I have been working on creating respins from distributions, spreading an Openbox branded environment user oriented, since 2009.
After PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, antiX, I am now working on an MX respin for the same purpose. My goal is to provide as many Bento Openbox branded distributions as possible. Openbox can be compared to Fluxbox, when talking about lightness. The Bento Openbox recipe makes the system close to what an Lxde environment in terms of easyness to use, but does not have all its dependencies, hence lighter.
I like both antiX Linux and MX Linux distributions for their respective qualities. antiX, the forefather, sticks to user friendly and very light, while MX Linux is user friendly and more compatible for, let's say, applications and drivers having SystemD as a prerequisite (met with a blocker trying to install an Epson printer driver once, in an antiX system, the driver requested SystemD).
Bento Openbox is also very versatile, as it can also be turned into a full blow desktop by installing any meta package desktop. For example I installed Bento Openbox Remix (Ubuntu basis) to a very recent laptop I bought to work on such developments more confortably, and the laptop having HiDPI, I found myself unable to fix the 2 different screen resolutions (a 24" external screen plugged with HDMI). (I could have tried to fiddle something manually in the Openbox autostart file, but I didn't want to go through that method, especially as it would have to be redone each time I would change to no external screen or to another screen… ) So I added the whole Xfce4 desktop packages on top of it, and have now been using this setup for months without any issue.
My guess it could work with any other DE among ones that benefit from a openbox-kde-session, openbox-gnome-session, openbox-lxde-session package setup, for example.
Here some links to show the works done : https://linuxvillage.org/en/blog/2022/0 ... x-i486-en/ - you can also check the Downloads menu, where you'll find the link to the most recently updated ISO images (among which a Bento antiX i486 who does not have yet a full presentation), and you can visit the Github menu link, if you wish to have a look at the sources (this part is a work I have restarted only this year).
While working on preparing a respin to create a Bento MX x64 version, I noticed the entry menus "MX Tools" and "System Tools" have many times the same entries, and some of the also belong to one and should belong to the other.
I have to say, I have been using the XML file from the Lubuntu project for a long time, because it triages desktop files better than the original LXDE one. That's to say, applications logically belonging to "System" aren't in "Preferences" (System is the category where most applications need the admin password to be started).
But with the specific MX tools, it looks like a mess.
I add a screenshot of the compared MX Tools entry menu versus the System Tools entry menu.
Here after is the list of things I intend to change for them.
Once done, I'll be glad to share the result and the files, if someone asks.# Desktop files modified to belong to the right category and one only
## Changes in the MX Tools Entry menu
* Nividia driver installation GOES TO System Tools
* MX Tools - MX Outils GOES TO **nowhere** (hide it) **+fix language**
## Changes in the System Tools Entries menu
* MX Remaster Control center ALREADY IN MX Tools (remove *System* from *Categories* **+fix language**
* MX Date and Time ALREADY IN MX Tools (remove *System* from *Categories* **+fix language**
* MX USB Unmounter GOES TO MX Tools **ONLY** **+fix language**
* MX Repos Manager ALREADY IN MX Tools **+fix language**
* MX User Manager ALREADY IN MX Tools **+fix language**
* MX Package Installer ALREADY IN MX Tools **+fix language**
* MX Snapshot ALREADY IN MX Tools **+fix language**
* MX Mise à jour apt-notifier GOES TO MX Tools **ONLY** **+fix language**
* MX Boot Options ALREADY IN MX Tools **+fix language**
* MX Boot Repair ALREADY IN MX Tools **+fix language**
* Paquets Installés par l'utilisateur ALREADY IN MX Tools **+fix language** => Is there a "Name=" for English? Else, is it an MX tool?
* UEFI Manager ALREADY IN MX Tools **+check language**
**+fix language** : We don't want two languages in the Name=, we want one
line per language:
Name=Name
Name[fr]=French Name
Name[es]=Spanish Name
and so on…