Hot New BunsenLabs Linux Eases Pain of CrunchBang Loss
BunsenLabs Linux does a bang-up job of picking up where CrunchBang Linux left off.
Developer Philip Newborough retired the popular minimalist distro earlier this year. In a world of feature-packed operating systems and bloated Linux distros, he felt his CrunchBang alternative served no further purpose.BunsenLabs is one of three CrunchBang replacements that mimic the lightweight but highly functional OS. CrunchBang++ and CrunchBang-Monara are the other two.
BunsenLabs Linux is based on Debian Jessie and continues to run a highly configurable Openbox window manager as the desktop environment. The current release is version 8.2, code-named Hydrogen. The release candidate 1 version was released earlier this year.
If you have a tendency to uninstall applications you never use in your current OS, you are a good candidate to try out this minimalistic computing platform. It has the everyday programs you need, and you can add whatever is missing from its own software repository and the Debian package channels.
Skeletal Look and Feel
BunsenLabs Linux is far from being wimpy or unproven. It performs well. It should -- it's based on a solid lineage.This reborn CrunchBang is the result of an accomplished community of developers who rallied behind the revival. The developers appear to be well-schooled in what made CrunchBang Linux so adored.
Many of its preinstalled applications use the GTK+ widget toolkit. Its light and minimal design is enhanced with the Tint2 Linux panel/task bar at the top of the screen.
The panel bar includes a system tray, a task list, a battery monitor and a clock on the right side. A graphical configuration tool helps make it easy to customize.
The panel bar on the left displays a launcher for the default Mozilla Iceweasel Web browser, Thunar file manager and terminal window. The bar also serves as a dock for open applications. It lacks applets to run on the bar, however.
BunsenLabs has a nice procedure for changing virtual desktops. The center portion of the panel bar is actually two elongated buttons that serve as the virtual workspace switcher. It is preconfigured for two desktops. You cannot add more. You click one or the other to change virtual workspaces.
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