Crunchbang your way to victory with the power of darkness
Gonna skip the basic stuff, but Crunchbang is essentially a “lightweight” minimalistic Debian linux that aims to Crunchbang your life(Use your imagination)! All the necessary tools are there for maximum productivity without the fluff or breakage.
Interface: Openbox is provided by default, but XFCE is offered in the post-installation script.
Package Manager: Synaptic Package Manager
Possibly one the best managers that I have experienced first hand, unlike the other ones provided in the Ubuntus. This package manager achieves its purpose by installing or “uninstalling” respective components and packages. For the non-gui users, apt-get is a godsend within the command line interface (CLI)
Media Player: VLC
A multipurpose player that will play any video or audio file for the average Joe. If those don’t suit your fancy, then jump to the command line or package manager and install your favorite player.
Web Browser: Chromium
It gets the job done and loads up fast. Luckily, the ability to install iceweasel (aka. firefox) is easy, thanks to the community backing this distribution. Just go into sources.list and comment out the crunchbang repo, enable the debian squeeze backports repo, and install away. There might be a few steps that were missed out, but clear concise instructions are found within the FAQ at the forums. Difficulty is very low.
Wireless Support: Excellent
Crunchbang supports most of the wireless adapters and cards out of the box, with the exception of my rosewill wireless n adapter (which uses realtek firmware drivers). If you have a wireless card or adapter that uses realtek drivers, you might need to borrow another wireless adapter or connect via ethernet to install “firmware-realtek” from Synaptic Package Manager. Other than that, it was smooth sailing for me. My only qualm at the moment is that all of my wireless adapters seem to lose connection with my router after prolonged use. I can only assume the cause to be overheated wireless adapters. I will further investigate this in the forums at a later time.
General office applications: Good
Abiword is installed by default and openoffice is offered post-installation. ‘Nuff said.
Stability: Rock Solid
Nothing breaks if the user sticks primarily to debian squeeze (stable). The only time this system would crunchbang itself is if the user recklessly flies into infinity and beyond and Sid decides to break him or her into two.
Community: THE BEST
Yes, call it egocentric, but it is a fact. Besides the awesome distro, the community atmosphere should be top priority on anybody’s distro list. Skip the formal crap, the trolling, and the condescending “check the wiki or this thread for your problem” bull crap. Five continuous months of crunchbang and frequenting on the forums have taught me that these guys got my back and know the meaning of teamwork. Post a problem and the community will work with you, even if you’re a newbie who has only found linux today. As long as you follow the house rules of proper netiquette (internet etiquette) and check the debian sources beforehand, the community will forever live on as a troll-free paradise. Heck, the Crunchbang community is a crazy fun place to socialize and unleash your creative ideas. All forms of life live at Crunchbang, which can lead to very interesting, witty and funny conversations. We also like our alcohol, music and think that coffee is a food group. If you disagree, voice your opinion in the forums and we’ll try to convince you with witty, constructive spot-on humor. No harm intended.
Overall: FANTASTIC!
All of the required applications are at the user’s fingertips. No issues were found with my 32bit/64bit systems unless I’m playing with Sid on my 32bit machine. So far, Sid hasn’t blown my system up yet. It is user-friendly but not nauseously friendly. Out of all the distributions, this is a keeper. Done are the days of distro-hopping. I can get down to business and get things done right in the way I want it. If something doesn’t agree with me, I can always crunchbang it into shape with my buds in the hood. Don’t forget that the community plays a big part of the crunchbang experience, so be sure to check it out the fun you’ve been missing.
Past Experiences:
- Ubuntu
- Linux Mint (Ubuntu and Debian)
- Peppermint One, Two, Ice
- Windows (All of them) but no more
Link:
http://crunchbanglinux.org
