Mabox Linux is a throwback to old-school Linux with a new-school look and feel – ZDNet

Mabox Linux gives you plenty of information right on the desktop.

Image: Jack Wallen

Also on the OpenBox Window Manager desktop, you’ll find a single top panel that gives you quick access to all your installed apps, the Mabox Colorizer (more on this in a bit), and a system tray with plenty of controls.

Also: How to password-protect a document with LibreOffice

Click on the OpenBox Menu and you’ll see all of the installed applications. Missing from that menu is an Office or Productivity entry. Poke around and you’ll see there is no office suite or email client installed. Fortunately, those apps are easily added with the help of the Add/Remove Software GUI tool. Do a quick search for LibreOffice and install it with a couple of clicks.

Theming Mabox Linux offers plenty of options via the Colorizer.

Image: Jack Wallen

Who is Mabox best for?

I’m not about to say that Mabox can be used by anyone. Although I’m confident that anyone could use this Linux distribution, once you start digging into the customizations it’s probably best to have a bit more experience tweaking a Linux desktop. Overall, however, if you’ve been itching to try an Arch Linux distribution and want something outside of the usual GNOME/KDE/Xfce desktop environments, Mabox Linux is an outstanding option that’s easy to use and lightning fast.