Openbox

A lightweight, highly configurable X11 window manager.

Openbox is a stacking window manager for X11 that emphasises keyboard-driven control through a small XML configuration. Each window has explicit decorations and an application menu, and keybindings, mouse bindings, and per-application rules are all configured in rc.xml. Openbox does not draw a panel or task bar itself — users typically pair it with tint2, lxpanel, or similar.

Mikael Magnusson started Openbox in 2002. It has long been the window manager underneath lightweight desktop environments — LXDE used Openbox before splitting and going Qt as LXQt — and a common choice for users who want a lightweight, configurable desktop without the tiling-WM commitment.

Openbox remains popular on older hardware and on resource- constrained ARM single-board computers. The XDG-style menu generation, tight integration with X11 Compositor extensions, and small memory footprint keep it relevant despite the broader shift toward Wayland.

License: GPL-2.0-only

Category: Desktop

Website: http://openbox.org/

Install

Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install openbox
Fedora/RHEL:   sudo dnf install openbox
Arch:          sudo pacman -S openbox

Authors

Mikael Magnusson and Openbox contributors

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