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The beautiful thing about Linux is the freedom to use any desktop setup you want. Some people like to have a desktop with all the bells and whistles, like KDE. Others like the option to have a minimal, but useful desktop. ArchLabs fits into the latter category.
Inspiration for ArchLabs
Like most great ideas, ArchLabs was not created in a vacuum. It was inspired by another, now defunct distro. Back in the early 2000s, Philip Newborough, also known as core nominal, released a distro named Crunchbang. His goal was to create a simple Debian-based distro that used the Openbox window manager. The result was a simple, but powerful distro that took few resources and could run on lower-powered computers. It became very popular. Suggested
In early 2015, Newborough announced that he would stop developing Crunchbang because he believed users would benefit more from a vanilla Debian install. However, a number of users didn’t agree and within a short time, several projects appeared to continue the Crunchbang mission. The two standouts are BunsenLabs and CrunchbangPlusPlus.
A group of Crunchbang fans decided that they wanted to take a different route. Instead of sticking with the long release cycle of Debian, they wanted to take advantage of the more up-to-date packages in Arch. Thus ArchLabs was created. The goal was to imitate the look and feel of BunsenLab in the beginning, but allow ArchLabs to evolve its own identity.
Interface
I used Crunchbang for a while back in the day, but I never installed Bunsenlabs. So, my comparisons will be based on those observations. In my mind, the ArchLabs desktop faithfully replicated the simple and unobtrusive look of Crunchbang. You’re presented with an iconless desktop, a simple background, an informative conky, and a tint2 panel along the top.
ArchLabs uses Variety to manage your wallpaper and the wallpapers that come with it a truly amazing. I don’t usually talk about the wallpapers that come with a distro, but ArchLabs has an amazing collection.
Like every good Linux distro, ArchLabs is very configurable. It comes with several conky designs to choose from, as well as, several Tint2 themes to choose from. You can very easily make ArchLabs your own, even if you don’t have tons of Linux experience.Suggested read Kali Linux Review: Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea
Installed Applications
Back in the day, Crunchbang was very light on applications but made up for it by including a simple script that launched after you booted it for the first time. This script allowed you to easily download the more size-intensive applications, such as OpenOffice. ArchLabs doesn’t include a similar script because Pacman is very easy to use.
Note: If you install a new application to ArchLabs, you need to manually add it to the menu. You can do so by editing menu.xml or using the graphical tool to do so. Both options are available from the menu. Once you’re done, you must restart Openbox (also from the menu) to make the change take effect.
Interestingly, while ArchLabs mostly follows the CrunchBang philosophy in terms of app selection, there are a couple of outliers. ArchLabs includes LibreOffice, as well as, Gnumeric. On top of that, ArchLabs ships with three browsers (FireFox, Chromium, and Vivaldi). It also has packer and yaourt for your Arch User Repository needs.