CrunchBang Linux

Hi..

I have been a Linux user for several years. My default distro was Linux Mint 9. Unfortunately, I only used the menu system and did not use the terminal much so I never really learned linux as well as I wanted.

Since my Mint system was old and my software was also getting old.... I decided to try  some distro hopping. I played whith several of the puppy versions.... still think they are pretty cool but wanted something much cleaner.

I tried Manjaro... a version of Linux using XFCE and Arch. This distro has a lot going for it but unfortunately, it also has the GUI upgrade process. This seemed broken for me (kept getting errors) and I did not want to be tied to a GUI again. I probably should have stayed with Manjaro and used "pacman" but since the GUI did not work for me I decided to look elsewhere.

Arch always seemed desirable and everyone was so proud of their installation. I looked at the Arch Wiki and was impressed. The installation from scratch did not look too difficult but then I was just following instructions so I wonder why that would be any different from just having a script do the install. I opted to try ArchBang.

The Archbang install script was pretty easy and my Arch with Openbox was up and running. The first thing I did not like was the order of the menu. Everythng was in the wrong place!  Terminal was burried deep..... and the web browser was akward to find as well. The base programs were very limited and so I started installing new software.  I found the "pacman -Syy" interesting... but several times it would give me errors. (core error I think). When I ran the Syy again it would work OK so I never looked into it.

After trying ArchBang for the weekend I had the typical newbie issues. For example, I installed a filemanager but it would not see my other hard drive. I used the terminal to fix that problem but then I did not have access rights for the hard drive!  I saw lots and lots of "tweaks" needed to get it up to where it was fun and userfriendly for me.  In my frustration I found #!.

I ran the #! live CD and it was the layout that first impressed me. The menu system was already nice. The filemanager found my 2nd hard drive and would let me access the files.   The choice of installed software was what I wanted. So........ here I am with my first post!

The only thing I need to "tweak" (so far) is to somehow save my dual monitor setup. On boot up, It reverts back to a duplication on the 2nd monitor until I change it. I use the ARandr GUI but it only lets me apply and not save. I assume I have to use xrandr somehow to save my settings but I have not had time to review that yet.... after all it has only been 20 minutes with #!.

Thank You #! for a nice Linux Distro! 

JohnIrish