Some may notice that there is no "release number" there, for example - Linux Mint Xfce 10
That is because this the the Debian base, as opposed to the Ubuntu base.
Going back a little bit, I was very happy when Linux Mint began the Debian based branch. For one thing, it is lighter and faster. I had played around with different distributions to find lightweight ones that I liked, but always came back to Linux Mint for my "main" system, if you will. (Zenwalk has been good to me and I will always give props to Slax.) ["Props?" Really?] {whatever. hush.}
Another reason for wanting the Debian base, was the rolling distribution. There is no "system release" as such. No need to "Reinstall" to get the latest. In other words, the distribution as a whole is "update-able" just like the applications. There is an XKCD png illustrating a weakness here, but.... pfffft.
So, only the Gnome "edition" was available in the Debian tree here with Linux Mint, I installed it. All was good, but I was never a big fan of Gnome - favouring thinner desktop managers like Xfce, Fluxbox and LXDE. Not a problem, I simply installed Xfce and I could choose between Gnome and Xfce at login.
"Okay, Elqueue," you may be saying, "I thought you wanted to avoid doing re-installs, but you just did that for... what - loosing gnome?"
Kinda. I am rather quite fickle.
First step was DL'ing the iso. I torrent it whene'er possible. And that took much of yesterday. I then left the torrent running through the night to help seed. Then there was the backup. FORTUNATELY, my porn folder was kinda small. That was a joke. There were things I had to back up, but for a large part, the media (music and movies) are on a file server, scripts that are NOT part of... well, never-you-mind that... are kept in sync with an on-line backup. And google docs has most of my fiction and whatnot.
Backing up would have, more or less, been a bit of a technicality as I did not /have/ to format my /home - it is on its own volume - but it is good practice. AND I planned on formatting /home too so I could get the "clean" experience. (Yes, I could have gotten the "clean" experience by installing it in a VM, but this was good for me. Really. In ways I could not begin to describe.)
Okay - backups done and final tweeting ... tweeted ... time to boot up to the live DVD.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Yes, this is a good thing; installing from a Live media - I was tweeting and whatnot during the installation.
Okay, so install done, rebooted, next thing, as always, is the update/upgrade. Yes, I use apt from the command line. This took a long time too. I may set up my display /before/ doing this in the future because I was stuck at a low rez until that was done.
Then there are the screen tweaks - UI this and that which will be poked at for a while. Not a requirement, but fun nonetheless.
Let us look at that more slowly - the process was so slick and easy that it kinda went by you there, didn't it.
-Download the ISO. Yea! What fun!
Booted to it on a usb stick. More like a tiny postage stamp, but it still gets called a stick, right?
-Backed up. Okay, cool. I have been good about keeping the backup fairly current anywho.
This is like a one click action because I have already had it set up. I /could/ have just copied /home/lq/what.I.want* to the network share, but that is not always the best practice.
-The Live DVD. Yep, plenty to have fun with while the install is going, but that was not that long anywho.
Click install, select English, time zone, keyboard, user name, computer name, password, select the volume mount point (and hey, they already expect / and /home and swap, so that is just confirmation. And I did click the checkbox to format my /home - it does not by default.) Then there was the grub install option and away it went.
Launch FireFox and surf away.
-First boot. Sure, the updates took longer than the install, but my connection is not that fast. Would have been the same no matter the distro.
Again, FireFox was available for this. And creating other mountpoints, ln -s's, and whatnot while all that was going on.
-Set the display, reboot, start with my add-ons. Including getting the media, that was like, 5 painless steps.
Well, obviously, I cannot count for diddly, but you get the idea.
Now, one of those things that needed setting up after the updates was the on-line backup sync. My "toolbox" folder is in there with all my little scripts for doing other things (like tweeting #fortunes and building slideshows out of image directories, and... well, all my scripts). So they take a moment to make sym-links into a bin dir. But all this stuff is "fun" anyway when you do not have to do it often and it is by choice.
Another was google-chrome. It syncs up as well so all my bookmarks and settings and addons are all there.
And, to be fare, there were a few apps I removed and daemons to turn off.
Then the blog. I /could/ have been working on it during the process, but I did not feel so ambitious.
Will I install gnome libraries on top? Well, I am sure that sooner or later some app that I install will need some piece of gnome or KDE. And that is not a big deal.
Was all this worth it? Sure, yeah.
What about all kinds of extras and addons and devices and drivers and things? Not a biggie for me, anywho. I attach very little and that what I do is very plug-n-play friendly.
Will it be this easy for everyone? Meh - I am not everyone. But for just about any standard user (gamers notwithstanding) with any reasonably resent computer (and this is a netbook for mercy's sake) this really should be about what you experience. If this "review" seems to be lacking detail, it is because this is just so simple and easy. Sure, I /could/ have gotten rather verbose about it. (I am typing in my desired username now: l followed directly by a q. Now I am entering my password... twice. I received a message that my password was strong. That is good. My hostname must be all lower case... careful now... Okay. I manged to type it all without hitting the shift key.)
If you really want a blow-by-blow because "I am a windoze user and I want to quit getting viruses - what exactly do I need to do?" Let me know and I will make a step-by-step walk-through. from start to finish - how to make a bootable usb device with Linux Mint Xfce (201104) on it and everything. Because, OBVIOUSLY I have no life. =^_^=
Simply send one 2GB (or more) flash drive to the [hey, let me just take that back out] Airport c/o me and if you get it back - ever - then you did not send it correctly.
But seriously, I will post a walk-through if I get feedback requesting one.
Oh, and it is snowing, so I am posting this "early" rather than taking a bike ride. I am not even scheduling it to post later.
Take Care.
LQ
Showing posts with label Xfce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xfce. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Change of the Window Manager
It has been a while since I posted anything on LINUX.
For roughly a month, I have been enjoying the Linux Mint Debian Edition 64Bit. As I am not really interested in discussing the 32bit release, I am just going to refer to it as LMDE and be done with it - you can trust that I am talking about the 64bit release.
So. As mentioned in other blogs, I have mentioned that I have never been all that fond of GNOME and KDE can be fairly heavy weight on its own. I have used the Linux Mint Fluxbox, and XFCE and whatnot, but I have stuck it out with the LMDE GNOME standard to give it its full whatnot. Vague much? Well, sorry about that. If you have been following along this month, you may note that I have not been spending a great deal of system testing, just working through the "How I Use My Computer" aspect of testing.
As for the difference in the Debian over the normal Ubuntu based distro? It seems to not even be a factor on the day to day. My system is stable, releases are easy, things update nicely... Meaning, in short, I have rebooted much less, stayed more current, and my system has not been getting in the way of my doing-things.
As for the apps - well, the software manager gives me (almost) everything I need to be happy without much fuss. This is important to me. I mean, sure, any halfway descent distro is going to have some kind of package manager and it is not that big a to go, Oh, Hey, Where is VIM? apt-get install vim and you are done. So, the package thing - what I am saying here, is that it does not get in the way. Now, remember that "almost" up there? What is the deal with chromium-browser vs. google-chrome? I mean, really? Can someone please explain to me (or rather don't and I will go look it up) why I have to go and manually get the deb package from google and install it? Why is it not just an option in the repository? Why do I care at all? For the apps. Specifically Muro. But nevermind that.
My desktop was easily configured, and reconfigured as I worked through the options. I wrote a php script to take a directory, find the images, and make a wallpaper list xml thing so I have my rotating wallpaper, etc. It has been good. CPU speed and RAM have kept me content.
And complacent.
So - I installed XFCE this morning/last night (don't know, I just couldn't sleep). Wow. I forgot how fast a desktop manager can be. I am wondering to myself why I was content.
When I am writing, coding, reading, drawing, etc, I typically am full-screen. It is a descent enough size, but with my nice, small font (to make it harder for anyone to "accidentally" read over my shoulder, DAD) I prefer having what I'm doing fill my screen rather than what I may switch over to, or my background, or... whatever.
Sure, I would really like to make my wallpaper rotate again here, but then, that is one more thing out there, running, taking resources away from my fingertips.
But, before I go through all that, I am probably going to give FLUXBOX a spin.
Not that I have anything really against GNOME and KDE... just not for me, full time.
Oh, and I did install Thunar to use instead of Nautilus before going through all this. That was one of the things that was missing from the release that I really wanted to use instead.
For roughly a month, I have been enjoying the Linux Mint Debian Edition 64Bit. As I am not really interested in discussing the 32bit release, I am just going to refer to it as LMDE and be done with it - you can trust that I am talking about the 64bit release.
So. As mentioned in other blogs, I have mentioned that I have never been all that fond of GNOME and KDE can be fairly heavy weight on its own. I have used the Linux Mint Fluxbox, and XFCE and whatnot, but I have stuck it out with the LMDE GNOME standard to give it its full whatnot. Vague much? Well, sorry about that. If you have been following along this month, you may note that I have not been spending a great deal of system testing, just working through the "How I Use My Computer" aspect of testing.
As for the difference in the Debian over the normal Ubuntu based distro? It seems to not even be a factor on the day to day. My system is stable, releases are easy, things update nicely... Meaning, in short, I have rebooted much less, stayed more current, and my system has not been getting in the way of my doing-things.
As for the apps - well, the software manager gives me (almost) everything I need to be happy without much fuss. This is important to me. I mean, sure, any halfway descent distro is going to have some kind of package manager and it is not that big a to go, Oh, Hey, Where is VIM? apt-get install vim and you are done. So, the package thing - what I am saying here, is that it does not get in the way. Now, remember that "almost" up there? What is the deal with chromium-browser vs. google-chrome? I mean, really? Can someone please explain to me (or rather don't and I will go look it up) why I have to go and manually get the deb package from google and install it? Why is it not just an option in the repository? Why do I care at all? For the apps. Specifically Muro. But nevermind that.
My desktop was easily configured, and reconfigured as I worked through the options. I wrote a php script to take a directory, find the images, and make a wallpaper list xml thing so I have my rotating wallpaper, etc. It has been good. CPU speed and RAM have kept me content.
And complacent.
So - I installed XFCE this morning/last night (don't know, I just couldn't sleep). Wow. I forgot how fast a desktop manager can be. I am wondering to myself why I was content.
When I am writing, coding, reading, drawing, etc, I typically am full-screen. It is a descent enough size, but with my nice, small font (to make it harder for anyone to "accidentally" read over my shoulder, DAD) I prefer having what I'm doing fill my screen rather than what I may switch over to, or my background, or... whatever.
Sure, I would really like to make my wallpaper rotate again here, but then, that is one more thing out there, running, taking resources away from my fingertips.
But, before I go through all that, I am probably going to give FLUXBOX a spin.
Not that I have anything really against GNOME and KDE... just not for me, full time.
Oh, and I did install Thunar to use instead of Nautilus before going through all this. That was one of the things that was missing from the release that I really wanted to use instead.
Monday, March 15, 2010
The latest in the OS saga
(Pardon the bit of redundancy.)
1) I have my /home on a separate drive, so whenever I install a new os, 90% of my settings persist, depending on if my WM changes and whatnot.
2) All my music and movies and stuff are on a separate file server, so I just copy in my fstab and proxy settings after a new install and all that stuff is back and ready to go.
2) Over time, different WM's using some of the same components, and thus, configuration files, all kinda start stepping on each other so...
3) I kinda had to step through the dot configs and clean things up a bit.
I did, while at it, try again to see how things were going with Slackware. I have SLAX on a USB drive for forensics and for when visiting other systems (i.e. the library) and it does well for me, but the "purest" in me is ever-striving for that no-nonsense, back-to-basics, squeaky-clean system. The problem is, I am not truly that kind of users.
I romanticize about having a pure, businesslike workstation where I work on things without distraction. Where everything is well, laid-out and easy to read, even if it is not so pretty. But, again, I am not that kind of user. All my stuff is personal. I can't/don't do that kinda cool stuff I daydream about.
Yes, I installed Slackware 13. I like it. It is nice. I have no complaints about it (other than that it comes with /everything/ installed). But still, there is just something about LinuxMint that is so... friendly. I like saying I am a Mint user. It feels like being a part of something, in this very, non-committal way.
I would love to provide reviews of all this stuff - share my findings and opinions and experiences with each distribution, but I just do not know what to write about.
(But I kinda did like how simple it was to just pick a "SlideShow" wallpaper in the desktop settings for Slackware (KDE4) and fully intend to make this happen under LXDE)
So, I am , once again, back to Linux Mint Helena (8) LXDE Community Edition RC1 with today's fresh update.
I recently upgraded someone's computer from Win-doze Vista to Win-doze 7. I have played around with various versions of Micro$oft OS's, but they just feel so... clumsy. They just feel so... "Here, let me do that for you." True, most of the popular LINUX distros now-a-days are rather automated, but it does not feel the same. It feels like if I stay on this thought-thread, I will just get into a lot of whining and moaning about this or that, so I will move on.
FluxBox is really cool. It has been my fave WM. LXDE may be replacing it though. Sure, where would these be without XFCE, right? XFCE is plenty good enough on it's own, and I am still working on the thing about them that makes me like one over another. I feel almost bad that I cannot qualify (no, quantify) what it is about them, but not too bad. I like what I like.
I do REALLY like KDE, but it does get in the way a little sometimes. I think I had mentioned before that installing the KDE distro, then installing FluxBox for the WM was like getting the best of both worlds. Hmmm... maybe I should install the KDE distro and then add LXDE on top. Perhaps I will do that with Mint #9
I think that about wraps it up then. I've got things to do other than play with my desktop settings. Surely I do.
Take Care,
LQ
"Machine dreams hold a special vertigo..." -- William Gibson, Count Zero
1) I have my /home on a separate drive, so whenever I install a new os, 90% of my settings persist, depending on if my WM changes and whatnot.
2) All my music and movies and stuff are on a separate file server, so I just copy in my fstab and proxy settings after a new install and all that stuff is back and ready to go.
2) Over time, different WM's using some of the same components, and thus, configuration files, all kinda start stepping on each other so...
3) I kinda had to step through the dot configs and clean things up a bit.
I did, while at it, try again to see how things were going with Slackware. I have SLAX on a USB drive for forensics and for when visiting other systems (i.e. the library) and it does well for me, but the "purest" in me is ever-striving for that no-nonsense, back-to-basics, squeaky-clean system. The problem is, I am not truly that kind of users.
I romanticize about having a pure, businesslike workstation where I work on things without distraction. Where everything is well, laid-out and easy to read, even if it is not so pretty. But, again, I am not that kind of user. All my stuff is personal. I can't/don't do that kinda cool stuff I daydream about.
Yes, I installed Slackware 13. I like it. It is nice. I have no complaints about it (other than that it comes with /everything/ installed). But still, there is just something about LinuxMint that is so... friendly. I like saying I am a Mint user. It feels like being a part of something, in this very, non-committal way.
I would love to provide reviews of all this stuff - share my findings and opinions and experiences with each distribution, but I just do not know what to write about.
(But I kinda did like how simple it was to just pick a "SlideShow" wallpaper in the desktop settings for Slackware (KDE4) and fully intend to make this happen under LXDE)
So, I am , once again, back to Linux Mint Helena (8) LXDE Community Edition RC1 with today's fresh update.
I recently upgraded someone's computer from Win-doze Vista to Win-doze 7. I have played around with various versions of Micro$oft OS's, but they just feel so... clumsy. They just feel so... "Here, let me do that for you." True, most of the popular LINUX distros now-a-days are rather automated, but it does not feel the same. It feels like if I stay on this thought-thread, I will just get into a lot of whining and moaning about this or that, so I will move on.
FluxBox is really cool. It has been my fave WM. LXDE may be replacing it though. Sure, where would these be without XFCE, right? XFCE is plenty good enough on it's own, and I am still working on the thing about them that makes me like one over another. I feel almost bad that I cannot qualify (no, quantify) what it is about them, but not too bad. I like what I like.
I do REALLY like KDE, but it does get in the way a little sometimes. I think I had mentioned before that installing the KDE distro, then installing FluxBox for the WM was like getting the best of both worlds. Hmmm... maybe I should install the KDE distro and then add LXDE on top. Perhaps I will do that with Mint #9
I think that about wraps it up then. I've got things to do other than play with my desktop settings. Surely I do.
Take Care,
LQ
"Machine dreams hold a special vertigo..." -- William Gibson, Count Zero
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Helena KDE CE released
Another visit to the OS Saga. Sat, Helena KDE Community Edition was released. Sunday I downloaded it (via torrent and left it up the whole day to help with the initial download hit.) And yesterday, I installed it. I did not have as much time to spend exploring it as I wanted, but it gave me no grief.
Today I am cleaning out some of the unwanted packages. I think then I am going to install the Xfce WM so I can flip flop depending on my mood. (Sometimes I want to dedicate my resources to what I am doing rather than where I am doing it.) But don't get me wrong. KDE is still my favourite place to work/play/goof off.
=^_^=
LQ
Today I am cleaning out some of the unwanted packages. I think then I am going to install the Xfce WM so I can flip flop depending on my mood. (Sometimes I want to dedicate my resources to what I am doing rather than where I am doing it.) But don't get me wrong. KDE is still my favourite place to work/play/goof off.
=^_^=
LQ
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