Well, I'm posting this from Debian

[elija]

The install went really well. It even played my MP3 collection out of the box.
Flash was easy to install and I have installed the msttcorefonts so that things
look better.

I decided that the software offered by Etch was way too old and Sid was
probably going to be a bit dangerous so I went for Lenny which I think is a good
compromise.

Still running Gnome, although I did try Fluxbox but decided it would be too much
like hard work.

Debian seems fast compared to Ubuntu / Mint et al and somehow I feel like I have
gone up a level

***Removed question - using Firefox instead of Iceweasel ***

[devils casper]

Well Done and Congrats elija !
I am using Debian for last seven months and it working fine without any problem. Iceweasel is a clone of FireFox only. There isn't any difference in both except Logo. Wiki article on naming conflict.

[oz]

It's been quite some time since I last installed Debian, but I always liked it better than any of the *buntus. Hope it continues to work well for you.

[IsaacKuo]

Instead of fluxbox, you could try icewm. Use "apt-get install icewm icewm-themes".

Icewm is faster and lighter than fluxbox, and has a more familiar interface. GNOME applets like nm-applet work in IceWM.

You don't really need to do any configuration on icewm at all, unless you want to. Just choose your desired theme.

[Manchunian]

Ha! Knew it! I knew you'd do this one day! Great isn't it?

[elija]

Instead of fluxbox, you could try icewm. Use "apt-get install icewm icewm-themes".

Holy Cow! That's fast!

Just one question - how do I set a background image? I can't find this icewmbg
that Google keeps throwing up.

Ha! Knew it! I knew you'd do this one day! Great isn't it?

I'm definitely having fun

[Manchunian]

I've never tried IceWm - well, not properly. Is it really faster than Fluxbox? Fluxbox is already pretty damn fast.

[elija]

It is very fast. I don't really know if it is faster than fluxbox I knew right away
that I didn't like it. I'm not 100% sure about Icewm, but it seems I am at least
prepared to try.

What's really odd now that I come to think about it is that I don't actually know
why I almost instantly didn't like it

[IsaacKuo]

Just one question - how do I set a background image? I can't find this icewmbg that Google keeps throwing up.

You almost certainly already have icewmbg; it's part of the icewm package. In order for it to actually "do" something, you need to either have a background specified in ~/.icewm/preferences or you need to use a theme with a predefined background.

First, create a new directory ~/.icewm/ if it doesn't already exist. Actually, the easiest way to make sure it exists is to simply change the IceWM theme from its menu. This will create ~/.icewm/theme if it doesn't already exist (as well as the directory ~/.icewm/ if necessary).

Second, go to /usr/share/icewm/. This is where the default config files are stored. If you want to customize them, copy the files you want to customize to your ~/.icewm/ directory. The ones I customize are "preferences", "menu", and "toolbar".

There are a couple GUI utilities for editing your icewm preferences, but I prefer simply editing the files directly with a text editor. The setting for the background image is near the bottom of ~/.icewm/preferences.

After making any changes to the config files, you can use the icewm "logout" submenu to restart IceWM. This will put all changes into effect EXCEPT for the background image. One way to make the background image change is to open up a terminal and type in the command "icewmbg" (you don't have to restart icewm). Then press <ctrl-c> to kill icewmbg; after it has set the background its job is done anyway.

[IsaacKuo]

I've never tried IceWm - well, not properly. Is it really faster than Fluxbox? Fluxbox is already pretty damn fast.

I have no idea how to benchmark it, but fluxbox seems to take a split second longer to switch between windows or workspaces, and it seems to take just a bit longer to open up an application.

I guess all I can definitively say is that you can try it out and compare for yourself. On both sides of the comparison, the theme will affect performance. On the fluxbox side, I tried using the "minimal" style. On the IceWM side, I tried using "IceCrack2"--which might not be the smallest/fastest theme but it's my favorite and it's pretty small/fast.

Soon I'm going to try my hand at making my own small/fast/elegant IceWM theme.