Plug-ins and extensions
Going above and beyond.
Just because these desktops are lightweight doesn’t mean they can’t provide the bells and whistles you get with mainstream desktops. As these elements inevitably increase the memory footprint of the desktop, some of the desktops bundle them inside a separate package, while others avoid them altogether.
EDE doesn’t believe in offering any additional plug-ins and so you’re stuck with the default functionality. On the other hand, while Openbox can be extended by plugging in various components such as a file manager, the window manager itself cannot take on new features via plug-ins, extensions or additional modules of any sort.
Lumina began life as a set of extensions to Fluxbox, a stacking window manager for the X Window System, and bills itself as having a plug-in-based interface design. This enables you to customise the desktop as needed simply by choosing which plugins to have running on the desktop and taskbar. But the process to change the extensions isn’t very apparent, and doesn’t always work if the desktop is installed on distributions besides Trueos.
Then there’s LXQT, which uses the concept of modules – essentially desktop-independent tools that operate as daemons
for the local user on desktop specific operations. The desktop is further made up of several optional components such as the display manager and the power management module. LXQT’S panel also supports plug-ins.
Moksha is a treasure trove of extensions, plugins and modules that add functionality to the window manager itself. It also has gadgets that are placed on the Shelf or the Desktop.