What is Reddit's opinion of Openbox?

Crunchbang is popular. Crunchbang uses the Openbox Window Manger as default.

The last Stable release 3.5.2 / August 12, 2013; 13 months ago

Openbox Windows Manager will be around for sometime.

Send email to the active developer.

http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~dana/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox

> OpenBox has less features than Gnome

Along some dimensions that's true, but not all dimensions. Openbox is far more configurable and customizable than Gnome has ever been. It's much more lightweight, but that doesn't mean its features are only a subset.

For your intended question: if you filter out "User" related entries, and set the timeframe far back enough (I used 365 days), you'll see that the last edit to the Wiki was on 1 May 2018.

http://openbox.org/oldwiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&limit=1000&days=365&namespace=2&invert=1

> The only annoyance I had with OpenBox was the lack of a proper menu (i.e. not by editing menu.xml by hand), but I am pretty sure there are some other options for dynamic menus.

Pipe menus have been around since forever. I haven't touched mine since 2014, still works fine.

You could add the following to your ~/.i3/config (order is important):

for_window [class=".*"] floating enable for_window [class="^chromium$"] floating disable

This enables floating for every window class, but disables it again for the class "chromium".

But this is not what i3 was designed for. The only reason floating window are even supported is because sometime there is no way around them: dialog windows would be quite annoying and some applications just cannot (do not want to) be resized arbitrarily. This is reflected in a rather poor support for floating windows: new floating windows may open below existing ones, only one floating layer (no "always on top" or similar), no sticky borders, and so on.

If you intend to make extensive use of floating windows, almost to the total exclusion of tiled windows, then i3 is in all likelihood not the WM you are looking for. It may work for specific use cases, perhaps some kiosk application. But in general, especially for use as an environment for working, I would suggest using some stacking window manager that allows you to put chromium below any other window and maximize it - maybe openbox? - instead of (ab)using i3 in a way, for which it clearly is not designed.

TL;DR: Don't!

in rc.xml

FAQ

Certainly. OpenBox has been more actively developed since icculus took over maintainership, and has been gaining more XFCE style features: Window Switcher dialogue, XML configuration files, etc. FluxBox has stayed true to the original BlackBox WM; still has the toolbar, slit and plain-text configuration files. You can compare the two projects here.

Welcome!

I saw from the post that you're looking for Openbox updates. It hasn't been updated in a long while: last release was 8 Feb 2010.

http://openbox.org/wiki/Openbox:News

http://openbox.org/wiki/Openbox:Changelog

But Openbox is mostly "done" software. There's not really anything left to add, or take away, or fix. It's very simple software which does its job very well.

By necessity it's pretty light on resources, but I can't really recommend it for actual use. If you want to go lightweight, try a window manager like openbox. Don't waste your time with CDE.

Crunchbang is a debian-based distro that comes with openbox and a nice set of tools out of the box. You can also install and use it on Ubuntu.

See http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Bindings and http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Actions for details...

edit Personally I go for W-Middle and not just straight middle click. To each their own.

Yes, in rc.xml, for the action set "bar" to "no":

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Actions#NextWindow

There are a lot of options between "fully featured DE" and "spartan tiling manager." Personally, I use openbox, which is highly customizable. Paired with dmenu, I only touch the mouse when browsing.

You presumably had xscreensaver and xscreensaver-gl (for the "Lockward" module) installed. Both are in the "Universe" repo.

Binding something like xscreensaver-command -lock to the desired key combination should do the trick (see http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Bindings).

Do you have "lxhotkey" installed?

LXDE uses Openbox so you could edit config files to add your shortcuts but it's less user-friendly. Be aware that LXDE isn't as polished as GNOME/KDE/Xfce. And, even if it still works, it's getting deprecated in favor of LXQt.

For lightweight but very user-friendly desktop I would recommend Xfce. It requires a bit more resources than LXDE but any computer should be able to run it well anyway.

Do you mean the titlebars?

screenshot of titlebars

If so, then that happens to be a configurable feature of Openbox. In my Openbox theme, I indicate that the titlebar should have such-and-such a background color, the text should have another color, etc. Here's the values for the green-on-white screenshot:

window..title.bg: Solid Flat window...bg: Parentrelative window..title.bg.color: #00bb87 window..border.color: #333333 window..label.text.color: #111111 window.active.title.separator.color: #333333

window.inactive.title.bg.color: #cccccc window.inactive.border.color: #333333 window.inactive.label.text.color: #111111 window.inactive.title.separator.color: #333333

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:XFCE/Openbox

In short, in the terminal type : openbox --replace

This will replace XFCE's default window manager XFWM with Openbox (assuming you've already installed Openbox of course).

Yeah, this is a great opportunity for people to try something different. I don't mean to get on my soapbox here, but xmonad is a great option for someone who wants maximum flexibility with their multi-monitor setup. You can configure everything exactly as you want it to be, and you don't have to worry about radical changes (which do occur with some other tiling window managers, such as awesome) breaking your setup.

Or if tiling window managers aren't your thing, Openbox is another great choice. It'll let you get your usual floating window behavior, but keep everything else minimal. If you want a taskbar and/or tray, you can add that yourself. Because these parts are coming directly from the upstream developers, drastic changes rarely occur. In fact, if I were still using Openbox and didn't bother to change any of the components, it would look exactly like it did 5 years ago. Of course, that's not to say that developments haven't been made - it's just that you won't be subjected to them unless you actually seek them out.

You can probably hack something together using the MoveResizeTo window action provided by Openbox (see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Openbox#Window_snapping for an example).

Openbox actions can also include conditions, so having the same key combo do different things depending on the state of the window should also work, I suppose (see http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Actions#If).

In rc.xml, add lines something like:

more stuff to read to help:

http://www.googlubuntu.com/results/?cx=006238239194895611142:u-ocqbntw_o&q=autostart+program+lubuntu&sa=Search&cof=FORID:9

> Having a 3x3 workspace with the ability to easily move between them, and a easy way to move windows between them, is an absolute requirement for me.

Sounds like he should try FluxBox / OpenBox. The keybindings and settings give you so much control over the windows. I run FluxBox with GTK3 apps.

Arch Linux is decent if you're willing to spend some time reading, it's not a distribution one can compare to ubuntu.

The default install of Arch is naked, you'll have to explicitly install a graphical environment, the proper drivers and your favorite desktop environment or window manager. Maybe you'll have better results with something like Openbox if even LXDE is pissing you off performance wise.

Lots of effort, but the result is a low profile installation that has what you want it to have and nothing more. I do mean that literally, if you choose to go the low profile route on Arch you will find yourself having to figure out what you need to aces windows shares over the network, this will not work out of the box.

I think relevant system files are in /etc/X11/ and user files are ~/.xsession and ~/.xinitrc.

There are relevant entries in the Gentoo and Arch Wikis. If you want to keep it Openbox specific, have a look at this.

It'd probably help if you'd tell us more about your specific problems and which distro you are using.

Things like that are why I've switched to using Openbox on Arch. I choose the apps, it only runs what I want to run. The only person that decides what I can install or remove is me.

You can also achieve this with openbox: e. g. https://manual.maboxlinux.org/mabox-doc-en/getting-started/tiling/
https://thomashunter.name/posts/2019-01-27-treating-openbox-like-a-tiling-windowmanager
http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:WindowsInteractionWithWindowsKey

For the down-voters (maybe the documentation is unclear):

KDE is mentioned in the list of unwelcome technologies

– https://github.com/helloSystem/hello/wiki/Welcome-and-unwelcome-technologies (missing a bullet point, it seems).

0.6.0 switched from Openbox to KWin, but that's not to be conflated with KDE Plasma.

openbox themes are fairly simple and extensively documented. openbox' wiki is the definitive resource.

Anyway, here's the theemerc I'm currently using so you can see how simple they are.

Hope this helps -

Bunsenlabs and Crunchbang++ both use Openbox.

So step 1 is to install Openbox and ObConf, and then you’ll need to spend time theming it to get it where you want it. Bunsenlabs’ FAQ has links to several sample themes you can use for inspiration.

Ok thanks !

It seems this is the best documentation on how to do this

http://openbox.org/wiki/Configuration

Do you know how a place with more information about how to do this ?

I see the window roll up function is called "shade"

No mention in the FAQ

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:FAQ

There's discussion of the "shade.xbm" on this page but it's not clear how that can be used

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Themes#Shade_button

It seems the function is maybe not configurable after all ?

AFAIK OBox is not capable of what you need BUT (although not a solution) these links can shed some light into your problem (and perhaps give you a clue): "How do I run Openbox across multiple X screens?" "window managers and how they cope with multiple monitors" "xrandr, dual monitor, openbox"

Hope it helps.

OpenBox has a setting to hide the bar when you maximize a window, iirc it should be on by default so you probably turned it off when you were configuring OB. (It so should get rid of the padding around the window. If you can't find it in your rc.xml check the documentation

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Bindings

> Key and mouse bindings are created in your ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml file. You should copy the file from /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml to ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml to edit it, if that file does not already exist.

If your rc.xml file exists, check it for a logout binding. Failing that reboot and switch desktops in the login greeter.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinit

Depending on your window manager, your dot files go in your window manager's autostart/start file. For me, I use PEKWM and Openbox. My configs are found in .pekwm/start and Openbox uses http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Autostart respectively.

That isn't a bad system. I'm still playing games on older 6-10yr old systems and they are running great with most games. I have GeForce video cards, but they range from GeForce 750 Ti to GTX 1060. I'm able to play games like Shadow of Mordor, Borderlands 3, Hellblade, Fallout 4 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Even the Tomb Raider series runs well.

I know video card prices haven't dropped in a long time, but upgrading your video card would really boost performance. Specially with that 8-core CPU (CRAZY!!)

If that isn't possible, one thing I have done in the past to boost a few frames per second is run Linux with Openbox

http://openbox.org/wiki/Main_Page

This window manager removes all the overhead of other distros and you have the base processes to run your game. Unfortunately you will have to know the Terminal command to set the resolution, folders, shortcuts and system settings.

But I would usually just type: Steam or PlayOnLinux and start gaming.

>FWIW I have Ubuntu 18.04 desktop (but use Openbox window manager instead of the normal GUI)

may this might help

http://openbox.org/wiki/Power_management

It's the "solid" that you need to edit, for example:

> window.inactive.title.bg: flat solid

can be replaced with:

> window.inactive.title.bg: Flat Gradient Diagonal

or

> window.inactive.title.bg: Flat Gradient Vertical

or

> window.inactive.title.bg: Raised Gradient Horizontal

etc.

and you can indeed do it for all the lines with "solid", as specified in the openbox wiki ^ ^

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Themes

here ya go. only tip I have is if you find a good file you want to start with, sort the lines bc some of the random ones on the net are messy

I have configured Openbox to have no borders for any of my windows, and set up Alt+Click and drag to move windows around. Besides, there is the menu opened with Alt+Space that can be used for moving and resizing (which I have bound to my F20 key, mapped on the right Alt key, btw).

The Alt+Space method is fairly standard (it even works on M$ Windows), so I think it may just work. If you want all your windows to be borderless, and not just your terminal, using openbox with the following information in rc.xml is a way:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  <openbox_config xmlns="http://openbox.org/3.4/rc" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"> ... <mouse> ... <context name="Frame"> <mousebind button="A-Left" action="Drag"> <action name="Move"/> </mousebind> <mousebind button="A-Right" action="Drag"> <action name="Resize"/> </mousebind> </context> </mouse>

Sorry if I made any errors. I hate XML.

Doesn't Raspbian use LXDE? Have you tried something like this? I would verify but I don't have Raspbian running on anything currently.

I believe you can use the key code in rc.xml. (http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Bindings#Keys).

like this:

<command>gmrun</command>

</action>

</keybind>

the command bellow shows keycodes for.

xmodmap -pke

giving:

keycode 59 = comma less comma less horizconnector multiply horizconnector

keycode 60 = period greater period greater periodcentered division periodcentered

Well, then we have found the problem. The menu is being loaded fine, but somewhere in the configuration, the packagers have given you a pre-configured menu, and it's that menu that's being picked up.

My guess is that there's a system-wide menu that is being loaded first, and doesn't include loading the user-specific menus.

Have a look here: http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Menus

You'll see that there is a system-wide menu placed in /etc/xdg/openbox

It may be worth backing up the menu file you find there, and renaming it menu.old or something, and seeing if it will then load your menu.

-BX

This type of application setting would be configured in your rc.xml file. I have all titlebars removed from all windows, but something like the following should be close for removing it just from Firefox.

The site I linked above describes a lot of the functionality that can be defined in the rc.xml file.

Look for help here:
http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Applications

"A complete list of possible properties to set is in the default rc.xml file, which you can find in /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml"
It is recommended that you change the config file at ~/.config/opnebox/rc.xml

Try setting it with a key-binding, whenever you maximize a window, it removes decorations (title bar)

I know you said you don't want a window manager, but you could probably get away with Openbox on Xorg. Just about the lightest-weight WM there is.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/openbox

http://openbox.org/wiki/Main_Page

Without actually upgrading hardware one thing I used to do is Play games in Openbox

It is basically a minimal process Window Manager.

Normally I use Mint for gaming, but there are a lot of background processes hogging up the CPU. So if a game is running slow, I can actually gain a few FPS running it in Openbox

That GUI settings thing presumably is for GNOME (Ubuntu's default graphical environment), so it won't serve much of a purpose (if any) with Openbox anyway, I guess. It, again presumably, relies on gnome-settings-daemon, so adding that to your Openbox autostart file might work.

Unless you autostart things like a panel, a background setter, etc. with your session, that is what you get when you start Openbox - minus the error you might want to share.

See http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Contents#Menus for information on how to set up the menu.

Lubuntu uses the same repos as Ubuntu, so I suppose you install the same things, i. e. (presumably, as I don't use any input methods) ibus and at least one input engine (e. g. ibus-rime), plus the modules for the widget toolkits (ibus-gtk, ibus-gtk3, ibus-qt4).

> Im coming from arch and had no problem putting ibus-daemon -drx and envs in my configs before, but Im working with a lot more here in lubuntu.

Putting the command to start the daemon into ~/.xsessionrc should do the trick regardless of DE or WM used - assuming Ubuntu works the same ways as its parent (see https://wiki.debian.org/Xsession).

Or put it into your Openbox autostart file. The environment variables can be put into the environment file (see http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Autostart for both).

Edit: typo

I use dmenu, mapped to the menu key. There's also Rofi, which has more functionality.

ObConf can help with some configuration.

It's possible, but complicated. I can't provide a full solution right now, but can give you a hint: you should set start window properties in <appications> tag and make you program immutable to move/focus/whatever (mouse)actions via wrapping default action into <if> statement. Example: disabling Alt-F4 close window functionality for tilda:

<keybind key="A-F4"> <action name="If"> <class>Tilda</class> <then>  </then> <else> <action name="Close"/> </else> </action> </keybind>

Example 2: prevent emacs window from moving via Alt+left click:

<mousebind button="A-Left" action="Drag"> <action name="If"> <class>Emacs</class> <then> </then> <else> <action name="Move"/> </else> </action> </mousebind>

Example 3: start window properties for urxvt terminal

<application class="URxvt"> <position force="yes"> <x>center</x> <y>center</y> </position> <size> <width>600</width> <height>20%</height> </size> </application>

Focus your attention on if statement and various per-application settings.

Feel free to ask more specific question.

Don't know much about Cinnamon, but in KDE you can use openbox (+compton for compositing) instead of kwin, I found it more reliable.

You can borrow some parts like launchers, panels, etc from lxde/lxqt, they are quite modular.

You can bind more than one action to a key with OpenBox, e. g. Maximize and Execute (to run the script).

ARCH is definitely light, if you wanted to go that route. It's up to you.

MATE is able to run quite comfortably on the Raspberry Pi which only has 1GB of RAM and a 900Mhz processor.

OpenBOX Autostart Commands

The openbox wiki suggests you could install the gnome configuration tools and use that for power management http://openbox.org/wiki/Power_management which would probably prevent the monitor from turning off if a video was playing in e.g. firefox but it probably requires a lot of packages. Alternatively you can disable turning the screen off at all but that's a step in the wrong direction

Lubuntu comes with LXDE as desktop environment and LXDE comes with Openbox as window manager.

And Openbox is extremely configurable, if you don't mind editing a config-file: http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Configuration

OpenBox. It's really lightweight and extremely customizable. Ever since I first tried it out with CrunchBang back in 2011ish, I fell in love with it. It's been my go-to window manager ever since. There is some manual effort that you need to be willing and able to put in to get it looking good and operating nicely, but the end result of your system being 100% tuned to you and your preferences is so worth it.

If you're wanting to try it, I'd suggest using a distro that does some basic configuration for you off the bat like Bunsen. Getting a good base to build off of is important when you're first starting to use it. It took me probably one year of using Bunsen as my daily driver before I was comfortable enough to start from scratch and build my own setup.

It is kind of like ArchBang, but with Fedora 24 instead of Arch.

So, if, like me, you like tinkering with OpenBox, the Tint2 panel, and the PyTyle or xmonad tiling window managesr, then you may have found one of the most cutting edge lightweight distributions available.

The openbox wiki has an entier page on autostarting programs using the '~/.config/openbox/autostart' file. The debian wiki shows a few examples of using the openbox '~/.config/openbox/autostart' file to start things like feh for background. The arch wiki also has a nice section on using the '~/.config/openbox/autostart' file. All of these resources should give you what you need I think.

If you want to see how crunchbang did things you can install it (if you can find an old ISO or use BunsenLabs) in a VM and have a look at how they did their autostart bit.

Openbox http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Autostart

Debian https://wiki.debian.org/Openbox

Arch https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Openbox_#autostart

Which version of Lubuntu were you using?

I’ve never heard of anyone hearing about Lubuntu before hearing about Ubuntu. I feel like most people just start with Ubuntu and then move to alternatives. Good point though. Lubuntu is definitely less user friendly in some areas.
Interesting.
The hourglass thing is actually an openbox thing. There is an option in openbox menus to show the hourglass when a program is loading. It is called Startup Notification. Probably just something overlooked. I agree this should be considered when launching applications from the menu/launchers.

>lightweight, fast, easier

> I'm not convinced.

I agree that it is not easier. As a person who has done minimal installs and used distros like Crunchbang I kind of knew what to expect. I think it is trying to promote itself as user-friendly, but really it is just a great minimal distribution that fits my needs.

You should file your bugs to help improve the distribution.

Openbox Window manager is highly customizable and allows you to have specific applications open in specific "desktops" or specific monitors fairly easily. I use a debian-based OS called Crunchbang which died, but was brought back to life as Crunchbang++, then subsequently the original was resurrected here. I use the first link, Crunchbang++ but my understanding is that they are nearly identical. It comes with sane defaults for Openbox and some helpful tools for configuring it. It's very nice if you like a minimal UI.

You can use any file manager with OB, I just prefer Thunar.

The Openbox wiki is a great resource. Here's info, for example, on how to manage your autostart file: http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Autostart

Here is an in-depth guide on how to tweak your tint2: https://code.google.com/p/tint2/wiki/Configure

I don't know gnome-openbox. Googling for it gives me this page http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Using_Openbox_in_GNOME which was last modified (meaningfully) in January 2010‎, i.e. more than a year before the first release of Gnome Shell. Obviously it doesn't talk about Gnome Shell and also mentions things like GConf and Gnome Panel that are obsolete in regular Gnome 3.

There are some newer results, but they all talk about Gnome fallback/flashback (with components like gnome-panel and Metacity), so it seems to me that gnome-openbox has nothing to do with Gnome Shell.

A more general response: KDE and GNOME are the two big DE which aim to provide a complete desktop experience in addition to supplying the user interface; they include everything from an office suite, web browser, email client to a video player plus a good number of tools to manage system configuration (i.e. GUI frontends for things like useradd/usermod).

Roughly speaking, KDE is more feature-rich and custimizable/drowns the user in options he will never need whereas GNOME is simpler.

If you find yourself liking and using a lot of the tools from either KDE or GNOME, then you may be better off using that DE because you will already have to install and load most of the libraries they depend on. As an advanced topic, you can also replace some of the components (e.g. kwin with openbox http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Getting_started)

Other DE like Xfce stick closer to the actual job description and only provide a graphical user interface and leave you to get applications you need from other sources.

The "best DE" comes down to personal opinion - look at a list of them (http://askubuntu.com/questions/65083/what-kinds-of-desktop-environments-and-shells-are-available), and pick one (or more you like). Disk space is cheap, so you can easily install multiple DEs in parallel and until you've decided which you like best.

Unity is the desktop shell. AFAIK, Ubuntu uses Compiz as window manager.

Maybe there is an option in obconf (Openbox configuration). You can also try to make the window decorator font bigger. Or try here http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Themes#Geometry

So you want the window you're moving to cover conky? You might try putting conky in the dock and allow windows to cover it. I have conky hidden in the dock and always on top, but my windows do extend all the way to the edge of the screen (I always see a one pixel vertical bar covering the left side of my screen).

You can use Openstreetmap offline. You can get rough location without GPS based on what WiFi networks are nearby. SkyHook is one company with a public API to request location data based on BSSID.
It sounds like you want to create a custom theme. Since Raspbian uses LXDE, take a look at Openbox Help:Themes
When you say make an OS, do you mean you want to create something that is not GNU/Linux to abstract the hardware, schedule tasks, and run applications or do you just want to make a super custom desktop environment? If the latter, I recommend installing Arch Linux from the NOOBS SD card. Arch will let you set up your Linux environment exactly however you like it. You can choose what components to use.

Well, Openbox is the window manager used by LXDE. This means that you get most of Openbox's functionality along with all the bonus goodies from LXDE.

If you want to know more about Openbox, I suggest the Openbox Wiki.

I recommend Crunchbang++. It's based on plain Debian 8 (Jessie), but provides a nice setup based around the Openbox window mangler and a hand-picked set of light-weight apps. I think the heaviest apps that come with Crunchbang++ are the GIMP and Iceweasel (Debian's repackaged Firefox).

Some people write small little programs to work along side with their desktop DE.

I think of that as the same thing as a person who writes pipe menu scripts for their openbox install. If you've never heard of Pipe Menus: http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Menus#Pipe_menus

Unfortunately a lot of the tiny minimalist WMs require some degree of initial setup -- because they're minimalist in design as well as appearance. The good news is that because they're so simple, once you've set everything up the way you like it, you will probably never have to touch it again.

What do you mean by "preconfigured"? If you want more apps starting up by default like on other desktops (e.g. the Network Manager applet, which is the thing that shows information about your network connection), a lot of that is handled by the XDG desktop standard, which isn't specific to any one WM or DE. The bigger DEs have a lot of XDG integration, but small WMs often don't (especially the older ones, which precede widespread adoption of the standard).

The applications menu is also an XDG thing -- some small WMs use an older menu standard, but you can use a third-party tool to generate an XDG menu instead.

TL;DR: most small WMs require some setup. If you decide that you do want to try to tweak Openbox, I've found some Openbox-specific documentation about getting apps to start up automatically and getting the same applications menu as in other DEs.

The Arch wiki page lists a few tools that can be used to help with that.

Other than that, the syntax is exactly documented here for the general menu and here for its actions.

This is what openbox is for. I know you are just a student, but these IT departments should start mass-scale deploying custom Lubuntu repackages. Or maybe even Crunchbang - you would get much longer security updates backports and rarely need to upgrade the systems. The former seems more likely because you can get Canonical support contracts for it.

There is a huge class of XP machine where Ubuntu proper / Gnome / KDE / Windows Vista+ / anything else won't work, you need something with the limited GUI overhead of XP, and only lxde / xfce can match it with modern software.

You can stay with Ubuntu and just install a different window manager or desktop environment. Try Openbox, or LXDE.

You don't have to switch distros just to get a different GUI.

Also give the *box window managers a try (fluxbox / openbox). You can checkout my FluxBox configuration in my dotfiles.

Openbox is great. Thing is, you have to configure it all by yourself because, OOTB it really does nothing.

But it's very powerful and lightweight at the same time. I like how easy it is to move a window around with a bunch of keyboard strokes. It's not that you can't do it with Gnome, but if you see the actions ( http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Actions#Introduction ) in Openbox, you'll see what Window Management really is :-) (Don't let yourself be overwhelmed, you can install obkey for GUI assistance).

As for a panel, there's plenty. I've used PyPanel and tint2. Now I just use conky as a top panel and if I need a tray to present me with an icon (like for parcellite or wicd) I launch trayer and kill it when I don't need it anymore.

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