Blackbox

Free and open-source stacking window manager for the X Window System From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blackbox

Blackbox is a free and open-source stacking window manager for the X Window System.[5][6]

Quick Facts Developer(s), Stable release ...
Blackbox
Developer(s)Bradley T. Hughes[1] up to version 0.70.1_SL7,[2] onwards forked by Brian Bidulock
Stable release
0.77[3]  / 12 May 2021
Repository
Written inC++
PlatformUnix-like
TypeX window manager
LicenseMIT[4]
WebsiteBradley T. Hughes' repository
Repository of Brian Bidulock's fork
Close
Blackbox 0.7 Xsession running on Debian 7 Linux

Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications. One example is the bbkeys hotkey application.

Blackbox is written in C++[4][7] and contains completely original code.[8] It was created by Bradley T. Hughes[1] and is available under the MIT License. Blackbox has compliance with the Extended Window Manager Hints specification.[9]

The original author seems to have ceased updating the repository with the exception of a minor fix of compilation problems in 2015,[10] leaving the last original version at 0.70.1. However an actively maintained fork by Brian Bidulock has been picked up by several Linux distributions in its place,[11][12][13] and it is featured in pkgsrc.[14] Despite that, some other Linux distributions still use the original source code,[15][16] as does FreeBSD.[17]

Features

Features of the Blackbox window manager include:

  • A stacking window manager
  • Written in C++
  • Freely available under the MIT license
  • Compliance with the Extended Window Manager Hints Specification
  • Title bars have minimize, maximize, and close buttons
  • Support for simple themes
  • Support for color changes
  • No support for desktop shortcuts
  • Compatibility with both KDE and GNOME[18]

There are a number of other window manager forks of Blackbox:[19]

Windows shell replacements

Although they do not share the same codebase, these projects are also inspired by Blackbox.[19][20]

  • BB4Win[21] (the first and most prominent clone/port of Blackbox on Windows)
  • bbLean
  • xoblite (has releases from 2021)
  • bbZero (a branch of bbLean)[22]

See also

References

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