CrunchBang Linux

New CrunchBang Statler images are available now. The new images were built on Sunday 5th December 2010 and feature all package updates available at that time from the Debian Squeeze and CrunchBang Statler repositories.

The main focus behind this release was to incorporate the 5 months worth of package updates that have occurred since the previous Statler alpha 2 images were created. Changes to the application line-up and system defaults have been kept to a minimum. The only changes of note are:

• The artwork has been updated to reflect the recent website redesign.
• The Xfce variant now uses Xfce’s native panel by default. tint2 remains installed.
• The Openbox variant has had Orage replaced by gsimplecal.
• The Openbox variant now features johnraff’s “places” and “recent files” pipe menus.

Any existing Statler users should not need to perform a reinstall, instead a simple ‘sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade’ should suffice.

Regarding the “20101205″ thing, this release and any future Statler releases will now feature a date based revision identifier. There will not be any more “alpha” images and you should not expect to see any “beta”, “RC” or “final” images either.  From this point on, if anyone needs to make a judgment as to the stability of Statler, they should check the date based identifier against the progress of Debian Squeeze.

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 visit the forums and join the conversation. We would love to read your feedback and suggestions for improvements!

The last Ubuntu based CrunchBang release has officially reached the end of its life. To mark this occasion, a new design for the CrunchBang Linux website is being created.

The new design will be changing in the opposite direction to that recently taken by the Ubuntu design team, which only seems fitting. So, whereas the new style in Ubuntu is inspired by the idea of “Light”, the new style for CrunchBang will be inspired by the idea of “Dark”. o_O

Seriously though, the new design will feature a dark theme, a fixed width layout and a new unified custom Google search box, which will appear directly under the site’s main menu. Hopefully, these changes will strengthen CrunchBang’s identity (pardon the BS) and make the site more usable, while also making it easier to develop. The changes should also make it clear that CrunchBang is no longer based on Ubuntu, instead showing its new status of being a Debian GNU/Linux derivative.

The new website design will be rolled out over the next week or so. While this is happening, if you notice any problems, please can you make a note of them and provide any feedback and/or fixes in this forum thread. Thank you.

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.