This is what my customized MaBox Linux desktop looks like on my ultrawide curved monitor.

It’s a work in progress.

So let’s get to the name: mabox. This is a distribution that’s based on Manjaro Linux which in turn is based on Arch Linux. On top of that a highly customized desktop using Openbox gives it a lot of flare. So Ma(njaro)+(Open)box=mabox. I think the whole “don’t capitalize the name” thing is pretty lame. Also, should the word “Linux” be without a space or with a space? Is it maboxlinux or mabox linux or Mabox Linux or MaBox Linux or MaBoxLinux? I’m not entirely sure. I’m going to call it MaBox Linux.

I like it, even though I’ve not been a fan of Manjaro Linux for a long time now. I’m more of an Arch Linux kinda guy, and I find the Manjaro people have been less than inviting and I don’t like what they’ve done overall to good ol’ Arch. When I was using Manjaro some years ago I said some things I probably shouldn’t have said in their forums and some of them said something back to me and I just decided never to talk to them again and moved on. I’ve been doing this Linux thing since 1998.

Nonetheless, I recognized Manjaro is a solid Linux distro based on Archlinux, and I like what the MaBox Linux people have done to build on that. So although I’m no fan of Manjaro per se, I’m willing to run a distro built upon Manjaro, and that’s maboxlinux.

Underneath there are still aspects of Manjaro that I just don’t like. For example, don’t try to run grub-customizer with Manjaro. You’ll break it because the Manjaro people just had to mess with Arch’s grub in ways that wasn’t at all necessary. If you ask them why they kind of look down their noses at you because “their” version of Arch Linux is better. It’s not. In fact, half the time the Manjaro installer breaks a system, but the Manjaro people don’t seem to hear about that.

I digress. Pushing Manjaro more to the background, along comes MaBox, a distribution based on Manjaro that uses Openbox as the display manager and desktop environment, and they’ve done a pretty good job. I’ve even gone so far as to make it my main distro that I live in on my desktop.

You can take a look at MaBox Linux here.