Desktop Linux Reviews - Latest Comments

Re: Request A Review

TonyVanDam — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:34:37 -0000

Good Afternoon Jim!

Have you ever seen this distro called LinuxBBQ? It's based upon Debian Sid with kernels & tools from Siduction, grml and LinuxMint.

http://www.linuxbbq.org/index....
http://www.linuxbbq.org/about....

Info from the website:

LinuxBBQ is a multi-purpose operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux "sid" branch, spiced up with kernels and tools from siduction, grml and LinuxMint.

The BBQ offers different flavours and desktops to build up from ("Roast Your Own") that can be customized and remixed by the user. Community contributions are consequently implemented in the frequently updated installation media. Furthermore, special purpose desktop solutions are being actively developed and released.

The editions - coming in different setups of WM/DE and applications - are designed to be configured and customized by the end-user. Redistributable ISOs that are bootable from USB, CD or DVD can be easily produced in short time.

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

HowiPepper — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:05:22 -0000

I installed CrunchBang Waldorf back in February, replacing Slackware 14.0. My impressions of CrunchBang are very favorable. I gives me the perfect balance between ease of use and power-user friendliness. I'm a big fan.

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

n1tr0g3n — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:06:26 -0000

Multi Monitor support is awesome, this is the first distro that worked perfectly. I haven't had a single issue running Crunchbamg since my initial install. I love it n1tr0g3n...

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

Silvan Geissmann — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:54:15 -0000

Can you say anything about multi monitor support?

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

TonyVanDam — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:10:33 -0000

I like distros that can be stripped down. Crunchbang is my kind of distro. : )

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

Brian Masinick — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:45:00 -0000

Nice to see a member of the CrunchBang organization weighing in here with feedback.

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

pvsage — Wed, 22 May 2013 01:32:19 -0000

Excellent review; as a moderator at the CrunchBang forum, the only things I would note are that the "CrunchBang 11 Wallpaper" application is Nitrogen, the "Look and Feel Menu" is lxappearance, and the "File Manager" is Thunar. Also, the "Desktop System Info and Shortcut Keys" is in the default ~/.conkyrc, and the "Desktop Menu" is handled by the Openbox menu, which is not automatically updated, so it can be configured to the user's preference.

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

Brian Masinick — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:40:32 -0000

Me too; it has always worked well for me, too, and I am thinking of installing it again.

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

Jim Lynch — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:38:51 -0000

Thanks, Brian. It's easily one of the best distros out there for what it does. I hope more people check it out.

Re: CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

Brian Masinick — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:36:07 -0000

Good review, Jim! Glad to see the 5/5 rating, indicative of the fact that this distribution meets the goals of the Crunchbang 11 project. I may replace one of my extra Debian installations with this one and give it a fresh look for this release.

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

bwat47 — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:48:11 -0000

You don't need to use the default ESR iceweasel. debian provides a repo to update to the latest iceweasel: http://mozilla.debian.net/

The repo also lets you use beta and aurora iceweasel.

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

kscharf — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:55:59 -0000

Well maybe they are just fixing 'bugs' that the upstream people think are 'features'

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

Brian Masinick — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:21:10 -0000

Well, maybe the use of the term "fork" is too strong, but the Debian versions have more than just icon changes. The reason that Debian cannot use the Mozilla Firefox logos is that they are repackaging the distribution and also because the two projects have philosophical differences on the licensing. Notice that Ubuntu, for instance, a Debian-based distribution, still has Firefox packages?

Why?

1. They accept the Mozilla license and
2. They leave the code alone.

As I claimed, more than once Debian changed the code; that's why they had to re-brand. If that's not a "fork", then what is the definition of a software fork? I say when you change the code, it's forked. If you disagree, then provide your definition and substantiate it with reference to a well-recognized definition of a software fork.

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

Brian Masinick — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:14:57 -0000

Good point! When I have occasion to use servers, I have found Debian to be among the most stable servers around. However, on the job, I've only had one occasion to use Debian. All other times (including the present) it seems to be Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL), which is also a good distribution. As the distribution itself goes, I like Debian. However, Fedora Hats off to Red Hat (and its development branch, Fedora. Since application vendors tend to standardize, their applications, when sensitive, tend to work and to be supported much more frequently by RHEL than anything else.\

Fair is fair, though; this is not a SERVER review site, this site is called DESKTOP Linux Reviews and Desktop Linux Reviews Forum is a companion site.

Re: Manjaro 0.8.5

frustratedtech — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:22:31 -0000

Suppositories? Ouch.

I agree that was a bad day, but something that has been a thorn were the repos. That is resolved now.

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

Tri Fólio — Tue, 14 May 2013 05:22:46 -0000

You can add the repositories you want, but the alternative versions of some programs may create conflicts (deb-multimedia, for example, is quite safe AFAIK).

You can also install whatever you want from source. Preventing that would be against the fundamental principles of free software.

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

Shishir — Sun, 12 May 2013 10:51:15 -0000

I loaded debian live(XFCE) on a usb key. When I tried(text mode) to install it, the installer that there is no CD in the CD drive. How can I get around this. I really don't like wasting a DVD for that...

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

Imran Chaudhry — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:16:25 -0000

Hi Brian,

I feel I need to correct you on point #1 - Debian has not forked the Mozilla projects you mention, they exist because of a dispute over trademark and licencing. Please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

As you point out, there is nothing stopping anyone from installing the latest Mozilla Firefox (or Google Chrome) and benefit from the "in band" updates from Mozilla or Google directly. Personally I look past the rebranded stuff and have been using upstream versions with Debian for years.

Thanks

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

SilverSilk — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:57:04 -0000

I have a question for you foxbat...I'm kinda new to Debian and I understand when you say "do not expect the latest and greatest" as far as programs are concerned. However, would it be possibly to add other repositories or download the source code for more recent programs or does the kernel in Debian 7 prevent this from happening?

Re: Ubuntu 13.04

Jim Lynch — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:38:25 -0000

Glad to hear from a Unity fan. Different strokes for different folks and all that. :)

Re: Ubuntu 13.04

Jim Lynch — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:37:49 -0000

Thanks, glad you found the review useful.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04

Jim Lynch — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:37:22 -0000

Thanks for sharing that. I usually just do the install these days, unless it automatically boots into a live environment.

Re: Ubuntu 13.04

Jim Lynch — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:36:51 -0000

We always want what we don't have. Heh. ;)

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

Jim Lynch — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:34:55 -0000

Congrats, XFCE is a great desktop.

Re: Debian 7.0 Wheezy

Jim Lynch — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:34:40 -0000

I totally agree that the server stuff is very important. But this is "Desktop Linux Reviews" and not "Server Linux Reviews." ;)