benjarvis.org

New Heights in Linux Geekdom.

It’s old news to people that know me, but for the benefit of the new people I should mention that I’m an avid obsessive Linux user and an open source software fan zealot. I primarily use Ubuntu on my laptop and dual-boot in to Windows for Ableton Live, iPod syncing, and to play World of Warcraft. I LOVE Linux, but so far nothing in the Linux/Open Source world touches Ableton Live.

That being said, it’s also true that I’m a lazy user and don’t like to read pages of instructions. Is it too much that I expect the install CD to basically set everything up for me? Because of this I have stuck with Fedora and Ubuntu which are no more hard to install than Windows and have tons of online community support. Sure I’ve flirted with more hands on Linux distributions like Gentoo and Slackware. But, I usually get through most of the install, hit a snag, get frustrated, and go with an Ubuntu install. Why mess with success?

Today I decided to set up one of the spare boxes that was donated to me. As a side note, I accept any and all PC related donations. In my spare time, I refurbish the boxes and pass them on to people that don’t have a PC. Where was I? Oh yeah, the spare box. Anyway, I needed to put something on this box, but it’s a Pentium 2 with 64 MB (!) of RAM. I recently put Xubuntu on a similar machine, but it had 128 MB and it just BARELY ran. It was the kind of slow that you can get used to if you don’t have faster PCs to compare it to. This poor old dog was just to under powered for even the most light weight of the Ubuntu family.

I decided to try a roll-my-own solution. I installed the latest Debian using only the so called Standard System. The standard system is basically the bare minimum needed to boot to a command line prompt with Apt configured and network access. This means that it did little more than edit text files and basic file management. Using apt, I installed the Xorg X windows system (to get a GUI). It configured and started correctly. I was impressed. Then I decided I would use Fluxbox as my Window manager. It worked! I couldn’t believe it. I was in Fluxbox and it actually ran pretty snappy, but looked really modern. Nice!

To really make the machine independent (so I didn’t have to keep looking at my laptop for any setup info), I needed to install a web browser. I LOVE Firefox and would love to run that, Debian doesn’t have Firefox. For licensing reasons, Debian has IceWeasel (which apparently is now called IceCat). It’s Firefox with the trademark artwork and the Mozilla plugins links replaced. It’s great, but even IceWeasel is too intense for The Ancient of Days so I needed something light. Luckily, there is a Firefox derived browser called Kazehakase. It’s pretty cool. I like that there are beginner, intermediate, and advanced UI settings that lets you set up your preferences as an advanced user, but then use the browser as a simple beginner user. It has a clean interface and a fresh approach to a common tool (the Firefox fork).

After I had a browser I was free to look up important issues like changing the look of the window, fonts, and wallpaper. I had to pick out a terminal program to replace xterm (I chose Eterm), a GUI editor (I chose Leafpad), a file manager (I chose ROX-Filer), and a few other bits and pieces of the basic tools you use all the time. It was really neat to consider WHY I wanted a given tool rather than just accept the default ones that show up in Ubuntu or Fedora. Even better, I could get rid of the default tool when I replaced it. It’s a really organic method of package selection. I would do whatever I wanted to do until I found I didn’t have a tool to do the next thing I wanted to do. Then I’d look up what was available and pick one. Usually it seems that desktops are so tied together that you have to keep a tool around even though you never use it (or use a better tool) because some other tool depends on some aspect of that default tool. For an OCD guy like me its frustrating. This way, you get a truly unique desktop that is made up of your favorite tools. Linux is all about choice, but this from-the-ground-up style of installation exceeds my concept of freedom of choice. I’m not going to replace my production machines Ubuntu install, following the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” rule. But in the future, this is definitely an option. I still think compiling from source is wacky though.

All in all I’m proud of myself. I learned a lot and ended up with a cool desktop. The command line is nothing to fear.