[Settled] Taskbar suggestion for Fluxbox

[solamour]

I like Fluxbox's speed and minimalistic design, but there are a few features I truly miss (from mostly Windows).

1) Drag the open apps to rearrange. For example, if I open rxvt, Firefox, and GIMP, the taskbar would look

[Havin_it]

Hi sol

As it happens today I've found myself using fluxbox as a fallback for my usual KDE, and I'm feeling you especially on 1) and 2).

I haven't tried it, but I notice there is a separate X11 panel app called tint2 that some fluxbox/openbox users seem to like as an upgrade. From my quick reading I think it may satisfy 2) and 3).

Otherwise, there's always the option of leaving the fluxbox team a feature request.

Or if you can afford to move a teeny bit further up the resource ladder, perhaps look at XFCE or LxQt? Even if you stick with fluxbox as your session, they can provide some useful lightweight versions of desktop essentials like a graphical file-manager and whatnot.

[solamour]

I've tried XFCE and LXQt, and they are surely light on resource. But I couldn't find a way to do 1) and 3) in both desktops. Perhaps there is an option that I'm not aware of, but at least they didn't provide such features out of the box.

Kinda wish there is a way to take just Cinnamon panel (or is it called "taskbar"?) and use in Fluxbox.
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sol

[Havin_it]

Do not consider this authoritative, but here is my learned-by-observation "glossary":

Panel: The whole structure including task manager, system tray, clock etc (devs, docs and wise greybeards seem to agree on this usage)

Taskbar: The part that lists what applications/windows are open (I think referring to the whole panel as "taskbar" is a Windows-ism carried-over)

Dock: A fancy type of panel, usually minimalist and often featuring only application launcher icons, in the Apple tradition

From some light reading it appears that Cinnamon's panel is baked-in to the desktop manager itself unfortunately (although apparently it is infinitely customisable within that setting, which sounds cool).

In the fluxbox/openbox world you have a world of options but many are rudimentary and/or bit-rotted. Trial and error. Reality is these are all much smaller efforts than e.g. KDE that have the bandwidth to get as far as even considering implementing the finer points you seek. You can raise it as a feature-request, but be prepared potentially for a long wait/radio silence. (Look at how busy the project's issue-tracker is, for an estimate.) On the flipside, if you have any coding skills yourself, with much smaller code-bases it is probably easier to jump in and add the things you want. (Your ideas are also likely to have to endure fewer/zero rounds of laboured bikeshedding among devs as to whether it is a good idea for the project/community than you would with the giant projects.)

[solamour]

Here is my take on the subject (i.e. it's completely subjective).

Fluxbox and other full-fledged desktops, such as KDE Plasma and Cinnamon, are based on different philosophies: bare-bones minimalism vs. everything including the kitchen sink (partly to make other OS users' transition smooth). If I want all the behaviors carried over from Windows and macOS, perhaps Fluxbox isn't the best choice.

My goal was to make the most use of the woefully outdated machines, but over the years, a lot of my work shifted to web, so I often find myself just open a web browser and a terminal with tmux, thus the need to have a fancy taskbar in Fluxbox did diminish noticeably. It's just that the web browsers and most web sites in general have become so heavier over the years that even Fluxbox feels sluggish.

I still do want "drag and drop rearrangement", "pin to taskbar", and "keyboard shortcuts for pinned app" in Fluxbox, but I have no technical expertise to implement such features.
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sol

[solamour]

After much contemplation, here what I what ended up with.

* For under-powered systems, just stick with Fluxbox. Most of my workflow happens in Firefox and rxvt, so I can live without all the features I want in the taskbar. In order to arrange the apps in certain order in the taskbar, I open them in the order I want them to show up. Despite so, I kinda wish there is an easy way to assign a keyboard shortcut, so that if I press a certain key combination, it starts the designated app if it's not currently running, or bring it to the front if it's already running.

* For slightly modern systems, Cinnamon checks all the boxes. If I turn off the fancy animation effects, it feels snappy.

Thanks everyone for taking time to share opinions and suggestions.
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sol