tensixtyone

I have to say, hell has actually froze over. I’ve been promising this release for months now and I never thought i’d actually get it out the door. Due to numerous showstopping bugs and hitches this release has seen numerous delays. Finally, we’re there.

OBLogout is a logout and shutdown script designed with Openbox in mind, it’s simple, themeable, extendable, and useable even on a low powered machine like a EeePC. This new release sports alot of new features:

• Keyboard shortcuts – each button can have a shortcut key assigned to it
• Customisable commands – allows for you to modify what each button does.
• PolicyKit support – allows for everything to work well with HAL.
• Better theme support – themes are easier to setup and change.

If your interested, drop over to the Launchpad project page. At the moment i’ve got packages for Ubuntu Intrepid and also Arch, if anyone wants to contribute any others then please drop me a mail.

So now I storm onto the 0.3 release, I’ve got a few blueprints that I want to clear on this release but i’m always welcome to new ideas. If you have any suggestions then raise a blueprint on Launchpad.

For the last year or two i’ve been using SVN to store my common configuration files, this has worked wonders and has enabled me to move my config seamlessly between systems with a few simple commands. In the last day or so i’ve decided to move from SVN to Git as my control system, and now I think it’s a time to do a post on why exactly i’m doing this.

The idea of a version controlled home directory stemmed from people storing their /etc config files in CVS, this allowed for any modifications to be tracked, tested, and if worse came to worse, rolled back without much hassle. These ideas can be very useful for the end user, imagine you want to fiddle around with your terminal settings but forget to make a backup of your original settings, the time you spend trying to fix it back can be avoid with a simple vcs command. Another situation that I often get into is when you format or move to another system, a few quick commands can return your config and no pain of trying to remember your favourite settings.

So, how do we do this?

Each person has their own method, and hopefully I’ll describe my little world to everyone in a easily digestible way. It’s neither pretty or easy but it works for me.

My SVN version was very simplistic, a single repository broke down into “packages”, which contained the batch of config files for each program, such as “irssi” or “bash”, these would live under “trunk” in the repository.

~/trunk
$ ls
abook          gtk2     ikog   keepass-private  mutt  ssh          tin
gnupg-private  hamachi  irssi  mozilla          pine  ssh-private  xchat

For each machine I made a new branch under “branches” then I would use the “externals” properties to pull in the packages that I needed from trunk. So, when I wanted to pull in my configuration I would simply checkout that machine’s branch into a folder then symlink the required files over as needed.

~/branches
$ ls
ithaca  manex  orion  vektor

This took time to setup but once the initial linking was done it was a simple matter of managing the files in the single checkout folder.

This system served me well for a year or two, but with the increase of machines and the general pain of symlinks I decided I needed a new method. I reviewed a few examples but the one that stuck with me was Martin Krafft’s system using Git, MR and a few handy scripts. I’ve now managed to rework this into a similar system for myself.

First of all, you need a method of getting the configuration files in the location you require. Git has this excellent feature to having detached worktrees, this allows you to remove the need for symlinking all together. For example, we can setup a git repository in a storage directory then tell the repo to checkout the files to your home directory.

$ mkdir -p ~/.dotfiles/test.git
$ cd ~/.dotfiles/test.git
$ git init --bare
$ git config core.worktree ../../

So now, you have the test.git repository, and the worktree is your home directory. Now it’s simply a case of checking in the files you require and commit them to the repo. This scenario is a little different from the original Git idea so a little bit of a workaround is needed to actually use the repo in this way. Two variables need to be configured for Git to use the detached worktree as desired.

$ export GIT_DIR=~/.dotfiles/test.git
$ export GIT_WORK_TREE=~/.dotfiles/test.git/../../

Now, you can use the Git command as if you were in a normal Git worktree. This is a pain to work with by hand but luckily Martin also created a little shell script to set these variables as needed. It’s based on zsh but i’m in the process to converting this to bash to avoid a extra unneeded dependency on my part.

So, we can get the configuration files to the place they need to be, now we move onto actually packaging and distributing the files. I decided that Martin’s method works the best, using the mr tool you can configure and manage multiple repositories and automate the checkout and update of these. This with tool the management of your packages can be done by simply changing the config file of mr.

mr supports importing extra configuration files based on wildcards, this allows for a global configuration to be setup which will only include configuration on a per machine basis. For example in the current .mrconfig I have this.

[DEFAULT]
include = cat ~/tools/mr/lib/* ~/.mr/* 2>/dev/null || :

Simply put, this will include any files in my ~/tools/mr/lib/ and ~/.mr/ folder. Then in my .mr folder I have a file for each type of package I have available

[.dotfiles/mr.git]
checkout = git_fake_bare_checkout 'ssh://git.tensixtyone.com/mr.git' 'mr.git' '../../'

[.dotfiles/bash.git]
checkout = git_fake_bare_checkout 'ssh://git.tensixtyone.com/bash.git' 'bash.git' '../../'

[.dotfiles/bin.git]
checkout = git_fake_bare_checkout 'ssh://git.tensixtyone.com/bin.git' 'bin.git' '../../'

[.dotfiles/ssh.git]
checkout = git_fake_bare_checkout 'ssh://git.tensixtyone.com/ssh.git' 'ssh.git' '../../'

So when I execute the mr command this will checkout each of those repositories as needed. If I require any extra packages I can pull in another config file and drop it into the .mr folder.

Now we have the method and the configuration sorted, how do we get this onto a bare machine? Again, Martin has come to the rescue in a form of a script he has setup to do the initial bootstrapping of a fresh account, it pulls in the basic configuration for mr and then it’s a case of dropping in the require config files into the .mr folder. Job done.

While my system isn’t perfect yet, it is workable and very flexible. The benefit of being able to move my active configuration between machines with a few commands outweighs the time needed to setup and configure the system. If you are interested my public configuration files are available via gitweb, hopefully from the mass of files you can work out what i’m doing. For the bootstrapping script check the setup.git repository, for my mr configuration files check mr.git.

If your interested in setting up a version controlled home directory, I’d advise you to join the vcs-home mailing list and check out their archives and wiki. Also, remember there’s no all ruling version control system to use for your home directory, Git works well for me but it doesn’t for everyone. The idea is to have a system that works for you, while I’ve followed Martin’s example very closely, again, this wont fit all.

Over the last few days a minor storm is brewing in the iPhone user community. A week or so ago a new application was released to the iPhone market called Infinite SMS, which touted a cost free method of sending SMS messages to anyone. What the developers didn’t tell the users is that they were using a free to use Google service which was currently in “Labs” status.

With a massive influx of new users, Google decided that it was in their best interest to suspend third-party access to the API, including cutting off existing GTalk users. Google warned the developers of Infinite SMS and the devs pleaded to Google to leave it open while they migrated, two days later Google pulled the plug.

Most developers would just say the service is unavailable and start apologising right? Well not InnerFence. They quickly posted a statement onto their website.

Google will soon block Infinite SMS and all other non-Google software from sending free text messages.

For now, Infinite SMS will continue to work, but when the block goes into effect, you’ll start getting an error every time you try to send a text message.

If you have comments for Google, you can visit their Text Messaging Google Group.

Google has claimed no grievance with Infinite SMS other than its success. Their given reason for the block isn’t abuse or wrongdoing; it’s that we brought too many users (and thus too much cost) to an experimental service.

So, in the face of a hoard of unhappy users the developers just fobbed them off with no responsibility. Then only to add insult to injury:

Apple does not give app developers any way to perform refunds. Hopefully, at 99¢ people will feel like our app paid for itself after only a few messages.

The users, obviously unhappy, have took to the Google Labs message board with their complaints. Some users are even trying to get Google to refund the 99¢ for the application.

Jackbauer24 tries to add some reasoning to the situation, but still misses the point:

I think that there is some confusion as to what it is that has happened here. There is a lot of bad will going around to the creators of Infinite SMS. In reality, the creators had nothing to do with Infinite SMS being shut down. It was a decision by Google and Google alone.

As for Google not wanting to foot the cost for free text messaging (I guess it’s true that nothing is really free) that is totally understandable. But what is kind of surprising to me is the fact that they did not choose to use this program as a source of advertising revenue. It would have been so easy for them to send text messages
with advertisements to their users.–they could even send a message after every text sent or received and I don’t think many people would have complained. I’m not sure why Google did what they did, but I
hope that they will reconsider.

If anyone actually read the service annoucement then you’ll see this service wasn’t a public API for pure SMS, yes, it was publicly accessible via GTalk and GMail services, but can you show me the actual Web API to send these messages? I can assume that Infinite SMS connected to GTalk via XMPP and sent SMS via the service. I feel Google is correct in blocking it as they were abusing their intended use for the service.

Some users have started a petition, to get Google to re-enable the service so they can get their SMS for free. Hell, why should they pay when Google can foot the bill? To quote a comment on the petition:

BRING BACK INFINITE SMS !!!! HOW WERE WE COSTING ANYBODY MONEY ! WE DESERVE THIS APP BECAUSE ALOT OF US ARE NOT MILLIONAIRES, GOOGLE ! GOOGLE SUX.

I’ll just leave you one nugget from hellogoodbye2124:

What is your problem Google? Why did you block Infinite SMS? What am I suppose to do now for texting my family and friends? Could you please unblock it? You guys are being really stupid about this.

Yes, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Last week I finally got round to ordering a T-Mobile G1 and I got accepted, and to be honest I was expecting my contract application to bounce like a rubber ball. I guess I left T-Mobile on good terms last time so they’re one of the last networks in the UK that will actually accept me for a new account. I’m quite a aficionado of mobile phones and I do like “smart phones”, so I’ve decided to write this brief overview of the handset and of Android in general.

Out of Box Experience

I ordered my handset online so I had the joy’s of Royal Mail to contend with, that alone is a separate post and UK followers will know the usual pain everyone goes through in regards to getting anything shipped by them. The first issue that tripped me up was that the SIM card was loose in the packaging and not even slid into the handset box. In a rush I nearly binned the SIM and scupper my chances of actually using the device for another week.

The G1 is very nicely boxed, almost in the same way Apple devices are usually done. Since the release of the iPod and it’s over the top fancy packaging a lot of device developers have been scrabbling to match that “Out of Box” experience, the joy of opening the packaging and having your device presented to you in soft black foam padding. The first major gripe was struck at this early stage, while unpacking the device and it’s related accessories I noted that my white phone has some very nasty black accessories. While the contrast of black and white may work well in some peoples minds, I’d personally like the accessories to be a matching colour.

The box included the standard extras, a quick start guide, a small manual, USB cable, charger and a wired headset. Nothing really to write home about. The manual is the usual introduction spiel, which I refuse to read. I decided to get the phone up and working and to have a play around.

What surprised me next is my first battle with the phone, trying to get the SIM card in the actual device. Turns out you have to use the little pull tab at the top of the phone to remove the back, of course the device or documentation didn’t have any mention of how to do this. Jo can vouch that I spent a frustrated five minutes trying to tear the back off without destroying the phone. A simple plastic pull tab would of sorted this, but I guess it’s the last thing on the manufactures’ mind.

Next came the activation, I thought being a non-tied phone that I wouldn’t have to jump through so many hoops like the iPhone, while this is true the actual procedure can be a little frustrating. Anyone who has visited my house can attest to the near Faraday Cage properties that it has for some networks, unfortunately T-Mobile is one of them, the signal levels in the local area are great, just not in my house. This presented a major issue when I was asked to login to my Google account to sync over various details, the phone then spent the next ten minutes trying to establish a GPRS connection to the outside world. After the tenth or so try it managed to get all the details it needs. I understand that the activation sequence can also do WiFi connection but I didn’t see any mention of this during the set-up, and I think it’s reserved for the people who have “rooted” their phones already, something I’ll want to avoid wherever possible.

So after much hissing, cursing, and a few cups of tea, I was ready to roll.

Applications

Almost everything on Android is wrote in Java, and I’m quite amazed that it runs as well as it does. While Google/OHA are still polishing the edges the OS seems very stable and easy to use, once you’ve worked out the basics of navigating around you’ll be flying through the applications in no time. The standard “tool set” included with Android will cover the 90% of users, the usual host of tools are included; SMS, Email, Web Browser, Call Manager, along with a few others you might not usually see, like IM.

As this is the “Google Phone” the standard software includes the usual Google mobile applications, Gmail, Maps, and Youtube. I’ve recently moved away from using Gmail, so I can’t really comment on how the application works, and the rest of them operate just as you would expect on the N95 or any other Series 60 handset. I’m not going to spend all day digging into specifics as anyone who has had a go of these apps will know what to expect.

The biggest seller is the Market, the Android team broke away from the strict market that you see on the iPhone and went with a more open process.This has allowed developers to create a wide range of apps in a very short period of time, including replacement applications for the built in-clients. One great example is K9Mail, which expands on the existing Email client to enable better interaction with IMAP servers and a few added features. I’m sure over time the market will grow, and with the introduction of the paid market we’ll see some of the big players start developing apps for it.

Overview

Ok, I’ve warbled on for a while about my usage of the phone, it’s still early days and I’m still not 100% up to speed with the handset. It’ll take time and I’m sure i’ll have more posts in the future. I’m starting to get my feet wet in the SDK and I’ve got my first “Hello World” application currently installed on my handset. So, Would I recommend the handset to anyone else? A resounding yes, it’s got alot of potential and anyone slightly technically inclined will love using it.

The UKUUG has announced OpenTech 2009 to be held in London:

What is OpenTech 2009?
Open Tech 2009 is an informal, low cost, one-day conference on slightly different approaches to technology, democracy and community.  Thanks to 4IP for sponsoring the event.

What do we need?

• Proposals from people who want to give a presentation, run a panel,  organise a tutorial, or run a demo of something new and interesting  on something that they think matters or getting people to help.
• Publicity – please blog this announcement, write a newspaper article,  forward to mailing lists, and tell your friends!

What topics do we hope to cover?

• Mashups, open data and security
• Disaster politics and technology
• Future of media distribution
• Community engagement
• Democracy 2.0
• Highlights, lowlights and lessons learnt
• Long term thinking on big problems and massive Opportunities
• Tutorials & Workshops – share what you know

If you’ve got an interesting proposal that doesn’t fit into any of the categories above, please send it in anyway!

What have we already got talks or sessions about?

• ID, surveillance and data-sharing
• mySociety
• international disaster management technologies

We’re still looking for more talks on all our topics, so if you want to offer something, we’re waiting to hear your ideas.

How do I submit a proposal?

• Online form via http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2009/offer
• Deadline for submissions is midnight on Saturday 1st May 2009

Can I buy or reserve a ticket to the event?

Register at http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2009/list and we’ll email you nearer the time with more information

Any other questions?

Read the Submission page or email opentech@ukuug.org

More information at http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2009/

Hopefully, If the price is right, I’ll be able to make it down for the event. July is getting to be quite a packed month for events, with LUGRadio Live and State Of The Map.

A month or so ago, Phillip Newbrough of the CrunchBang Linux project made me a IRC Operator in the offical support channel, #crunchbang on Freenode. During the last few weeks the IRC channel has exploded with popularity, from a low average of 5-10 at the start of January, the channel now idles at around 35-45 users.  This is a massive improvement over the course of a month.

With the influx of new users come a influx of new trolls, every channel has them, every channel loathes them. Unfortunately #! has not been exempt from this. It came to great shame when within the first few weeks of the channel getting popular we had to ban our first user. Banning is a last resort in my eyes, and in the case of this user he was disrupting the channel and offending numerous other users. Action had to be took, and now that user is serving a one week temporary ban.

So, what can we do to avoid this horrible situation? The times when it’s the trolls vs. the operators, the back and forth can alienate new users and turn other users against the established operators. This provides a very difficult situation for anyone to handle, and something we want to avoid in the channel. So, In response to the rapid growth of the channel we’ve picked a few new operators, people who we trust, and while they’re not seasoned IRC users they show the level head required to take on this role. In addition to that we’ve took on a new rule set to clearly define the boundaries of the channel, Now the users and operators will understand where the buck stops and know clearly between right and wrong on the channel.

So, what next? Well, we’re still in the process of guiding our new operators in the way of IRC moderating, this will take time but hopefully we’ll come out with excellent results. An addition to the logging bot (Scribbler) will allow for “incidents”, that is, kicks and bans from the IRC channel, to be reported to the correct people. We are clarifying our complaints procedure, for people who think they’ve been kick/banned unfairly. I’m sure you’ll get to hear more details as times go on, and I’ll even post some specifics in the near future.

It’s that time of the month again, Liverpool LUG has snuck up again and it’s time for me to post the details.

Liverpool LUG Meeting
4th February 2009 @ 7:00pm
Liverpool Social Centre, 96 Bold St, Liverpool, L1

This month is a little different, thanks to the Liverpool Social Centre we have a meeting space available to use for this and future meetings.

This months talk will be given by Vladimir Jakubovskij and is regarding his recent research paper “Open Source perspective: The current situation with online music piracy and the future of free music distribution”. Vladimir will be discussing the topics in his paper at the talk. The paper will be published under the CC license at a later date.

If Vladimir is unable to give the talk for some reason or another, Then Joanne Roberts will (hopefully) have a quick talk devised on Open Street Map.

This will be our first meeting at the Liverpool Social Centre on Bold Street. Access is currently through the door next to the News From Nowhere bookshop entrance. Ring the doorbell (the small white one to the left of the main buzzer) for admittance. If you have any difficulties finding the event, please call 07530 709 263. I’ll be in Liverpool quite early to make arrangements and organise things.

Afterwards, we’ll head to a local drinking hole for a few off topic drinks and banter.

The Liverpool Social Centre is a non-profit volunteer ran operation who usually charge for their space, but they’ve offered this location on a free basis in return of support for their compute cluster. For the first month it would be good to give a small donation of £5-£10 from the group to cover costs, so if you could bring 50p or so to donate they would appreciate it. For more details about the location check the website.

Hope to see you all there

On an additional note, I’ll be there with my Tikitag reader and related software to show off my pyTikitag stack for reading the tags in Python and also to generally fool around with them.

Over the last week or so I’ve become quite involved in the CrunchBang Linux project, I got picked up as a forum moderator and it has spiralled out of control since. I’m now a forum moderator, IRC channel operator, and a administrator on the CrunchBang Launchpad groups.

Crunchbang is quite an interesting project. A small distribution created by one man, Phillip Newborough, which gained almost overnight fame and is now ranked quite highly on Distrowatch. The speed of the success of CrunchBang is a massive achievement, especially when you take in the “youth” of the project. While i’m not the official biographer of the project I can see a few key stages that helped it gain such a strong following in a short time.

In the recent history of the project, fabsh, also known as Fabian Scherschel of Linux Outlaws fame, decided to give the distribution a go. It seems he instantly fell in love with it and recommended it to everyone via his identi.ca feed. During the next episode of Linux Outlaws, Fabian mentioned the distribution and how he has been trying it out. The result was a large spike in people downloading the install image and signing up to the forums, this was the time where I toddled along and discovered it myself.

Fast forward two weeks or so, and Distrowatch adds CrunchBang to their listing, a minor but important win in the expansion of the distribution, the DistroWatch listing brings in more and more people over time. Just after Christmas the 8.10.02 release was let lose and Distrowatch was one of the first sites to get the news out there. As the release was done over the relative quiet time of Christmas, the release note spent a good few days on the front page of Distrowatch. Over the Christmas period the forums saw a large boost in signups, which are usually a good indicator of how many people have downloaded the distribution.

So, the combination of a major Linux podcaster and reputable distribution news source gave Crunchbang it’s push into the limelight. What the last few weeks prove is that a few key figures could boost the popularity of a good product and take it from small time to the big time in a matter of weeks.

So, how is this applied to other projects?

First of all I think the key success on CrunchBang’s part is the product itself, a lightweight desktop environment, based on Openbox, designed for the power user crowd. A few people had mentioned that this was the type of area that Arch excelled in, but now the user had the convenience of Ubuntu to their Openbox desktop.

Second, the recommendation of trusted peers can only boost the popularity. With the “social media” that exists today a few trusted people could push a project from a bedroom to the stage, so to speak. With tools like identi.ca and Twitter, people have rapid methods of posting their thoughts. The social media can be a double edge sword, as quickly as your software is recommended it could be bashed and ridiculed just as easy. So, in my opinion, this can make or break your project.

Third and final item is the existing “web media”. Blogs and sites like Distrowatch, Slashdot, Engadget and other tech sites allow, again, for trusted people to review and make judgement of the project, a good recommendation will boost your users and a major site such as Slashdot will kill your server if your not careful.

So how does this all relate to the big bang? It doesn’t really; I thought the title would be snappy.

It’s a rare occurrence that I post about Liverpool LUG and the meetings, as I thought a few people are not signed up to the mailing list it’ll only help to post it elsewhere. So to save rewriting what has already been posted, here is the original notification email.

Liverpool LUG Meeting
7th January 2009 @ 7:00pm
The Bar, 1st Floor, FACT, 88 Wood St, Liverpool, L1 4DQ

It’s coming up to that time of the month again, as it’s so damn close to new year I think we’ll keep it as a social night, unless someone wants to step up and give a talk.

As per usual, we’ll start at FACT and move on to another place if we feel the need to. We’ll be located in the Bar on the 1st Floor outside Gallery 2, keep an eye out for UMPCs, beards, and a plushie Tux. If a talk is on we’ll usually move from the bar to the conference room at about 7:15pm, if you arrive late you can get to the conference room via the lift (head to the 3rd floor) or if the lift is disabled ask a security guard.

Hope to see you all there

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1423955
http://identi.ca/livlug
http://twitter.com/livlug
http://jaiku.com/channel/livlug

 If you’re thinking of heading down and not sure of the location then drop me a email, I’ll be getting into Liverpool at about 6:30pm at Liverpool Lime Street.

A while ago I spotted a post about a new Ubuntu based distribution that had been released, called CrunchBang Linux, as i’m not a great fan of Ubuntu distros anymore I passed this one up and never look at it again. A few weeks had passed until I heard mention of it again, Dan from Linux Outlaws, mentioned that he is trying out the recent version for a review on the show and that Fab is a massive fan. I decided to take a second look at it, trying my hardest not to be critical due to it’s Ubuntu base.

I’ve now got CrunchBang installed on my main desktop machine and I’ve been using it for a day, Maybe it’s a short length of time to review a distribution but I feel with my past experiences with numerous distros will help me get to grips with a new one quite quickly. Some of you may know, after being a Ubuntu user for well over a year I decided to move back to Debian and became quite critical of Ubuntu for its rash decisions regarding design and key choices. My dislike is not centred purely on Ubuntu, I remember one time where I had a near fit at using a OpenSUSE KDE 4.0 Live CD as I couldn’t switch off the default sound scheme, but that’s for another post. Back to the review…

CrunchBang Linux promotes itself as a lightweight version of Ubuntu, unlike Xubuntu’s XFCE desktop they’ve decided on using OpenBox and a few key programs from other desktop environments, like Thunar and Lxpanel.

My previous experience of the *box window managers have been with Blackbox during the very early days, when Enlightenment was all the rage and most distros used FVWM95, so checking out Openbox will hopefully be a refreshing blast to the past. My main concern was compatability, a lot of applications out there depend on certain features of the desktop environment. I left all my expectations at the door and decided to grab the Live CD and have a 10-15 minute play to see if everything works as expected and that it actually works on my slightly quirky setup.

The Live CD / Installation media is mirrored on a few sites, as it’s only a “baby” distro it’s not been picked up by the mainstream mirrors, thankfully, a few people in the community had offered some space up to the project and finding a local, fast mirror isn’t that difficult. As with all Ubuntu style Live CDs, it was a simple case of burning the ISO to a disc and rebooting the machine. I’m not sure if this is a feature of all new Ubuntu discs now, but the ISOLINUX menu had a option to check the installation media for errors, this would save you quite a bit of time if you suspect dodgy media.

The boot was quick, quicker than I expected. Usually with Ubuntu CDs I pop the disc into the drive the slip off to make a cup of tea and head back in time to get the last second or so of the desktop booting. This wasn’t the case with CrunchBang, after returning from a delightful brew making trip I noticed that the desktop was loaded and the default conky panel on the right side informed me that it’s been booted for about 5 minutes. So, boot speed, even from the CD it’s nice and quick.

To a user who has been brought up on the GNOME or KDE environments the initial desktop may take a second to sink in, by default it comes with a minimal panel and system information pane on the right side of the screen and nothing more, no desktop icons or fluffy applications menu, just a basic desktop. Right clicking anywhere on the desktop brings up the system menu and the list of applications. The default install gives you a nice range of applications, some you’ll never use, others are dire essentials.The default includes a few keynote applications:

• Firefox 3.0.4
• Pidgin 2.5.2
• Rhythmbox 0.11.3
• Skype 2.0
• Gwibber 0.7.2
• GIMP 2.6

A few more are available, and a full list can be found on the CrunchBang wiki. Needless to say I was impressed, not only had they selected reasonable defaults but as the distribution is based off Intrepid it had the latest and greatest versions available. Skype is a interesting nugget in my opinion, possibly being the only QT application in the default installation. I do understand that lots of people use Skype for VOIP, but maybe they should consider including another application like Ekiga.

So, I have my desktop running as a Live CD, time to see how it fayred in real world usage. I can happly say, after a good hour or so usage I didn’t feel restricted by the choice of desktop environment, Openbox is low key but quick and powerful. I decided after just a few hours usage to commit to this distro, ditching my current Debian Lenny install.

The installation of CrunchBang was nothing really spectacular, It’s a standard Ubiquity installer which does it’s job very quickly. A few quick selections and the dreaded disc paritioner screens and you on your way. Installation took about 10 minutes on my machine and felt a little quicker than previous Ubuntu installs, but I put this down to a little bias on my part. Rebooting the machine brought up a standard GRUB menu and I happly noticed that it detected my existing Windows installation and put the relative entry in. Again, the boot was quick and my machine boots to the desktop in under a minute.

So, here comes the negatives. A few minor issues have bugged me since i’ve started using CrunchBang, but nothing show stopping. So to save time I’ll just put them down as bullet points:

• xcompmgr seems to have a “dicky-fit” after a few hours use, making all window focus go out of the window. Disable/enable of Compositing fixes that.
• Tray Icons are hit and miss to what actual colour they use for their background. In my case with the “Fawn” gtk theme you get either a brown or beige background, which looks a little messy. Not really a distribution problem but still annoying.
• Restarting Conky seems to paint over the entire desktop for no reason, causing the Windows-esq issue when you have to use an existing window to get the desktop to repaint.
• By default, the xserver won’t detect 1280×1024. Simple fix of modifying the Xorg configuration but initial boot of the Live CD can be annoying with a mishmash resolution.

As I said, the negatives are MINOR. Really, really minor. CrunchBang was designed as a “2nd – 3rd” distribution for users, so it targets the section that are more than happy to have a twiddle with the system configuration and the thought of text only configuration doesn’t phase them. If you fall into this category and you’re looking for a lightweight desktop distribution then i’d suggest you grab a copy of CrunchBang and give it a whirl.