Blackbox window manager
Shares rank 16 of 30 window managers by recommenders
A lightweight, Openbox-like window manager that people have run for years on Linux and FreeBSD with few problems.
A lightweight, Openbox-like window manager that people have run for years on Linux and FreeBSD with few problems.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Long-term reliable use on Linux and FreeBSD
“I've run Openbox/Blackbox on Linux for ~15 years and never had these issues.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too” “I used Blackbox on FreeBSD for the longest time”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Classic 7 is a Windows 10 LTSC mod to look 1:1 to Windows 7”
Other window managers people recommend
The four most recommended other window managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyprland | 82 | 33 | 71% | 12 | 1 mo4 owners | Approved |
| Rectangle for macOS | 67 | 3 | 96% | 11 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| Enlightenment window manager | 51 | 19 | 73% | 8 | — | Approved |
| FVWM | 28 | 4 | 88% | 8 | 25 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| Blackbox window managerThis page | 9 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it was the only one I found useable at the time”
“I agree, Blackbox is still one of the WMs on my wishlist.”
“I really liked the hues of green and purple that Blackbox came with.”
“Try blackbox, its a puzzle game that will have you messing with device settings to beat levels”
“I used Blackbox on FreeBSD for the longest time”
“replacing explorer.exe with a shell called "blackbox" - an openbox-alike”
“Not the case wifh Fluxbox/Openbox/Blackbox.”
“I've run Openbox/Blackbox on Linux for ~15 years and never had these issues.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.