Status of LMDE Fluxbox?

[mikhou]

Kendall,

As you saw in another of my posts, I'm a Debian XFCE user who is interested in Fluxbox. I'm very inexperienced with Fluxbox, but from adding it to my Debian install and playing around a bit with LM9 Fluxbox, I really like what you're doing with it (as compared to what I have been able to do with it in my Debian install.) I'm just curious if you have a status update on LMDE Fluxbox. I'll be interested in trying it when it comes out. Thanks.

mikhou

[Aging Technogeek]

As far as I know, there are no current plans to issue a Fluxbox version of LMDE, or any version other than the current issue. This is still an experimental version and the Mint team is just too busy getting the Ubuntu based standard versions put together to start doing four or five new versions based on Debian.

[viking777]

Maybe mikhou is using slightly the wrong terminology here, although there are no plans for an LMDE fluxbox, Kendall is on record as saying that he intends to build Mint Fluxbox on a Debian base from now on.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=65804&p=393591&hilit=debian#p393591

This could all get very confusing methinks

[mikhou]

Thanks, viking, for clarifying my point. That is exactly what I was asking. I'd love to know what the status of that project is. It sure sounds like a winning combo to me (from the little bit that I have seen from Fluxbox). Again, I'm a big fan of XFCE and am very much a Fluxbox newbie.

Although I'm not sure what the difference is between "Mint Fluxbox based on Debian" and "LMDE Fluxbox." Maybe someone could clue me in. Could it be that Mint Fluxbox based on Debian would be based on the stable branch while LMDE is a rolling testing release?

mikhou

[Aging Technogeek]

From what I have read here and other places, I would not expect Fluxbox Debian before Mint 11. I know that Kendall is in the process of building Mint 10 Fluxbox on the standard Ubuntu base.

[jeffreyC]

But according to this:

viewtopic.php?f=142&t=66384

there will not be a Mint Fluxbox 10 the next Mint Fluxbox will be Debian based

[Kendall]

Actually the decision was to drop Mint 10 Fluxbox altogether in favor of the Debian spin. I have a base image that's reasonably functional at the moment, but I'm having to rebuild a lot of packages. Honestly I haven't touched it in a couple of weeks as my job has been taking up a lot of my time and I have some web development projects that I need to get off of my plate as soon as possible. Hopefully heavy development can resume in two or three weeks and I can make a big push to start getting everything situated for a public release.

I would rather be putting in more hours here at Mint, but I do have to make sure I can pay my bills. When I changed careers a few months ago it made a rather vicious cut into the amount of time I have to do distro development. My last job let me work on dev stuff in my downtime, and this one will not allow me to do the same (though I do get some time to mess around in the forums).

[mikhou]

Thanks for the update and your contributions here at Mint.

mikhou

[thermodynamics4]

Hey! I would love to see the new Fluxbox on LMDE. I think it would be nice to see this light weight WM running on Debian. Hope to see this in a few days... and please, make an stable and rolling release too...

[mikhou]

Kendall,

I'm not pressing you, but let me say that I will be on the lookout for LMDE Fluxbox. I've been playing with LM 9 Fluxbox in a VM the last few weeks, and I really like it. I'm not a huge fan of LXDE, but I've played with both LM 8 LXDE and Peppermint. Again, not being a fan of LXDE, I still like the way that you roll a distro. Thanks so much for your contributions here, and I look forward to test-driving LMDE Fluxbox when it arrives.

mikhou

[xazax]

Some update?

[leodelacruz]

explain the link below

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1708

[jeffreyC]

Looks like we will wait even longer as Ikey has left Mint.
He was working on redoing the menu system.
Now there are no full time developers working on Mint Fluxbox, and Kendall is busy.

[xazax]

What? Wasn't Ikkey just become a dedicated developer? He left already?

[nunol]

About Ikey check this: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=69961

[leodelacruz]

Waiting for this version

[viking777]

Look guys I love Fluxbox and I love LMDE, but I have been enjoying that combination ever since LMDE was first released, you don't have to wait for anything. I take it you do know that Fluxbox is just a window manager, it can be added to any distro you like, including LMDE. If you have an existing Fluxbox install then once you have installed it onto LMDE it is a really good idea to copy ~/.fluxbox and ~/.mint-fm2 from your existing distro into the new Fluxbox version, but even that is not essential, the beauty of Fluxbox is that it is so easy to configure for yourself even from a base install, the only skill you need is to be able to type, because all its config files are plain text, not hideous xml. Once you have adopted one of those strategies you will have a perfectly good Fluxbox LMDE. Now I know it won't be as good as what Kendall will produce, but it is a damn good alternative while you are waiting for him to finish his latest version.

Apologies if I am stating the obvious, but I am not clear from reading this thread if people are aware that they don't have to wait for the best distro/wm combo in the Linux world - it is available right now - DIY

[jeffreyC]

I know that I can do it myself, I already have, but Kendall is an artist at this.

[ceph]

Just putting my +1 in to say I'm excited to see the new Debian-flavoured fluxbox mint installation. Does anybody know the likelihood of a 64 bit version now that Mint flux is moving to Debian? If this happens I'll be upgrading the installation on my work machine for sure.

As I'm sure I saw somebody else comment earlier, a streamlined setup and WM isn't just for old hardware

[daquirm]

Is the development of Fluxbox version even active? Recently the Linux Mint team removed the Fluxbox version from the homepage. It would be really bad news for me, because I don't believe there's any other major/quality distro using Fluxbox by default.