crunchbang linux 8.04.02

Intro
From time to time I like to experiment and try small distros. The fact that there is so much PC hardware around that has been rendered useless because of Windows bloat (updates, anti-virus, firewall, ...) always reminds that we might have a very good use of those computers if we use them with some lighter version of software. I have a bunch of old PCs, some not that old, but still considered outdated for use with Windows.
I successfully run Linux on those "old, but not very old machines" and I use distros such as Ubuntu, PCLOS, CentOS, etc.

Small Distros
Whenever it comes to older PCs (P3 and older) I enjoyed experimenting with Puppy, DSL, TinyMe, Vector... and all those distros are great. Recently, I came across something called Crunchbang Linux 8.04. I did not see it on DistroWatch website. It is an unofficial Ubuntu based distro with OpenBox winfow manager.

CrunchBang 8.0.4.02
I played with it little bit on VMware, then I tried it on a 733MHz P3 with 384MB RAM. Since I use Ubuntu on all production machines in my company and at home as my first choice, I love the fact that CrunchBang uses Ubuntu repositories and is in fact Ubuntu. I even installed OpenOffice 3.0 that appears to be faster than 2.4 and was able to modify Start menu and other OpenBox shortcuts. OpenOffice ofcourse may not be the best choice for a very old and slow PC (please check Abiword).

I also installed Midnight Commander (my favorite console file manager). I like the fact that all the typically needed stuff is already there (truetype fonts, flash player, java). I love "dark theme" on CrunchBang and I have to admit that it makes a lot of sense for slower and older machines in Ubuntu environment.

It probably makes sense to use it on newer fast machines and enjoy the speed of a light non-bloated setup. However, for production machines I would still stick with something "official".

Comments
Great work! Looking forward to possibly see CruncBang in DistroWatch. I definitively recommend everyone to try. Great thing is that all the support and resources available to Ubuntu users are applicable here.

Refrences
http://crunchbang.org/projects/linux/
http://distrowatch.com

Fall in Texas

Fall is here... so is beautiful weather. No excuses for me not to ride bicycle with my daughter. She is growing so fast now. Her road bike is too small for her so she is enjoying the "project" bike we made last year.

My corner...

Time to clean this place... Although it is kind of clean as compared to "normal state". Left lower corner some of my unsorted retro micros (Tandy 102 Portable Computer, Tandy CoCo 3, Commodore 64C, Atari ST color monitor). On the shelf, some books on retro computers such as Atari ST Internals, unsorted 1/43 scale cars, IEEE Spectrum... Both my office laptop and home HP running Ubuntu Linux 8.04... and other "creative" mess I live in...

Citroen 2CV "Spachek" by Norev (scale 1/43)

Yet another Citroen 2CV in my collection ("Spachek" as we called it). This one also came from eBay directly from China without display case. The bottom says it is Norev model. Has a fairly nice level of details, especially the decals on the side. It has working shocks and the roof can be taken off.

Citroen GS by Altaya (scale 1/43)

Another "luxury" car that could be seen on the streets in former Yugoslavia in the days I was growing up. This model has those yellow headlights, which was typical for a French version (that is where Citroen is coming from). Yugoslavian version had "normal" white headlights. That is about only difference coming to my mind.

In Search for Perfect Bread (part 6)

It has been a while of me playing with the dough. Today we used the bread machine (trusty Breadman) to prepare the dough. We used "standard" simple recipe with just flour, warm water, yeast, and little bit of salt and sugar.

It takes less than an hour to get the Breadman done with the dough.

Then you take it out, punch down, and knead for about two minutes. We put some butter at the bottom of the pan and sprinkled some flour. Then we put the dough in the middle.

I like to poke the dough with a fork to let more air into it.

Let it rise again for about an hour. The volume should increase at least two times.

Preheat the oven to 380 Fahrenheit and then bake for about 45 minutes. We turned broiling (top heater at 550 F) at the end for like 1-2 minutes. Be careful with broiling as you can burn it.

Wet your fingers with water and carefully touch the top. Cover it with cloth and wait to cool off on a wire rack.

I am ready for test drive. Some smoked bacon, butter spread, and sliced onion. Yes, I know. Not healthy, but feels good.

Watburg 353 (scale 1/43)