Planet CrunchBang Linux

[Blogger's Note: From time to time I will step off the soapbox for a moment to let someone else step up and speak. Today, I am letting VastOne, who is a CrunchBang moderator on the forums, take the microphone and post this blog that comes in response to my last blog item. Take it away, VastOne! --LC]

In the blog post “One way or another,” there were several great points made about the need to learn a bit of terminal and bash skills to be effective within any flavor of Linux. These skills are invaluable and after years of using Linux, most of us take our own expertise in these matters for granted when advising a new user.

In another world, there are users who are jumping on the Linux bandwagon out of necessity. A majority are just fed up with the amount of viruses, worms and attacks on their machines. Some are coming over due to financial or fiscal reasons that stem from no longer being able to afford proprietary software’s steep licensing costs.

I work in this world every day. My clients are usually a small business, a non-profit group, church or school district. Since the majority of the work I do is done pro bono, I have an easier time convincing these clients to switch to Linux.

For years, I used Ubuntu as the easy choice for an installation. It was intuitive, popular and was pretty easy to manage a cookie-cutter installation. The objective for me is to have limited return calls and to leave the client with enough resources and knowledge that a simple daily process would guarantee success.

This worked great until Unity arrived. It was such a radical change that the clients I deal with had no clue how to use it and on a dime their worlds changed. I had to revisit every client and start over. I made a decision to find a new platform to work with, where changes would not be so drastic.

A few friends of mine, also in the same line of work, had been telling me about CrunchBang Linux for quite some time. For whatever reasons, I had it in my head that CrunchBang was a terminal-driven distro that was for power Linux users, not far from the Arch world. Once I installed the Xfce version of CrunchBang, the platform I was looking for suddenly opened up. It was nothing that I expected and by far the easiest and lightest Linux distro I had ever seen and a very easy drop in replacement for my clients. The fact that Crunchbang is based on Debian Stable was the icing on the cake, guaranteeing long term stability.

With my client base, I have found that for a new Linux user — coming from a XP, Vista or Win7 world — the Xfce desktop is a perfect leap to a comfort zone in a short period of time. Its menu driven setup is perfect for a user who is accustomed to right clicking the desktop and applications. The fact that most of the new applications installed show up on the this menu makes my long term job easier with the clients. I have not had a single client reject the Xfce desktop and generally after a weeks time they tell me that it is the easiest desktop they have had to use.

The final pieces in a new client install is a simple lesson with Synaptic, how to open terminal and an understanding of how to search Google effectively. As soon as the client grasps how easy Synaptic is and how easy it is to install software, my job is almost done.

I use .bashrc and .bash_aliases to create a cheat sheet of the standard commands that needs to be done for standard Linux tasks. They are basic commands that we take for granted in apt-get update, apt-get install, apt-cache policy etc etc etc.

The aliases are structured so that when I get the call for that important application that is needed, I simply guide the client to a terminal session and have them type

get gimp

Once they have entered their password, they are done. After the second or third time doing this, most clients grasp how easy it is and begin to understand. One of these aliases is an alias to print to the screen what all of the aliases are by typing al in the terminal and getting a list of aliases and what they can do.

Now one would ask, “These new clients have no problem with these commands?” No! Most clients are looking for stability and an easy way to get their jobs done. They couldn’t care less what an apt-get is, but they do care that there is a simple method to the madness.

Is this the best method for client conversions? For my client base it is. Everyone is happy with CrunchBang Linux, although most would look at you funny if you asked them about it. It also keeps the return calls and visits I need to make at a minimum, which is my most important objective.

Moving each client to Linux with CrunchBang Xfce, Synaptic, terminal and aliases is as easy as it gets. My client base could care less as long as they can get their work done with minimal changes.

Sounds like a perfect world to me.

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started developing software at Redwood Digital Research, a consultancy that provides FOSS solutions in the small business and home office environment.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Openbox, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Openbox, SCALE, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo

Originally, I had started a “Larry the Free Software Guy” blog item on the newly released, Mideast peace-securing, cancer-curing, saivor-of-all-mankind Head-Up Display from Ubuntu — “head up” what, exactly, is unclear, but not much imagination is needed — in which I promised to try it, but I still wonder aloud about the degree of “innovation” in what appears to be a GUI for the command line, to say nothing of the competing ease between clicking on a menu item versus typing it in a field.

No, I left that pinata alone for the moment to address something else.

What causes the bloggus interruptus today is an exchange I had a couple of days ago on a CrunchBang forum with rhowaldt — it was completely tongue-in-cheek by both parties — where doing a task had more than one method to fix what a new user wanted to achieve.

In the exchange what was said, in effect and in jest, is that you can do it the cool, “l33t h4xx0r” way using the command line, or you can use the n00b-oriented, menu-driven program written for the window manager that comes with the program. While poking fun, the subtext here still speaks to a digital caste system where the more experienced are put in a position of superiority, either real or imagined (and I choose the latter), than the inexperienced.

Naturally, I concur that there is more than one way to a solution: Yes, the command line is the more direct way to get things done. However, not everyone using Linux — even CrunchBang, if the threads on the CrunchBang forum to which I refer are any indication — is that well-versed in using the terminal, and when it comes to tools, some of the menu-driven ones can be a godsend.

The point I’d like to make is that there are folks out there who have made and maintained programs like Obmenu and Obapps in Openbox, to use the example from the forum exchange, that essentially give the keys to those less experienced to change their digital experience without having to traverse the potential landmine the command line can be for new or less-experienced users.

For that reason, when the tools are available I use them, and when asked on a forum about how to do things and I know an option like this exists, I’ll make this Plan A in my suggestion. Again, there is more than one solution, and if someone goes to the effort of explaining the commands to use in a terminal, more power to them.

In fact, I should thank rhowaldt and others on the CrunchBang for taking the time to make these command-line instructions available, since it is to the new users’ benefit that they get into this mindset. Learning some of the more basic commands — even some simple bash scripting — should be part of every Linux users repertoire. It may be intimidating at first to new users, but over time it is something one can get used to.

Meanwhile, back at the original topic: Yes, it may be a little less “h4xx0r” to do it from a program, but using these tools gives those who put in the effort a tip of the hat for going the extra mile and providing a method that helps out.

So to those of you who work on developing tools like Obmenu and Obapps — thanks for your efforts and keep up the work that, though anonymous, is vital to the success of distros everywhere.

We now return to writing another blog item, which is already in progress . . . .

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started developing software at Redwood Digital Research, a consultancy that provides FOSS solutions in the small business and home office environment.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Openbox, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Openbox, SCALE, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo

I’m going to try to say this in my best movie-preview-guy voice.

More than 100 exhibitors.

More than 130 presentations.

Nearly 2,000 people in attendance.

These factors together are what makes the Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 10X a perfect 10.

With 101 exhibitors, 132 presentations and 1,962 people in attendance over the three-day event (roughly a 9 percent uptick in attendance), SCALE 10X nailed it. I’m going to let Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier take the helm here on this one, since his blog item on the event is outstanding and is something I can’t improve on.

But do you think, for a moment, that would stop me from talking about CrunchBang’s presence at the show?

Ha.

Yeah, I’m that guy: OK, so if I thought so many people were that interested, I would have made a bigger deal about it; maybe even holding a press conference or something. But yes, I am now primarily a CrunchBang GNU/Linux user and advocate after ramping down my activities with the Fedora Project (though I did use my pull as a former Fedora Ambassador to help out a Fedoran stuck at the hotel). As I mentioned to just about everyone I saw at the show who asked me about it — that’s about 90 percent of the folks I regularly see at shows — there were really two factors involved: a.) I really like CrunchBang a lot since I started using it six months ago, and I think the distro, their lead developer Philip Newborough, and their community have a lot going for them, and b.) under the skillful guidance of Mark Terranova and Scott Williams and other Fedoristas in California, I don’t think I’ll be missed by the Fedora Project all that much.

There. I’m glad we had this little talk. Now go and try CrunchBang — it’s great.

Presenting about CrunchBang: I gave a presentation called “On Beyond Zenwalk,” a riff on the Dr. Seuss book “On Beyond Zebra.” It was about distros that do not get their due, and are somewhat more high performance than their average “street legal” counterparts and, of course, I spoke a bit — OK, more than a bit — about CrunchBang. There was live streaming of the presentations available during the show, and I would thank that means that the video lives somewhere that will allow me to post a link. So when I find out where that is, I’ll post it.

Flocking together for CrunchBang: There was a Birds of a Feather gathering for CrunchBang on Saturday, where I got to continue my talk about CrunchBang to those who were interested. About 10 people made it up to the meeting, and while I was unable to make any printed matter (I’m working on that, still), I was able to show off CrunchBang on two different laptops. I also made four live usb sticks that I gave away (that’s all I had in my pocket), and one woman who ran the live usb stick on her Lenovo netbook was so impressed that she said she was going to install it.

Best. Compliment. Ever. So during one lap around on the show floor, seeing if anyone needed anything in the way of publicity and the like (in my capacity as SCALE 10X publicity co-chair), I had one exhibtor, a woman, tell me this: “This is a great show. In fact, I worked AVS and this show is much better than that one.” I thought I was more worldly than I am, apparently, becuase I had to ask: “AVS?” “Adult Video Show,” she replied. Ah. So noted. On that note, there’s nothing that can beat that.

Except maybe SCALE 11X next year.

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started developing software at Redwood Digital Research, a consultancy that provides FOSS solutions in the small business and home office environment.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Openbox, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Openbox, SCALE, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo

[Blogger's Note: This originally ran as a item in the Larry the Free Software Guy blog in June 2011. I am repeating it here in order to urge those who use CrunchBang to donate to the distro at the link here, and the way this can be done relatively painlessly -- and how we all benefit -- is explained below. Thanks, and a report from SCALE 10X is forthcoming -Larry.]

During my campaign for Insurance Commissioner of California in 2006 — where I just missed being elected to state office by a mere 46.5 percent of the vote — one of my campaign fundraising materials was a handout with a sandwich on it. It said, in effect, that if you give up one of these a week and send the money — $5 per week, in this case — to the campaign, you could have proper representation in Sacramento.

[It should be noted that, as a Green Party candidate, I did not take corporate campaign donations -- not that any were forthcoming -- so I needed a lot of sandwiches to mount an effective campaign. Thank goodness for FOSS, since I didn't have to buy any software, but that's another story.]

Yesterday’s blog item about the Ubuntu earrings that are being used as a fundraiser for Partimus started me thinking about how some people shy away from donating to groups or, in our case, FOSS projects because they think it takes a lot up front.

Nope, it doesn’t have to. It takes one sandwich at a time. Or coffee. Or dessert. Giving up one of these just once a week, multiplied by a significant number of people, can put some well-deserved projects in some pretty good financial shape.

It’s very simple — instead of having that grande iced mochajavafrappamacchiato at Starbucks today, send the money via PayPal to a FOSS project that you use regularly, as a way of saying, “Thanks.”

Give to Partimus, the project that is putting Linux-based computer labs in low-income schools in Northern California (or buy a pair of earrings). Or the HeliOS Project, since “a child’s exposure to technology should never be predicated on the ability to afford it.”

Like GIMP? Give to them here. Don’t like it? Give to Inkscape instead.

The possibilities only end at the number of FOSS programs that are taking donations. Go to the programs that you use and look for a “donate” button.

Then give ‘em a sandwich.

[Extra points to whomever can identify which song the title of this blog comes from. No Googling.]

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started developing software at Redwood Digital Research, a consultancy that provides FOSS solutions in the small business and home office environment.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, GIMP, HeliOS Project, Inkscape, Openbox, Partimus Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, GIMP, HeliOS Project, Inkscape, Openbox, Partimus

Hi,For years I kept this blog going by writing about technology in general and Linux operating systems in particular.But as we grow older, we change and our interests change and we follow new directions.My new direction has been... outdoor.Basically, in the years since I last wrote a Linux review on this blog, I have spent a lot of my free time - practically all of it, really - outdoors.I have

About six months ago — on July 24, 2011, to be precise — I became a CrunchBang user after giving the distro a test run for my blog, “Larry the Free Software Guy.” I wrote about it with glowing praise here, and unlike some of the other distros I’ve tested, used for a few days and moved on, I stuck with CrunchBang for a good reason.

I wrote these two paragraphs toward the end, which I still stand by today:

“CrunchBang is probably not for the neophyte, but if you’ve been using GNU/Linux and FOSS for about a year or longer and you are comfortable tweaking your system, you should have no trouble getting up to speed on this quick distro. The site does have a caveat on the ‘about page’ at the bottom that ‘CrunchBang Linux is not recommended for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. CrunchBang Linux could possibly make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG! Therefore CrunchBang Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law.’

“I think the lawyers made them say that, because after four days of tweaking, some of which not exactly the most advised (but nonetheless corrected), I have yet to make it go “CRUNCH! BANG!” In fact, I think I may keep the drive with this distro installed in the ThinkPad for awhile for use on a daily basis.”

I should add that I never replaced the drive in the ThinkPad and I’ve been using CrunchBang on it — my main computer, really, since this laptop never leaves my side — ever since I wrote this.

The reason I bring this up is because I’m about to give two presentations at SCALE 10X this weekend, and I had to go back and re-read this blog item (among other things) to talk about CrunchBang in a presentation entitled “On Beyond Zenwalk,” which is a riff, of course, on the Dr. Seuss book title “On Beyond Zebra.” You can be certain that the Debian representative in this mix, CrunchBang, will be ably represented.

The presentations will be streamed, and when I get the information, I will post it in a blog item as well as posting it on the CrunchBang forums. Watch this space.

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started developing software at Redwood Digital Research, a consultancy that provides FOSS solutions in the small business and home office environment.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Openbox, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Openbox, SCALE, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo

Wikipedia will go black on the 18th in protest of SOPA and PIPA, along with many other websites. This is a big deal.

Now, some of you may not know what SOPA or PIPA are, even though you read this blog, so I’ll try to explain it simply.

PIPA and SOPA are bills that are being pushed through the American government that would essentially allow the entertainment industry a really easy way to block any website in America that they feel like.

Most people and companies in the tech industries are against this, including big companies like Google, Facebook, Ebay, Amazon etc, because it doesn’t help fight “piracy”, it censors the internet in America and has wide-ranging consequences for everyone, not just people in America.

It would break DNS (the fundamental force of the internet), cause legitimate websites to be blocked (it has been done before, that things to get rid of piracy have cause legitimate websites to be blocked) and force many people outside of America to block these sites even though there is no law saying they should…as the governing bodies of the Internet are American organisations, and therefore subject to their laws.

The fundamental problem is…this will not stop piracy. Pirates will go around these issues and you cannot stop that. There are always ways around these things. You need to either go after the money…or don’t try.

If you want to help (even if you aren’t in America, you can still do something) – go to this website: http://americancensorship.org/ - it explains everything. Scroll down a bit and you can petition the American State Department to stop being hypocritical.

In solidarity with the websites that are going black on Wednesday the 18th, this blog will also be going black from 00:00 GMT till 00:00 GMT on the 19th. That is a full 24 hours it shall be out.

Those who know me well know that, among other things, I really don’t like ice hockey. Oh, I root for the San Jose Sharks in the National Hockey League because they’re the “home team” here, just over the hill in the Silicon Valley. But to be honest, it’s a sport that makes me grind my teeth. The truth of the matter is that I don’t like it because I can’t play it.

Skating on ice is hard enough. Canadians, Scandinavians and Russians: I know you all have a gene that allows you to turn pirouettes on the ice straight from the womb, and that’s great. But I can’t stay perpendicular for very long while on skates on frozen water. Add to this that I’d have to stay perpendicular on the ice and keep a rubber disk in front of me with a stick; difficulty squared. The clincher? Keeping perpendicular on the ice while keeping a rubber disk in front of me with a stick while people are trying to knock me down (which, of course, would anger me to bodily harm on the ice, and I understand that you can’t legally hit people with your stick, unfortunately).

“So,” you ask, “are we going to get to the point of this blog anytime soon, Larry?”

Yes.

While I don’t like hockey, currently my favorite article of clothing is my SCALE hockey jersey, which is now packed and ready for SCALE 10X. SCALE 10X is being held Friday to Sunday of this week, a mere four days from today, at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel.

A little history: At SCALE 9X last year, the powers that be at the show figured there should be some way to identify the staff on the floor of the show — something that would make them stand out. The result: SCALE hockey jerseys, with the name of the staff person across the back. If you were a speaker, a vendor, an exhibitor or anyone else at the show and you needed something, you needed to give a hip check to the person you saw running around with a hockey jersey.

Or you could find me: I’d be the one in the hockey jersey taking five steps and immediately falling down, but I digress.

I’m giving two presentations at SCALE 10X this year — “User Groups 2.1: Noob Morning in America” (a reprise of last years “User Group 2.0″ talk) at 10 a.m. Friday in the hotel’s beautiful Catalina D room, and “On Beyond Zenwalk” on Saturday at 3 in the hotel’s Los Angeles B room. I’m also your host for the CrunchBang GNU/Linux “Birds of a Feather” event on Saturday evening as well — so everyone, from the CrunchBang faithful to the merely curious, are welcome to stop by.

Just don’t ask me, over the course of the weekend, to shoot and score.

More on SCALE 10X coming this week in this blog. Watch this space.

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started developing software at Redwood Digital Research, a consultancy that provides FOSS solutions in the small business and home office environment.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Openbox, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Openbox, SCALE, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo

[Blogger's note: This is not a CrunchBang-specific blog item, but since it has to do with Free/Open Source Software and it explains a lot of how the paradigm works, it might be beneficial to CrunchBang users and the FOSS advocates among us. Thanks. --Larry]

Don Parris wrote a book a while back called “Penguin in the Pew.” The book is an outstanding guide for nonprofits — aimed at churches, but it can apply to any other nonprofit — in the way to use Free/Open Source Software, which Don like to call “libre,” but you know it’s the same thing.

While the book is due for an update (I say, nudging Don . . .), I also have to confess that I’ve used the points the book makes to apply to the for-profit business advantages of using FOSS in a business environment. This is important to me in my work at Redwood Digital Research, where a great part of our business is to provide small businesses and home offices with FOSS solutions instead of the closed-source proprietary software they are, for the most part, forced to use.

But I digress. Don wrote a brilliant blog item this morning in crossing verbal swords with a FOSS skeptic. It starts out as follows:

“Someone I know well and admire greatly recently sent me a question about the premise of my book, ‘Penguin in the Pew.’ His question, I think, reflects the mindset of many who remain outside the realm of the libre software domain. It has taken me some time to get around to answering his question, but I thought I would expand on my response to him here on my blog.”

And that he does, in a very complete, civil and concise way. It’s definitely worth a read.

Meanwhile, I have two presentations (three if you count the UpSCALE talk I’m doing with my daughter Mimi), a tsunami of press releases and other media work to do for SCALE 10X before next weekend (not to mention studying for the LPI-1 exam), so posts are going to be a little sparse over the next two weeks; unless, of course, they’re about SCALE. That could be disappointing to some and a relief to others.

But, as always, watch this space.

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started testing and developing software in his new home office, Redwood Digital Research, in the redwood-covered hills of Felton, California, USA. RDR is a consultancy that advises small business/home office owners on the benefits of using FOSS in the business environment.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Don Parris, Openbox, Penguin in the Pew, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Don Parris, Openbox, Penguin in the Pew, SCALE 10X

Time for my review of 2011′s tech predictions. Wide range of predictions, from gaming to phones to…well snarkiness. And I think I did not too bad last year. Let’s have a look.

• There will be at least 1 upgrade to either ps3, 360 or wii at E3. Most likely will be the wii, as I think it is the 1 most needing an upgrade. We haven’t heard any rumours yet, but that makes this one more fun. PS3 will hopefully not, as it should have a long time left in it as we haven’t reached its potential yet (and I’ve only had 1 for a year…) 360 will probably get 1 next year.

Wii U was announced. Wasn’t released, but I think that counts

• Google TV will have its Hero moment (arguably the point when android on phones became properly usable for everyday users). It will have a couple of upgrades, and actually start to be usable by normal people. This will then cause people to buy it, and make it useful and fun.

Well, I was right about the update. It was quite late in the year, but the Honeycomb update for Google TV made it really nice and useful and fun, and people are starting to like it. But still…not many people are buying it.

• We will drown in tablets and e-readers. The first colour e-reader will be released, and this will be kinda rubbish, cause the refresh rate will still be pretty crap. Better devices will not be released until 2012 (probably until after an Apple colour eReader, an i-nk-pad perhaps?).

Hmmmm. Ok partly right about the first bit. Wrong about the second bit. But technically probably will be right about the last bit? (not the Apple bit though…).

• The Notion Ink Adam will be released?

It was. And what an anti-climax that was. I never ended up getting one. Got a transformer instead.

• New iPad, iPhone and iPod touch (pretty obvious…) No MacBooks this year though. They seem to be going off MacBooks and releasing them with more than 1 year gap. They will slowly be turned into the iPad with a keyboard.

I was right, right and right. But then I was wrong. There was a Macbook refresh. Maybe even 2…can’t quite remember.

• Windows 8 will be announced, but will not be released till either the end of 2012, or beginning of 2013, but they will say beginning of 2012. It will look exactly the same, but will have great “security” features. Including, but not limited to, something “unhackable” and also a new “uncrackable” activation code system, that they seem to spend a lot of time on…

Right to start with, but then very wrong. It is nothing similar in look and feel…hello Metro interface.

• Commercially available 4K tv. People start to hear about it, forget about 3D. Although, people will continue to say that the number of pixels I have just now is fine, thank you very much. But they will buy one eventually anyways…

Nope. Sad times. Sometime though.

• Android 2.4 and 3.0 will be released within the year.

Hmmmm. Well, I was wrong about the numbers…but 3.0 and 4.0 should count I’d imagine. Who would have known exactly what would have happened with all this crazy tablet only version of Android and stuff. But I’ll take that as a win.

• Canonical will continue alienating people and projects, and will continue on its mission to mac-ify the Linux desktop.

Hmmmm wow, I was feeling snarky that day wasn’t I. I’ll just leave this one at the side for just now.

• Hulu will get off their backside and start their UK service. People celebrate…

Nope, and we didn’t even get Netflix last year In fact, apparently, Hulu just gave up. This is weird, and I wonder whether Netflix got some of these deals and managed to make them exclusive first? Who knows what actually happened. I guess we never will. The whole industry seems to be giving up on Hulu anyway.

 

All in all, a reasonable year. Lets just look forward to another year of awesome technical innovations. I’m excited. I hope you are too

Most of you already know this, but the Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 10X, like other Linux expos, holds events called “Birds of a Feather,” or BoF. A BoF is an informal meet-up or discussion, where expo attendees can get together and discuss a shared interest without a pre-designated agenda.

So since I am going to be there, I took the liberty of signing up for a CrunchBang BoF at SCALE 10X. If anyone else is a CrunchBang user who is attending SCALE and wants to give me a hand, all the better. If you’re a CrunchBang user attending SCALE and don’t want to help, well OK, but you’re still welcome to come by.

What I plan to do is simple — have some burned Live CDs and set up one of two laptops to be able to install live USB onto drives folks give me, if they want CrunchBang (it’s the “loaves and fishes” trick that Fedora once used when it ran out of media at OSCON one year), as well as having some information about #! to give to the curious. Depending on the turnout, we can see where we go.

Also, I’m open to ideas, too, if anyone has one (or several) on how to promote CrunchBang.

If other events that you might be going to have BoFs — I’ll be doing the same at Linux Fest Northwest in Bellingham, Washington, USA — and you feel up to the task, I would urge you to do the same.

[Apologies to those reading this on the CrunchBang Planet -- on the WordPress site, the SCALE 10X logo runs around the text just fine, but on the Planet, it doesn't seem to. I'm working on it.]

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started testing and developing software in his new home office, Redwood Digital Research, in the redwood-covered hills of Felton, California, USA. Watch this space.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Openbox, SCALE 10X, Southern California Linux Expo Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Openbox

I am not sure if it is just me, but I have always found New Year’s Eve to be problematic. Social doctrine dictates that I should probably celebrate the event by socialising in meatspace, which involves getting totally wankered on alcohol, dancing like a complete muppet, and freezing my tits off as I watch a squazillion pounds worth of gunpowder being shot into space. Now, call me a “boring old fart”, but personally that sounds like far too much complicated multitasking for one night.

So, when I read that the Hacker Public Radio crew were planning on holding a special 12 hour LIVE New Year’s Eve event, I danced with joy (well, not quite, but I was pretty excited.) I mean, what better way to celebrate the New Year than by joining some like-minded geeks for an open round-table discussion?

So, both Becky and I joined the event for a few hours and we spent our night chatting about all manner of things. Topics included some chatter about CrunchBang, mesh networks, drugs and naughty stuff, as well as other random subjects.

It was a fun event and I just wanted thank everybody involved for allowing Becky and I to be a part of it. It was definitely the geekiest New Year’s Eve that I have ever experienced and I really hope it becomes a regular event!

P.S. If you missed the event, but would like to listen to the discussions, the whole 12 hour show is being made available from the HPR site.

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Tagged: crunchbang linux, hacker public radio, hpr

Several days ago, it was pointed out by johnraff in this CrunchBang forum thread that if there is any “CrunchBang Guy” around these parts, let alone on the planet Earth, it’s Philip Newborough, aka corenominal.

No truer words were spoken, and thank you, johnraff, for pointing that out. In naming the blog, my intention was never to imply that Philip was not THE — that’s T-H-triple E — CrunchBang guy, and I apologize to anyone who misunderstood this.

The origin of this blog’s name stems from my original blog that I’ve been writing since 2007, Larry the Free Software Guy (briefly, “Larry the Open Source Guy,” before I saw Richard Stallman speak at the University of California Berkeley campus), which is of course a play on the name, “Larry the Cable Guy,” an American comedian who plays an oafish redneck who gets into a variety of situations (also, he’s the voice of Mater the tow truck in “Cars”). His catch phrase of “get ‘er done” can be found under the title of this blog, with a slight modification.

Of course, the similarities between the character and me end abruptly at the fact that we share a first name.

I realize that there are probably CrunchBang users on other continents that may now know the comic work of Daniel Lawrence Whitney (Larry the Cable Guy) and, as such, I’m pointing it out here.

Just so there’s no mistake going forward . . .

(Larry Cafiero is one of the founders of the Lindependence Project and has just started testing and developing software in his new home office, Redwood Digital Research, in the redwood-covered hills of Felton, California, USA. Watch this space.)

Filed under: CrunchBang, Debian, Openbox Tagged: CrunchBang, CrunchBang GNU/Linux, CrunchBang Linux, Debian, Openbox

Just recently, I have received a number of emails from people who have discovered CrunchBang. The following, by Paul McClellan, is just one example:

Wanted to tell you that after using linux as a desktop & server for 12+ years, I never found a linux distro that I liked for the packages, the stability & the aesthetics all at once. At most got two out of three. Until I found #! - I can’t tell you what an eerie yet delightful experience it was when I first started it up & found everything just so.

I hope to see you continue with this distro, while the donation is a tiny pittance, I hope to do more as time goes on & send like-minded folks along to try #!. I think there are many of us who are like me somewhat technical, yet have a sense of aesthetics and efficiency that recoils at either “bling” loaded desktops or worflow-interrupting instability.

My sincere esteem to you sir for making a Good Thing.

Now, I do not seek out affirmation that CrunchBang is a worthwhile project, but now-and-again it is nice to hear from people who seem to “get it”.

P.S. if anyone is reading this, I wish you a Happy New Year and I hope 2012 sends many good things your way! :)

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Tagged: crunchbang linux

So, I forgot to write this post before the New Year, so its coming out a few days late. But don’t worry, I hadn’t forgotten about it totally. Just was very busy.

 

1. Amazon release Adwords competitor.
2. Amazon opens first physical shop in Q4.
3. High street starts to change into what it’ll be in the future (blog post coming in a few days/weeks, hopefully)
4. Google starts to drop content businesses, becomes mainly service oriented.
5. Google TV starts to become popular, people realise how useful it can be. Many new ways of interacting with TVs will be announced and shown off at CES, and many will be released quite soon into the year.
6. A few point releases of Android, followed by Android 5.0 (Jelly) at the end of the summer
7. Apple TV (never to become iTV btw…) adds native apps.
8. Apple releases new iPhone in June, despite 4s only being out for ~8 months at that time.
9. Wii U released, flops quite spectacularly, like the 3DS.
10. New Xbox at least hinted at, at E3. Possibly not officially announced, but I think it might be.

 

So, these are my predictions for this year. I shall write a post going over what I said last year and see what came true etc. I also have my post about the future of the High Street coming up. Both of these will be hopefully soon, but I do have exams coming up, so it might be a week and a bit before they get up. Either way, I’m going to start blogging more again, because I’ve really not been doing much recently.