Arch Linux 24/7

Posted 9 months ago at 7:45 pm. 3 comments

I used to only use Arch Linux on an old, dusty 1.6 Ghz  Intel P4. I mainly used SSH to get what I needed done on it, and occasionally used VNC into the machine. But yesterday, I decided I would install arch linux on my current main machine so I could try out Compiz-Fusion. This computer is higher spec’d then the other one. I was running Windows XP on this computer, and just wanted to dual boot. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem. I defragged the hard drive in windows then booted up the gParted live CD resize the partition to make room for Arch. That went fine and dandy. I then installed Arch on that partition, set up grub. I rebooted the machine after the install, took out the CD, grub loaded but… Windows disappeared!

I probably could have somehow fixed that, but it was late at night and I really didn’t even know what I was thinking.  Anyways. I reinstalled Arch again after that to use up the whole hard drive. I installed gnome, compiz, and everything else I wanted and got going. I actually didn’t really mind much the new environment.  I liked it better than windows, but I was mad that I lost all of my files that were on windows. I would reinstall windows to get all my compatible applications back like photoshop (I did the little artwork at the top of this post in GIMP…YUCK)., but that would take to long considering I am still expecting to buy a MacBook Pro the minute they are released.  And most people are betting on a release either tomorrow or the 26th.

So I’m going to live with Linux 24/7  for a little bit I guess. I’ve been learning and doing a lot of C++ during my stay as I don’t have much else to do. I don’t like how it is such a task to set stuff up though. I can’t get my ip6000D printer working, or my Linksys WMP54GS wireless adapter (So, I’m wired right now). The sound is also sort of glitchy… it can only play from one source at a time. I can’t watch a youtube video and hear my Pidgin messages come in for instance. Other then that, I can’t really complain though. I am excited to move to Mac OS, but I’ll still have this computer running Arch afterwards. Linux is boring though, there is nothing to play and nothing to do. Even internet browsing feels diferent with. Everything looks smoother.

My Favorite Linux Distro

Posted 11 months ago at 12:26 pm. 0 comments

I’ve been using Linux on and off for about a year now. While I still use Windows XP as my main operating system, I have a relatively old computer with a 1.6Ghz Intel P4. I have tried a number of distros on it. Debian, Ubuntu, Damn Small, and Arch Linux. I like Arch the most. It runs the quickest, feels the most configurable, and is on a rolling release cycle with packages that aren’t frozen as in Debian. Before Arch, I liked Debian the most. It was very easy to set up, and had an awesome package management system (Aptitude). Arch however, has a very similar package management system (Pacmac). I thought ubuntu was really cool, EXTREMELY easy to set up and use as a desktop. The reason I didn’t like it is because it was just an even more simplified version of Debian, and I wanted to try something different, not to mention I SSH into the machine many times more than I VNC into it. I have learned so much about Linux over the past year I feel very comfortable with the command line doing almost anything. Arch Linux is my favorite distro out of all that I have tried for what I use it for. The only thing that was problematic for me was setting up xorg. The video card in the machine is an old Nvidia Vanta. It was troublesome for me getting the xorg.conf set up and working. But hey, it was my first time, Debian , Ubuntu, and DSL did it automatically.

Anyways, whats your favorite Linux distro? Comment this post and tell us why!