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Openbox

A barebones stacking window manager — light, scriptable, and yours to shape.

Stacking window manager Display server X11

Openbox is the classic minimal stacking window manager: windows float and stack like a traditional desktop, but there is no panel, no dock, no desktop icons unless you add them. A right-click anywhere summons your menu; a few megabytes of RAM run the whole show. It is the blank canvas that lightweight desktops are painted on.

For years Openbox has been the quiet engine underneath LXDE-era desktops and countless custom setups: pair it with a panel (tint2), a launcher, and a compositor of your choice, and you have a desktop precisely as heavy as you decided. Configuration lives in clean XML, theming is straightforward, and its behavior has been stable for a very long time.

Strengths

• Tiny footprint: one of the lightest usable WMs anywhere.
• Traditional stacking behavior; no tiling learning curve.
• The proven base layer for countless custom lightweight desktops.
• Simple, stable XML configuration and easy theming.
• Right-click root menu keeps everything one gesture away.

Watch-outs

• X11 only, and development is largely maintenance these days.
• Everything beyond windows is DIY: panels, launchers, compositing.
• Modern niceties (fancy scaling, animations) are not its world.

Standout features

• The definitive minimal stacking WM for two decades.
• obconf and clean XML make it approachable minimalism.
• Backbone of famous lightweight setups (LXDE, CrunchBang lineage).
• Runs a full desktop feel in a rounding error of RAM.

Who it's for

The Openbox player profile

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