Openbox
 Basic Openbox X-Session | |
| Developer(s) | Dana Jansens[1] |
|---|---|
| Initial release | September 18, 2002 |
| Stable release | 3.5.2
/ August 12, 2013 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Type | Window manager |
| License | GPLv2+[2] |
| Website | openbox |
Openbox is a free, stacking window manager for the X Window System, licensed under the GNU General Public License.[2] Originally derived from Blackbox[2] 0.65.0 (a C++ project), Openbox has now been totally rewritten in the C programming language and since version 3.0 is no longer based upon any code from Blackbox.[3]
Openbox is designed to be small, fast, and fully compliant with the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM) and Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH).[4] It supports many features such as menus by which the user can control applications or which display various dynamic information.[2] Openbox is the standard window manager in LXDE,[5] and is used in Linux distributions such as CrunchBang Linux,[6] ArchBang (similar to CrunchBang, but based on rolling-upgradeable[7] Arch Linux instead of Debian), Lubuntu,[8] TinyMe[9] and Trisquel Mini.[10]
The primary author of Openbox is Dana Jansens of Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.[1]
Using Openbox
Openbox allows a right-click (or any other binding) "root menu" on the desktop,[2] and allows users to configure the way windows are managed. When a window is minimized, it becomes invisible. To bring windows up again, most use Alt+Tab ↹ or the Desktop menu, accessible from the right-click (or, again, any other binding the user wants) menu. Extending Openbox with other small programs that add icons, taskbars,[2] launchers, eyecandy and others is common.
Configuration
There are only two configuration files, both located in ~/.config/openbox. They are named menu.xml and rc.xml. These can either be edited manually or with ObConf and obmenu, both graphical configuration tools.[2][11][12]
All mouse and keyboard bindings can be configured. For example, a user can set a window to go to desktop 3 when the close button is clicked with the middle mouse button or when scrolling on an icon to move to the next/previous desktop and raise or not raise when clicking/moving a window, is also fully configurable.
Pipe menus
Openbox's menu system has a method for using dynamic menus called "pipe menus".[2][13] This is done by accepting the output of a script and using that output as the source for a menu. Each time the user points their mouse at the sub-menu, the script is re-run and the menu is regenerated. This capability allows users and software developers more flexibility than the static menus found in other window managers.
See also
References
- ^ a b Jansens, Dana. "Openbox Developer Dana Jansens". Retrieved 19 January 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h * Saunders, Mike (March 2008). "Lightweight window managers". Linux Format (103). UK: Future Publishing.* Сондерс, Майк (March 2008). Легковесные ОМ (PDF). Linux Format (in Russian) (103). Russia: Mezon.ru: 21.
- ^ GentooWiki (March 2008). "HOWTO Openbox". Archived from the original on 3 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ "EWMH Compliance Document". Retrieved 9 September 2009.
- ^ LXDEWiki (September 2008). "LXDE Wiki". Retrieved 28 September 2008.
- ^ CrunchBang Linux (December 2008). "CrunchBang Linux". Retrieved 29 December 2008.
- ^ "Rolling-release (Linux Wiki)". Retrieved 29 May 2014.
- ^ Lavergne, Julian (October 2010). "Lubuntu Applications". Retrieved 14 January 2011.
- ^ DistroWatch (August 2010). "Tiny Me". Retrieved 14 January 2011.
- ^ "Trisquel Mini GNU/Linux". The Trisquel Project. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
- ^ Openbox project (June 2007). "ObConf:About". Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ obmenu:Index, retrieved 28 March 2012
- ^ "Openbox Wiki:Pipe menus".
External links
- Official website
Media related to Openbox at Wikimedia Commons
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