CrunchBang Linux

Today sees the release of CrunchEee, a special version of CrunchBang Linux developed specifically for the Asus Eee PC. This new edition is similar to the “Lite” edition, but for the inclusion of a full suite of Internet applications and an Eee PC specific Linux Kernel and scripts. More details about the release candidate can be found on the forums: CrunchEee 8.10.01 Release Candidate 1.

With regards to the name, “CrunchEee” was very kindly suggested by Dan Lynch of Linux Outlaws.

The latest episode of the Linux Outlaws podcast features a review of CrunchBang Linux. The hosts, Dan and Fab have both tried the latest CrunchBang release and discuss the distribution at some length. It is a really great review and the guys do a good job of dispelling some of the misunderstandings around the subject of the how “lightweight” CrunchBang is.

For anyone not familiar with the show (is there anyone not familiar with the Outlaws?), Linux Outlaws is a podcast in which the presenters take a “laid-back” look at Linux and the Open Source scene. The presenters have good chemistry and the show is entertaining and insightful. The production quality is excellent and the show is released most weeks. It is well worth a listen, or even a subscription within your favourite podcast catcher.

If you do listen to the review and you would like to discuss any of what was said, you might want to join the growing community of Linux Outlaws listeners by visiting the Linux Outlaws forums. There is a dedicted thread available for discussing this episode.

The first release candidate for the new CrunchBang 8.10.01 “Lite” edition has been uploaded and is available for testing. The image can be downloaded from:

http://crunchbang.net/pub/linux/crunchbang-lite-8.10.01rc1.i386.iso
md5sum: 3f98147648b10e6f533e4106d4056c0d
Approximate size: 416MB

With regards to the differences between the Lite edition and the Standard edition, a slightly different approach has been taken with this release; whereas the 8.04.02 Lite edition simply had all but the terminal, web browser, file manager, editor and media player removed, the same has been done for this release, however the remaining applications (except Terminator) have been swapped out for lightweight alternatives.

• Firefox is replace by Kazehakase (with Flash support).
• Thunar has been replaced by PCmanFM.
• Totem has been replaced by VLC.
• gedit has been replaced by Leafpad.

All items within the “Preferences” and “System” menus remain unchanged (with exception to below).

Other changes include:

• Xfce4 integration/dependencies removed.
• Themes are now set using the lightweight gtk-chtheme package.
• Screen resolutions are handled by lxrandr.
• lxpanel has been replaced by tint and trayer.
• gdebi and ndiswrapper have been installed by default.

Also, fixes have been implemented for some issues which have been highlighted in the current Standard edition, namely CUPS/printing support.

If anyone would like to give the new release a try, please do so. As always, your feedback and suggestions will be more than welcome! :)

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A note for anyone using a separate home partition. Please be aware that where possible new installations will respect the contents on your existing home partition. Therefore, any exiting configuration files will not be overwritten. This could lead to unexpected issues with your Openbox session. It might be advisable to backup and remove/rename ~/.config before attempting an installation.