My Linux Desktop Setup

Published by Jess on May 20, 2008 under Desktops, Operating Systems

Now that I have pretty much all of the base setup of my desktop complete, I decided to post about it.

As mentioned before, my distribution of choice is Debian’s testing branch. When I first installed Debian I used Gnome as the desktop environment/window manager, and then I switched to XFCE to see how that worked out. While I really like both of those, after trying out Openbox at the recommendation of a friend I have fell in love with it. It’s very minimalistic and lightweight.

In addition to Openbox, I use fbpanel as my panel software, and conky to display the little bit of system information you can see in the screen shot on the left side.

Conky is a very powerful system information viewer. It let’s you print the information to the desktop, or in it’s own window. The configuration options are pretty easy to get the hang of, although I think it should be documented a little better. Conky has support for tons of information already such as CPU usage, Hard Drive statistics, uptime, and the ability to execute any command you normally would in a terminal and have the output displayed.

I’m still experimenting with various programs and such to figure out what works best for me, but as a running tally of what I am currently using:

  1. Openbox (window manager)
  2. Fbpanel (panels)
  3. Conky (system information/statistics)
  4. alsaplayer (audio)
  5. VLC Media Player (video)
  6. XChat (IRC)
  7. gFTP (FTP Client)

On an ending note, I get most of my wallpapers from Interfacelift. It’s a really nice collection of crystal clear high resolution wallpapers.

From Windows to Linux

Published by Jess on April 24, 2008 under Operating Systems

I finally made the switch from Windows as a primary desktop to Linux. My distribution of choice is Debian. It’s a great distribution and their net-install disc makes for a quick ISO download and burn. Then you can choose how much you want to install, instead of just downloading a huge image file, and removing things you do not want or need.

I’m currently using Gnome for the environment. I haven’t played around with the different pre-installed themes or anything yet, but that is just because I’ve recently finished setting up the basic stuff on the system. I’d also like to venture off into other window managers sometime, but for now I think I’ll stick with what I have, at least until I get bored with it.

For a little more information, I still plan on being an active Windows user. My current laptop (as mentioned in a previous post) is still running Vista, but I am thinking about putting XP back on it, as I believe it to be more stable than Vista will ever be.

Using Linux

Published by Jess on April 8, 2008 under Operating Systems

I have used Linux in both environments (Desktop, and Server). Linux is a very great platform for many reasons with reliability being one of top features I use it for.

There are a couple of distributions that I alternate in use, or have more than one machine running either as the host or using a program to run one ‘inside’ of another, such as VirtualBox.

Debian is one of my favorites. I have only used it for servers so far, but I must say it does a great job. They have several different downloads you can choose from. The one I use the most would be the netinst (net install) ISO file. It contains only the minimum needed to get Debian up and running, and provides you with a method to download and install packages, so you are only putting on there what you want, and don’t have to spend time removing applications that you never intended to have on there.

Arch Linux was both my server and desktop operating system for awhile at one time. I originally downloaded and tried it at the request of a friend, but after using it I liked it more and more. It’s pretty quick to install, and once you get the hang of it, fairly easy to use and maintain.

Currently I am using Windows as my desktop operating system, but when I made the change I didn’t have another machine good enough to run Windows around. Unlike then, I have a laptop with Vista preloaded on it. When I get around to it I will be putting XP on my laptop, and Debian back on my desktop, which is currently running XP.

A friend of mine posted something similar to this titled Why I use Linux. I thought it was a great idea to tell others about my reasons for liking and using Linux too.