New Direction thoughts

[PackRat]

@statmonkey -

I'm guessing - no betting! - it was urukrama's blog you were using for openbox.

If you want/need to learn fluxbox, start with the HowTo section of the fluxbox wiki; and ask your questions in the fluxbox section of the wm configuration thread. The fluxbox thread over at #! forums is almost as good as VSIDO one 

[VastOne]

^ I also have found quite a bit about FluxBox on the Arch Wiki

[statmonkey]

Thanks guys I will stop playing with plait to read up on fluxbox.  Yes bonus points to PackRat it was the great urukrama blog that got my feet wet in OB (how could I have forgotten at one point I lived there for days), you should have taken the bet I will reread the fluxbox wiki HowTo and check out Arch and CB forums.  Appreciate the leads.

[VastOne]

@PackRat... Don't you find FluxBox easier to configure and work with in it's setup than OpenBox?  I never was a fan of OB because I could not stand how you had to work with it and perhaps gave up on it too quickly. With FluxBox, I found it simple and direct and was quite pleased with how easy it was to get to know and use

[tlinsley]

@tlinsley

Block selection is not possible in Medit per my searches on google...

Geany would be your choice and one you are comfortable with

Thanks for verifying!  My googling had turned up nothing positive, so just wanted to make sure I had not missed something obvious.

As for your plan to remove Geany, no worries here.  I customize the crap out of every distro I load anyways.  I have found your VSIDO and Siduction to be the best boiler plate distros for Debian.  Now it will be Siduction for Xfce and VSIDO for Fluxbox.  Good thing I created extra root partitions a while back...

Hopefully I can load up and try out your new build next week.  Lately I have been using mostly Fedora, while I studying for the RH certs.  Getting back to Debian/VSIDO land for a few days will be a very welcome respite!

[Gordon]

Hi VastOne

Just dropped in to add my thoughts. Really it's just say please don't drop openbox, off all of them that I have seen and used I find openbox the easiest to use. I have just downloaded your test ISO only to realize that is 64bit and I'm on 32 still never mind I can wait 

[PackRat]

@vastone -

Yes, I find fluxbox much easier to configure than openbox since you don't need to deal with xml syntax. In all fairness though, I was using blackbox and fluxbox with RedHat 6 and 7 before openbox was around so there is a familiarity issue.

The real selling point(s) for me are:
1. tabbed windows -- can't live without 'em
2. self contained - don't need tint2 or some other 3rd party panel

Openbox is a solid window manager though - I know people that love pipe menus; which I don't think fluxbox can do (fluxbox macro maybe?) - but fvwm can. Like most things linux, you find what works for you and go with it.

I only recommended removing openbox and geany (which I use, by the way) because there is a duplication of services there with your preferred apps fluxbox and medit - same with spacefm and thunar. I am very much a advocate of the "one app that works" design philosophy when it comes to distros. The nice thing about using debian is that what the end user ultimately wants to use is typically only an "apt-get install" away.

So design VSIDO like you would paint a landscape or sculpt a still life and make it an extension of your self. We end users can then decide which frame suits our needs.

Looking forward to the new release, may prompt me to do a clean install if I have the time.

[VastOne]

^ Well said PackRat. thank you!

@ Gordon, after getting some things lined out today, I am releasing it all a little bit later

[lwfitz]

Psst! The current release contains 200Mb+ of cruft which can, and should, be pared out.
(don't shoot the messenger, eh)

Hmmmmmmmmm

[sqlpython]

@Gordon says

Just dropped in to add my thoughts. Really it's just say please don't drop openbox, off all of them that I have seen and used I find openbox the easiest to use.

Let me say that I am with @Gordon.. However I do REALLY like FLuxBox.
I am on the other side of the coin from @packrat in that I have become very comfortable with OpenBox.

  Edit: However a Fluxbox primary Distro like a Openbox primary Distro does send a Unique Signature..

[Digit]

oh well, i'm late to this party, but i'll have a stab.  ^_^


fluxbox vs openbox:

i confess, i've never spent much time trying to configure fluxbox, and a LOT of time poking at openbox.   ... i suppose i should have a poke at fluxbox so my opinion on this can matter. lol.

if you want to keep an ob around, i'd gladly be a contributor to the configgery... y'know, could be a route to go if u decide to have both ootb.    you configure the fluxbox, and "we" configure the openbox.


bye bye xfce:

good riddance.  ^_^   never been a fan.


gnome deps

good riddance.  you fattie.


other wm?

fancy including an installer of other window managers & even user configs, in the welcome script...  ?
(hehe, like so folks could install tabular boonad (my xmonad config))


decrufting

i like the decrufting tips from ectropy.  lets have that.  mmm.
i'm a big fan of ncdu too.  also may be handy (so long as it doesnt have stupid deps itself) could be fslint


also

so, scripts n aliases n things...

stuff like:

Code Select Expand

alias fehb='feh --bg-scale'
alias fehbs='feh --bg-scale'
alias fehbc='feh --bg-center'
alias fehbf='feh --bg-fill'
alias fehbm='feh --bg-max'
alias fehbt='feh --bg-tile'which adds convenience for very little overhead. 

and even perhaps some variant of:

Code Select Expand

alias agi='sudo apt-get install'
alias agr='sudo apt-get remove'
alias agR='sudo apt-get --purge remove'
alias agpr='sudo apt-get --purge remove'
alias acs='apt-cache search'
alias acsi='apt-cache --installed search'
alias agu='sudo apt-get update'
alias agup='sudo apt-get upgrade'
alias agdu='sudo apt-get dist-upgrade'
alias agar='sudo apt-get autoremove'
alias agc='sudo apt-get clean'

... cos, most of us already have something like this... how about give the people such, ootb. 


okies, i'll stop there before my suggestions start getting silly, just for the sake of suggesting things.

[VastOne]

With all this feedback, is it safe to surmise to just shitcan VSIDO and install antix and switch to debian sid repos?

Sure would save me a lot of time, work, expenses, effort and would perhaps improve my golf game to where it used to be

[statmonkey]

lol, enjoy the golf.

I think we all have our things we like and what is "best" changes daily.  For example I am bound to geany, terminator, mpd etc.  They may not be the best and may require things that others consider cruft but I am going to have them regardless of what I run.

I have been running Vsido for a couple of months now and overall consider it the best distro experience I have ever had.  For me it is a perfect blend of what I want with a few things in or out I would like to have.  Instead of making base changes to my system it really has been a case of tweaking a little here and there.  I don't know of anything that could be done that could make that any better.  There will always be things here or there that could or could not be included.  Overall though what matters to me is I can go from an empty box to my setup in far less time than I have ever been able to do with any set up.  Once again, great job VastOne and all, I really appreciate all the work that has gone into this.

Count me in on the fluxbox thing.  I did dive into it with the encouragement from all (thank you again) and would agree with a post I read somewhere on here that it seems considerably easier to monkey with than ob once you get the hang of it.  Well worth the little effort it took to get there.  I am currently (personally debating what to do with the XFCE stuff and thunar) it's not like they really are hurting anything there on my box and with 10 TB of combined space and 32 GB of ram I really don't need to remove much of anything (except the need to be compulsive).

FWIW

[VastOne]

^ You just nailed the value add of VSIDO to a new user with

I have been running Vsido for a couple of months now and overall consider it the best distro experience I have ever had.  For me it is a perfect blend of what I want with a few things in or out I would like to have.  Instead of making base changes to my system it really has been a case of tweaking a little here and there.  I don't know of anything that could be done that could make that any better.  There will always be things here or there that could or could not be included.  Overall though what matters to me is I can go from an empty box to my setup in far less time than I have ever been able to do with any set up.

I would also add to that VSIDO is SID to that and it is a complete vision of what I want to accomplish with VSIDO

@ Digit, there are several aliases that are the default in VSIDO that do those, are you suggesting to change the naming conventions on them?

Regarding tint2... I have tested all of the available toolbars that I could and find them incredibly lacking in basic functions and were so bloated to be stupid if they did have some key features.  Tint2 is not perfect by any means but it does get the job done.  If I can figure out how to get fbtoolbar to iconify in a way that makes sense, I would use it.. It is simple.. click the app on the toolbar and it opens and then let it stay there (on toolbar), click the icon again and it minimizes.  Tint2 does not do this by default but scripts were created using xdotool and wmctrl to make it happen (and can be used with fbtoolbar if it is doable).  OTOH, if there were easy key combinations created in FluxBox that one could get used to and use, it could be a better argument for fbtoolbar.  I do not care either way, I put in what I like to use and developed... For any one new, they can learn tint2 editing (very easy) or shit can it and remove it from autostart and be happy with whatever they want

I am open to any changes that make sense, and would change to a better toolbar and/or task launcher if it works

Yes the top right corner black blob is the tint2 systray

[lwfitz]

Ive read the feedback and there are some good point but a whole lot of it is personal presences and/or what another distro does......... We are not another distro. We are VSIDO! A user friendly Debian SID distro with a forum that offers answers and support in a way that no other forum does..... With respect.
Are there kinks to work out? Sure, but I dont think focusing on making the ISO 100mb or trying to "do what others do" is the answer. If I want what another distro has to offer then I need to install that other distro. Plain and simple.

You know why I like VSIDO? I like it because I can install anything I want and ask any stupid question without fear of being spoken down to. I like VSIDO because when I break it (and I do) it takes me a whopping 6 min to reinstall.

I simply do not like the idea of doing something because someone else does it. If slimming down VSIDO or removing/adding programs will make this a better distro then Im all for it but lets do it for the sake of growth not to blend in and become one more forgettable linux distro.

Edit:

Also, stating that a program is garbage is personal opinion and nothing more. I personally like geany over medit but Im also clear that one program doesnt make a distro, the structure and community does.