CrunchBang Linux

The second alpha release of CrunchBang 10 is now available. The new alpha 2 builds were created on Thursday 24th June 2010 and are in sync with the Debian Squeeze repositories as of that date. Debian Squeeze continues to develop nicely and the Debian developers are doing a fantastic job. Major updates to Squeeze and therefore CrunchBang, since the last CrunchBang alpha builds, include updates to both the Openbox Window Manager (3.4.11.1) and the Xfce Desktop Environment (4.6.2).

Thanks go out to everybody who tested the first alpha builds; the extensive feedback and suggestions were invaluable and as a result, the new alpha builds contain many updates and fixes. For a brief overview of what has changed, please see the release notes on the wiki.

As always with CrunchBang, this release is not recommended for anyone who requires a stable system. Anyone who uses CrunchBang should be comfortable with occasional or even frequent breakage. Remember, CrunchBang Linux could make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG! :)

If you do decide to give CrunchBang a try, please come and join in the statler conversion on the forums. We would love to read your feedback and suggestions for improvements!

The first alpha release of CrunchBang 10 is now available. Codenamed “Statler”, this release is, for the first time, built using Debian sources.

Changing from Ubuntu to Debian sources marks an exciting new start for the project. Statler is currently being developed using Debian Squeeze sources. For anyone who is not aware, Debian Squeeze is the codename of Debian’s current “testing” release and will be Debian’s next “stable” release.

Statler alpha 1 is available to download in two main flavours, those being Openbox and Xfce. Both the Openbox and Xfce versions currently feature the same line-up of applications and the new Xfce version has had its session set-up to mimic that of previous CrunchBang Openbox sessions, i.e. a minimal desktop with right-click main menu and application short-cut keys.

Regarding the pre-installed applications, this alpha release features a minimal offering. The application line-up will be revised in future development releases. Further releases will also concentrate on improving documentation, which is currently very sparse.

As always with CrunchBang, this release is not recommended for anyone who requires a stable system. Anyone who uses CrunchBang should be comfortable with occasional or even frequent breakage. Remember, CrunchBang Linux could make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG! :)

Please see the wiki for the release notes. Also, please come and join in the statler conversion on the forums. We would love to read your feedback and suggestions for improvements!

The CrunchBang project has a new build server. Dr. Bunsen is a new VPS on Linode, running Debian Lenny. The server has been added to the CrunchBang Project’s small, but growing number of virtual and real private servers. This new server is being funded by the project’s use of Google AdSense, sales from our shop, contributions by our only commercial sponsor, R1Soft Linux Hot Copy, and by donations collected from generous donors within our community. A big thank you goes out to everyone who has contributed to the project, you are all stars!

More information about Dr. Bunsen can be read on the CrunchBang forums.

After a slight delay and a prolonged testing period, the final builds of CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01 are now available. As the version number suggests, it is based on Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. As with all previous releases, 9.04.01 has been built from scratch using the Ubuntu MinimalCD. The builds were completed on the 6th July 2009 and contain all security and package updates available at that time.

What’s New?

For the first time, CrunchBang Linux is available to download in both 32 and 64-bit builds. The addition of the 64-bit (amd64) builds were a major contributing factor to the delay of this release, although the end result was worth the extra development time. Other noticeable changes as a result of moving to the latest stable Ubuntu release include:

• Much improved boot performance with faster start-up times.
• Improved support for wireless cards.
• Ext4 filesystem support.

Other changes over the previous 8.10.02 release have been kept to a minimum, with the exception of:

• The lightweight tint2 panel/taskbar replaces lxpanel.
• Transmission BitTorrent client replaces Deluge.
• A full Vim installation included by default.
• Pyroom fullscreen editor included by default.
• Many other minor tweaks and fixes including:
  • Improved documentation added to default configuration files.
  • Openbox menu items added for commonly used configuration files.
  • New and improved default Openbox and GTK themes.
  • Additional Openbox and GTK+ themes installed, including the popular Dyne themes.

Download locations

Please see the CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01 downloads page for download locations and alternative installations methods.

Feedback

If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions for improvements, please feel free to post them below or on the CrunchBang forums. As always, all feedback and constructive criticism is welcome and greatly appreciated!

A new edition of the CrunchBang Monthly Newsletter been published. Issue #0904 covers the month of March ’09 and features:

• Public Relations – This section provides links to blogs and articles in which CrunchBang has been featured/discussed. It also contains a listing of CrunchBang related videos on YouTube.com, definitely worth a look!
• CrunchBang IRC – Marcus has been examining the IRC logs and has made some amusing conclusions — apparently CrunchBang users are great thinkers!
• Development – Philip continues the tradition of answering questions about the development of CrunchBang. Remember, if you have any questions related to the development, please feel free to send us an email and we will try cover them.
• Documentation – Ed has again scanned the forums for noteworthy stuff and he highlights his top picks for the month.
• Artwork Section – The winner of the big CrunchBang Logo Competition is revealed! We also get a glimpse of the new proposed default GTK+ and Openbox themes for CrunchBang 9.04.01.
• Tips, Tricks and Hints – Cruz has exceeded himself again, this time with a lot of CLI tips about the Bash history feature. Interesting stuff!
• Translation – Max is taking over the bits and pieces of the translation area and working on having it all systematized. If you want to do something for the CrunchBang community, you might want to get enrolled in the translator corps.

The CrunchBang Monthly Newsletter is created and maintained by Scrat and his team of editors. If you would like contribute, please contact a member of the team.

IMPORTANT: if you wish to discuss the results of the logo competition, please do so in this forum thread. Thank you.

As stated in the first monthly newsletter, we are having a competition to create a new CrunchBang logo. From the newsletter:

We’re officially announcing a #! logo competition. This competition is open to all and you may submit as many entries as you want. We’re looking for a logo that accurately conveys the simplicity, speed and uniqueness of #! …snip…

We’ll keep the competition open until the 23rd of March 09.

Editors of #! Newsletter will narrow down the entries to three and pass the final decision over to Philip Newborough.

So, fire-up your copy of Inkscape or GIMP, get those creative juices flowing and submit your entries to this forum thread.

Notes:

• Please enter original artwork only.
• All submissions should be unencumbered — this means anyone should be able to use the logo however they see fit, including for commercial purposes.

Good luck!

The first CrunchBang monthly newsletter has been published. The newsletter is a community project and has been put together by the CrunchBang Monthly Newsletter Team. The team, I am not including myself in this statement, have done a fantastic job putting the newsletter together and it has been really interesting to observe the 8 editors collaborate on the document — I hope you will agree that the end result is both an interesting and informative read!

The first issue can be found at: http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/crunchbang…/issue_0903

On a personal note, I would just like to thank everyone involved and especially Niels Rasmussen (aka Scrat), who I am sure the rest of the team will agree, has done an exceptional job at cracking the whip and getting everything/everyone organised. Thank you Scrat! :)

In an effort to open up the development of CrunchBang, I have created a new project on Launchpad. The project is to be driven by the CrunchBangers team. CrunchBangers is an open team and anyone with an interest in the future development of the distribution is welcome to join. I have currently set the introduction to read as:

Creating a project account on Launchpad is something I have been meaning to do for sometime. Hopefully the tools made available by Launchpad will enable this project to step-up to the next level. I will try to publish/integrate more information about the various Launchpad services over the coming days/weeks. Meanwhile, if working to help shape the future of this distribution is something of interest to you, please feel free to join the team and become a CrunchBanger!

The final 8.10.02 builds of CrunchBang Linux, CrunchBang Linux “Lite” and CrunchEee are now available. The new releases contain numerous changes and many fixes provided by the CrunchBang community. For more information about these releases, please see:

Standard Edition

• Download locations.
• Alternative installation instructions.
• Release notes.
• Application list.

Lite Edition

• Download locations.
• Alternative installation instructions.
• Release notes.
• Application list.

CrunchEee ASUS Eee PC Edition

• Download locations.
• Installation instructions & discussion thread.
• Release notes.
• Application list.

Credit & Thanks
A huge thank you is owed to everyone who has involved themselves in the growing CrunchBang community. Your feedback, help, support and contributions are really appreciated and are helping to shape CrunchBang Linux into a usable distribution! You rock!

For all the podcast junkies, monsterb and threethirty (a couple of Linux Cranks) have reviewed CrunchBang Linux for Hacker Public Radio. The review is fairly short and sweet, but CrunchBang seems to have been well received. You can download and listen to the review at: http://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=0265