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Openbox is a free
Free software

Free Software or software libre is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and to prevent consumer-facing hardware...
 window manager
Window manager

A window manager is computer software that controls the placement and appearance of window within a windowing system in a graphical user interface....
 for the X Window System
X Window System

The X Window System is a computing software system and network protocol that provides a graphical user interface for networked computers. It implements the X Window System protocols and architecture and provides windowing system on raster graphics Visual display units and manages Keyboard and pointing device control functions....
, licensed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
. Openbox was originally derived from Blackbox
Blackbox

In Unix computing, Blackbox is a X window manager for the X Window System.Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications....
 0.65.0, but has been totally rewritten in the C programming language
C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement the Unix operating system....
 and since version 3.0 is not based upon any code from Blackbox
Blackbox

In Unix computing, Blackbox is a X window manager for the X Window System.Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications....
.

Openbox is designed to be small, fast, and fully compliant with the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual
Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual

In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual is a standard for interoperability between X Window System client of the same X Window System protocols and architecture....
 (ICCCM) and Extended Window Manager Hints
Extended Window Manager Hints

Extended Window Manager Hints, aka NetWM or Net WM, is an X Window System standard for X window manager. It defines various interactions between window managers, utilities, and applications, all part of an entire desktop environment....
 (EWMH). It supports many features such as menus by which the user can control applications or which display various dynamic information.






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Encyclopedia


Openbox is a free
Free software

Free Software or software libre is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and to prevent consumer-facing hardware...
 window manager
Window manager

A window manager is computer software that controls the placement and appearance of window within a windowing system in a graphical user interface....
 for the X Window System
X Window System

The X Window System is a computing software system and network protocol that provides a graphical user interface for networked computers. It implements the X Window System protocols and architecture and provides windowing system on raster graphics Visual display units and manages Keyboard and pointing device control functions....
, licensed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
. Openbox was originally derived from Blackbox
Blackbox

In Unix computing, Blackbox is a X window manager for the X Window System.Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications....
 0.65.0, but has been totally rewritten in the C programming language
C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement the Unix operating system....
 and since version 3.0 is not based upon any code from Blackbox
Blackbox

In Unix computing, Blackbox is a X window manager for the X Window System.Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications....
.

Openbox is designed to be small, fast, and fully compliant with the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual
Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual

In computing, the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual is a standard for interoperability between X Window System client of the same X Window System protocols and architecture....
 (ICCCM) and Extended Window Manager Hints
Extended Window Manager Hints

Extended Window Manager Hints, aka NetWM or Net WM, is an X Window System standard for X window manager. It defines various interactions between window managers, utilities, and applications, all part of an entire desktop environment....
 (EWMH). It supports many features such as menus by which the user can control applications or which display various dynamic information. Openbox is the standard window manager in LXDE
LXDE

LXDE is a FOSS desktop environment for Unix and other POSIX compliant platforms, such as Linux or BSD. The name LXDE stands for "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment"....
 and CrunchBang Linux
CrunchBang Linux

is a lightweight Ubuntu based Linux distribution created by Philip Newborough. It uses the Openbox window manager and is especially suitable for low-end hardware with limited resources ....
.

The primary author of Openbox is Dana Jansens of Carleton University
Carleton University

Carleton University is an international, comprehensive university located in Canada's capital of Ottawa, Ontario. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines, including public affairs, Carleton School of Journalism,film studies, engineering, high technology, and international stud...
 in Ottawa
Ottawa

Ottawa is the Capital of Canada. The city has population of 812,000, the List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population municipality in the country and second largest in Ontario....
, Ontario
Ontario

Ontario is a Provinces and territories of Canada located in the Central Canada part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area....
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
.

Using Openbox

Openbox allows a right-click (or any other bind) "root menu" on the desktop, 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 bind the user wants) menu. Extending Openbox with other small programs that add icons, taskbar
Taskbar

In computing, the taskbar is a term for an application desktop bar which is used to launch and monitor applications. Microsoft incorporated a taskbar in Windows 95 and it has been a defining aspect of Microsoft Windows's graphical user interface ever since....
s, launchers, eyecandy and others is common.

Configuration

There are only two configuration files located in ~/.config/openbox. They are named menu.xml and rc.xml. If users do not want to edit them by hand, they can do most of the configuration with ObConf, an easy-to-use tool.

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.

Unique features

Openbox's menu system has a method for using dynamic menus. 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 his or her 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 standard static menus found in most other window managers.

For instance, two developers wrote a script in Python
Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python's core syntax and semantics are Minimalism , while the standard library is large and comprehensive....
 that lists a user's new Gmail
Gmail

Gmail is a free Post Office Protocol and Internet Message Access Protocol webmail service provided by Google. In the United Kingdom and Germany it is officially called Google Mail....
 messages in a sub-menu.

See also


  • Comparison of window managers
  • Azalea
    Azalea (window manager)

    Azalea is a GNUstep window manager that is based on Openbox. Earlier versions were based on WMaker, which is in turn is based on Window Maker. It is the default window manager of the ?toil? desktop environment....
  • Blackbox
    Blackbox

    In Unix computing, Blackbox is a X window manager for the X Window System.Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications....
  • Fluxbox
    Fluxbox

    In Unix computing, Fluxbox is an X window manager fork on Blackbox 0.61.1. It aims to be lightweight and customizable, and has minimal support for graphical icon ....


External links

  • [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Openbox Ubuntu Wiki Openbox page]