Fluxbox 101 - Why you should run flux on your machines

Fluxbox is a very fun Window Manager to have installed and to play around with.  There are next to unlimited customization possibilities with it.

Users that enjoy the minimalistic look such as myself will really enjoy Fluxbox and how it works.  The menu system is what makes me just love using this on my Linux box.  I know for myself I take a quite a bit of time to customize my menu items to increase efficiancy of using my system. 

Couple quick answers to some questions that I had before I took the dive into fluxbox 3 weeks ago.

Is this going to be so complex that its going to annoy the shit out of me?

Fluxbox is quite simple to setup and configure how you want it.  Customization is done by editing configuration files in the .fluxbox subdirectory in the user's home directory. Keyboard shortcuts are stored in the .fluxbox/keys file, menu layout is in the .fluxbox/menu file, and everything that's run at startup is kept in the .fluxbox/init file.

Is there a good distro that uses fluxbox by default so I don't have to install it manually?

I took my dive with Mint Linux that has a Fluxbox version --- Download it here

How is everyone getting the system stats on their desktops !!?!?!? I WANT THAT 

Simmer down buddy.... The easiest way to do this in Fluxbox is to use a utility called Conky, which with Mint its installed and configured with the default installation :).  To enable it, just go into the System Settings and enable Conky and you are set.   For more indepth Conky configurations, wait for my next post as we'll dive deep into Conky and teach you how to configure it.

So you may be wondering if there are any utilities to make your fluxbox experience a little warmer so to say.  There are and here are the links to them

• IPager : A lightweight pager.
• FluxConf : Fluxbox Configuration Utitlity.
• Fbsetbg : Set wallpaper for Fluxbox.
• FluxSpace : A window manager and workspace enhancer and integrator.
• Fluxster : A slit pager.

To help the newcomers to fluxbox here is the best resource that I have found that has helped me get things put together how I wanted - http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php?title=Category:English_howtos