NewsForge.com: Review: Fluxbox window manager as nimble as Blackbox, with more features

“When I heard about Fluxbox , my first reaction was
surprise. Having been a user of Blackbox for several years and many
versions, I was a bit skeptical about Fluxbox’s ability to extend a
window manager that in my opinion, was already great. Nevertheless,
after reading the list of enhancements to the desktop over Blackbox
0.61, I was excited to give it a try.

…It should be pointed out that the instructions at the Fluxbox
site for making Fluxbox your default window manager only apply if
you are starting X from the console. If you have Mandrake
configured for a graphical login, there aren’t any other steps
necessary beyond installing the rpm. This worked very well on my
test system. I only had to logout and log back in selecting Fluxbox
as my window manager. Instructions for users that run “startx” from
the console are included at the Fluxbox Web site and, are
reasonably well written.

The differences in Fluxbox, and its ancestor, Blackbox are not
immediately apparent. Visually, you may first notice the window
tabs, something absent altogether from Blackbox. Window tabs are
hardly the only difference, as Fluxbox provides support for KDE and
Windowmaker dock applications. This is a little strange, coming
from years of Blackbox use, because the lack of docked application
support has always been one of its defining features. I do believe
that Blackbox’s stability, speed and simplicity are still retained
in Fluxbox and, if you’re not inclined to run docked applications,
you’ll never notice a difference. If you have ever looked at
Blackbox and said, “That’s nice but, I wish I could run that,” your
wait is over. Support for docked applications is well done, and
works just as you would expect.”

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