lxde and openbox just did not seem light enough on this RaspPi.
I spent the day exploring and have installed xsm and twm (yeah, that's right, Raspbian _does not_ include the reference window manager by default). My .xsessionrc now reads:
I have the iconmanager showing by default, and IconifyByUnmapping set so my desktop doesn't get cluttered. A custom menu to launch claws, gvim, firefox, and some other core apps -- voila. As far as screenshots go I think I'll skip it this time. It is a plain gray desktop with iconmanager. Nothing atypical except smaller fonts and different color choices.
I do not think I will do a bar since byobu shows all I need to see in xterm, and I have an xterm launching by default in my xsm session.
I have the screen resolution set at 1024x768 which fills the screen on my ipad pro. Also, this resolution acts peppy in vnc max color mode. One more observation: twm feels utmostly unixish. I have been guilty of unixporn masturbation before. Eyecandy cranked to eleven... yeah, it is pretty.
There is something to be said for spartan functionality...
