has already been discussed, I would like a link, please.

~sleekmason

Personally I have preferred IceWM to Fluxbox over the years for two reasons:

1. I like being able to single click on an item on the task bar, as I would with KDE or XFCE, and it is very easy to add entries frequently used to the task bar.

2. It is very easy to add a complete menu of applications to the main IceWM start menu by adding the Program files category, and I find that a bit easier to handle than the Fluxbox approach.

In terms of performance, there is not a great deal of difference between IceWM and Fluxbox. Both have added capabilities, making them not too difficult to manage. In AntiX, both window managers have convenience features that make them easy to modify.

I use both of them so that I don't forget how to use them, and I don't have a very strong preference of one over the other, but given my particular habits, I do prefer IceWM by a small margin. I do prefer both of them over just about any other window manager, so when I am using window managers instead of desktop environments, I come to Ice and Flux first.

John (ou812) is the resident expert on IceWM configuration, or one of the experts, in any case. He has expressed opinions about a variety of other window managers over the past six months or so - check around the forum to see his past comments, and perhaps he will weigh in here later.

I believe that anti is one of the biggest Fluxbox proponents here, but I believe that John's excellent work with IceWM has increased Anti's interest in IceWM (though I suspect that Fluxbox continues to be his personal favorite). Perhaps Anti and others will give us their thoughts as well.

I just use icewm now. It's the most comfortable environment for me. I love the comfort of the kde-style taskbar and the ability to access the right-click menu. I also like having a run command right at my fingertips - just hit "win" + "space" and the run dialog appears right on the taskbar. Additionally, you have a double-height taskbar, just by editing the config file, which allows you to add alot more "quick launch" buttons and have the run dialog available full-time. Icewm has a lot more options to organize open windows than fluxbox - tile, cascade, and arrange. All of these options are available by right-clicking on the taskbar. There are just so many features, too many in fact to discuss here.

I also believe that icewm consumes fewer resources than fluxbox, at least according to the magazine Linux Format. So the two advantages I think that fluxbox does have over icewm are transparency and the ability to edit your configuration through the menu. (This is somewhat possible within icewm, but certainly not to the extent that is available with fluxbox).

I really don't know why most people are fluxbox or icewm. I just know that for myself, now that I've spent so much time in icewm, it's difficult to go back to fluxbox. I just miss the taskbar so much - show desktop, quick launch icons, start menu. It's also easy to collapse the taskbar, too. (I used to be an xfce guy, but icewm really won me over.)

I think the problem with icewm is it's reputation. It has a reputation as being ugly and there really aren't a lot of resources on the web. It took a lot of effort to make an icewm desktop that was easy on the eyes and a lot more effort to make it comfortable to work with. So perhaps that's why people gravitate towards fluxbox - it's a bit more comfortable at first.

Anyway, I've only read a bit of the article and I hope to finish it soon. Thanks again for the excellent reference.

john

Well, guess now I'll have to find out. Thank you for the extended replies. They gave me a lot to look at. You guys all seem like a good bunch here. Very helpful. Glad I signed up. I'll post what I discover as well. Sounds like I might be a while running through everything:)

Updated the wiki a bit. Added a sound events guide (#16) that will allow for ALL system sound events in fluxbox. Enjoy:)

sleekmason wrote:Updated the wiki a bit. Added a sound events guide (#16) that will allow for ALL system sound events in fluxbox. Enjoy:)

sleekmason, I made sure to bookmark your articles. Next time I am in Fluxbox I will definitely have to try out several of your config files and suggestions. I am sure that several of them will further improve my Fluxbox experience, and even if I change anything, your great notes and examples give me lots of great ideas! Thanks so much for including us and pointing to your articles in the sidux forum. Considering that I am running sidux right now, I guess I should flip over from KDE to Fluxbox and give some of this a try - and make sure I do the same next time I login to antiX, two of my favorite distros! Appreciate it!

Thanks sleek, bookmarked link in iceweasel in Anti computer. Still a noob when it comes to configuring fluxbox, but I appreciate guys like you that help guys like me out with your info. Kudos dude.

Sleemason,
Thanks for all the information. It's a great guide.

Pedro

There i was, googling for fluxbox guides, and this link popped up (Should have searched the antiX forums first eh?)

Great guide sleekmason, many thanks for sharing.

Kudos!

DJiNN

Neat! I'm glad the info is getting out there;) I have all the guides posted in a few places right now. Let me know if you have any difficulties. The guides in the sidux wiki are up to date, as well as linux.com(blog) and wordpress.

Just to let you know that the link is now dead.

Edit: That link is working again now.......