CrunchBang Linux Lives on With GreenBang

CrunchBang was a Debian-based Linux distribution that was minimal and pretty popular among hard-core users. CrunchBang eventually ended, but gave way to the likes of CrunchBang++ and even one of my favorites, BunsenLabs Linux. There was yet another spinoff of CrunchBang, ArchBang. As you can guess, this take was based on Arch Linux, but retained the Openbox window manager to keep the lightweight speed. ArchBang fell to the wayside, only to be resurrected as GreenBang. It’s kind of confusing because if you search for GreenBang, you’re taken to the ArchBang site, which still calls the distribution ArchBang. Go to Distrowatch and search for GreenBang, and you get a listing called GreenBang that also points to the ArchBang site. What’s going on here? Well, in July 2025, ArchBang was renamed to GreenBang. The developers claimed there were legal concerns about action from Arch Linux over trademark laws. Whether that is true or not, at least we know why the name was changed. What we don’t know is why the website hasn’t been updated. That being said … GreenBang! What is it? Before I get on with this, let’s talk about the original name. CrunchBang is named after the first two characters used in Linux bash scripts, #!. If you’ve ever written a Linux bash script, you know the first line is usually: #!/bin/bash That is also referred to as “shebang.” I’ve always called it “crunch bang”: “crunch” for # and “bang” for !. Now that we’re up to speed, let’s talk about GreenBang. What Is GreenBang? As I said, GreenBang is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux that shrugs off the Openbox window manager in favor of Labwc. If you’ve never heard of Labwc, it’s a lightweight, highly customizable window manager for the X Window System. Labwc offers the same minimalistic approach to the desktop, so it gains the same kind of speed and extensive configurations found in Openbox, which means users can tweak it to perfectly fit their needs, crafting a wholly unique UI. Labwc isn’t a full desktop environment (such as KDE Plasma or GNOME), which means it doesn’t enjoy the deep integration found in those DEs. At the same time, Labwc gives you full control over the appearance, keyboard shortcuts and app launching. Labwc delivers speed that DEs cannot match (even on aging hardware) and is about as minimalist as you can get. The biggest difference between Openbox and Labwc is that Openbox is limited to X Windows, whereas Labwc gains support for Wayland. On the Labwc desktop, you’ll find a bottom panel and not much more. If you left-click anywhere on the desktop, you’ll find a minimal menu that allows you to access installed applications and a few other options (such as Settings). Click on the Applications entry, and you’ll find a bare minimum of preinstalled apps. In fact, you might be so inclined to wonder what good this OS is without applications, especially given that there’s no GUI app store. Well, there’s always the command line, and anyone who prefers to use an Arch-based Linux distribution is fully aware that the command line can often be a necessity with this distribution. For instance, if you want to install LibreOffice, open the terminal app and issue the command: sudo pacman -Sy libreoffice\ You could always install the pamac GUI, which requires the following steps: Update the distro: sudo pacman -Syu Install the necessary dependencies: sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git Clone the yay repository: git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git Change into the newly created directory: cd yay Build the package: makepkg -si Install pamac: yay -S pamac-aur I know, it’s a lot. If you’re an Arch user, you’ll most likely stick with the command line for installing applications, especially given that GreenBang’s central selling point is its speed. You certainly don’t want to slow things down with a gaudy GUI. Or, if you want to avoid the command line, go ahead with the pamac installation. I will say this: After testing the pamac GUI, I found that it refused to run on Wayland, issuing the error: Lost connection to Wayland compositor. Instead, I decided to install Octopi, which is the GUI app manager for Manjaro. This installation (yay -S octopi) takes some time because there are a lot of dependencies to install, but in the end, you’ll wind up with a handy GUI for installing applications (Figure 1). Figure 1: The Octopi app manager GUI. The Installation The installation of GreenBang is a command line affair. It’s not hard, but you do need to make sure you take care of everything in the order presented (Figure 2). Figure 2: Launch the installer from the left-click desktop menu. Type 1 and then select the partitioner you would like to use (I would suggest gparted). Once you’ve taken care of that, go through the rest of the installation sections one by one. When you’ve completed, you’ll be prompted to type d (for done) and then reboot the system. Customizations Customizing Labwc is all about editing text files. If you open your terminal window, change into the .config/labwc directory with: cd ~/.config/labwc In that directory, you’ll find four files: autostart: This configures what starts on boot. environment: This configures the default keyboard layout. menu.xml: This configures the desktop menu. rc.xml: This is the main configuration file. There are a ton of configuration options you can use to customize your desktop. To learn more about this, I would suggest you check out the official Labwc documentation. Who Is GreenBang For? This is a challenging question to answer, but I think I have it nailed down. GreenBang is a great distribution for those who not only want a lightning-fast, minimal Arch-based Linux distribution, but also long to harken back to the “good ol'” days of Linux, when the command line was necessary, and window managers were all the rage. If that sounds like you, GreenBang will be a real treat. GreenBang and Labwc remind me of my early days with Linux, which put an immediate smile on my face. Give GreenBang a try and see if it doesn’t warm your heart with all those old-school Linux feels. The post CrunchBang Linux Lives on With GreenBang appeared first on The New Stack.