#!CrunchBang Linux

I have always loved to take different flavors of Ubuntu for a spin and recently I set up Crunchbang Linux on my Laptop. I'll post a screen shot of my desktop at the end. Aside from being based on Ubuntu the main thing with Crunchbang is that it is heavily based on using lightweight applications. Its main window manager is Openbox, but it also has gtk in there too. Since my laptop is getting older (nearly five years old now) it needs the lightweight applications.

Crunchbang was very easy to set-up. I had zero problems with the install. It is as simple as putting the CD into the drive and letting it boot up to a live environment. Once you are the live environment you can play around with it to see if you like it. If you want to install it you can use the right-click menu to install Crunchbang to your hard drive. I had just installed Windows XP Pro (needed for games/work) on my 60 GB drive. So then I installed Crunchbang after that and it easy dual boots between both. You can find Crunchbang here. The most recent edition is 8.10.2 and it is also the edition that I installed.

If you want something that is not heavy on your system resources or maybe you have an older laptop like mine give Crunchbang a try.

(Desktop photo from interfacelift.com)

How to install a minimal Ubuntu

Sometimes you do not want to install anything more than a working command-line Ubuntu Linux system. Maybe you want to use another Desktop environment than GNOME, KDE, or XFCE. I have been trying out Openbox recently, but I wanted to get a completely fresh install of Ubuntu to work with. When I first started searching the net to find how to install a minimal Ubuntu system I came to dead ends. After digging deeper into search reults and forum posts I was able to find the answer. Here are the steps to get a minimal system from Ubuntu.

1. Download the Alternate install ISO.
2. Burn this to a disc and pop it into your computer to boot from it (unless you are doing this virtually, then you just need to make the virtual computer see the ISO).
3. When you get to the initial boot screen do not press enter right away. Instead press F4 to bring up a menu where you can select "Install a Command-Line System".
4. Now you press enter and follow the install process like normal.

Once you reboot you will be greeted by a friendly text prompt login. From here you can customize your system however you want it.