Fluxbox Again
Every once in a while I make the switch between Gnome and Fluxbox as my Desktop Environment / Window Manager. Recently I went back to Fluxbox and I have noticed some very nice enhancements:
- Very easy to customize hotkeys using the ~/.fluxbox/keys file including setting up hotkeys for mpc which does an excellent job at controlling mpd (Music Player Daemon). Also, the Ctrl, Alt and Windows Keys can be used in conjunction with any command you choose to enter.
- The ’startup’ file allows you to add in any program or command to start when fluxbox starts. This again, is fully customizable.
- My favorite feature of Fluxbox that I found was being able to fuse any application with another using the tab option. You can middle click and drag the tab at the top left of any window and attach it to another open one. This is especially good for multiple terminal windows if you are using something like Eterm. I find that using Nautilus with the –no-desktop flag and tabbing 3 or 4 of these together is very convenient when you need to view different directories quickly or copy and paste between each of them.
As always the ‘menu’ file is one of the most flexible of any Window Manager. You can enter virtually any command you like. As long as you have your permissions set accordingly, you may set your mount, eject as well as shutdown and restart.
Probably one of the biggest advantages of Fluxbox is the speed it affords you. When you open windows for most applications, they snap right open. Fluxbox may take a little bit of extra time to set up to your liking but it is definitely worth it. If you like fluxbox but really like to have the applets from gnome, you can simply add gnome-applets & to your ~/.fluxbox/startup file and you are all set. Using Flux on a new system will demonstrate the speed and efficiency while using it on an older system will make it a lot more usable and responsive.