BunsenLabs Linux is a distribution offering a light-weight and easily customizable Openbox desktop. The BunsenLabs distribution is based on Debian's Stable branch and is a community continuation of the CrunchBang Linux distribution.
To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
Colour scheme:green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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I'm gonna start with the positive, hands down the best looking dark theme I've ever seen in a distro EVER, I believe it was made by sleekmason, the dev of "Lilidog", which is another Openbox distro. The negative is that there's things that could be seen as bloat, but I kinda refuse to do so, instead I view BL as something in the experimental realm, it is a nice mix of new and old when it comes to the now discontinue distro CrunchBang, which BL was born from.
And if you don't like the direction that BL has taken by modernizing the environment you could always go for "Crunchbangplusplus" (#!++), which is a distro similar to BL that is also continuing on the idea of what the original CrunchBang (#!) distro was, it is basically the same when it comes to the look and feel.
As I see it, we are lucky to have both BL and #!++ as an option, and I'm using both of them as a daily driver. BL on my PC and #!++ on my laptop.
Is it just me or was Hydrogen the best looking BunsenLabs release so far? Lithium I didn't really care for that green style, it was cool but not my style. As for Beryllium the dark theme is amazing and very polished, but it kind of ruins the fun when there's 7-8 other themes to choose from, which I also would consider bloat and just adds to the underperformance of the distro itself, also I don't seem to find a way to get rid of the themes that I don't need since I'm only using the dark theme, maybe you can.. maybe you can't.
For every release since Hydrogen they've just added and added stuff for the sake of adding stuff. What happened to BL? It used to be really fast and snappy. I hope they surprise me with the next release, which would be "Boron". Another important fact for new users to keep in mind is that BL is always late with their new releases, which is the main reason why I'm using another Openbox distro which is similar to BL.
Maybe most of this is nitpicking, but this is my honest opinion and a deal breaker for me, BL could and should be alot better, I mean their team is really good, but maybe the devs are busy with life in general, who knows really.
Very good when one comes to terms with it. As with directly Debian based distros, Ubuntu obviously excluded, the offer is overwhelming. But user interface isn't intuitive at all before one investigates the menus and finds out what is what and where is that. I might be too critical here, I am a hobbyist.
I'd like to praise the looks of the distro though. And it is not sluggish, I've got it on old HP laptop from previous decade.
For someone working in IT this would make a good tool. If that someone knew the ways with (GNU/)Linux distributions. And if the employer would not buy a Mac... After all BunsenLabs Linux has all that one needs, if not already in place then easily accessed with apt. A freelancer would save a pretty penny. But of course time would have be invested if one's not familiar with these.
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