Crunchbang

[zephyr]

Sad news about Crunchbang, but do respect Mr. Philip Newborough's decision on not going any further with the distro. Essentially is dead now. I know many folks who use VSIDO also use Crunchbang, I do.  There is a statement he posted in the Crunchbang forum on his reasons why he is quitting. -zephyr http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=416493#p416493

[blaze]

Really sad to see it go. But life goes on and who knows if we get pushed in a new and other fun direction.

[PackRat]

Going to be interesting if the community actually gets a new debian-based project off the ground.

[VastOne]

I think no matter what happens, it will always be compared to the original...

That is a dark horse no matter the outcome

aibo said it best on the IRC

RIP #!

[zbreaker]

Sad indeed, but Phillip did a phenomenal job with #! which I used for some time. He needs to do what he needs to do in life.
It was through #! that I became aware of a maverick with the nick VastOne and this wonderful thing called Vsido 

[VastOne]

^ Thanks..


Maverick... hmmm Wonder what Digit thinks... 

[ozitraveller]

Sad to see a flagship go down, but not really surprising Phillip has been out of for a while. I'm hoping that it will continue is some form.

In hindsight it might have been good to spread the knowledge, so it didn't come to this point. I seem to remember there were and probably still are, many interested in the debian build process.

Just my 2 cents.

[VastOne]

^ He never ever gave an inch on his processes and that was a great disappointment ... but we all find ways, no?

[ozitraveller]

Argh, that be true matey!

[ozitraveller]

I pretty sure, that if there was someone interested, that it could be done straight from the debian repos. The sacrifice would be in reducing/eliminating the custom packages and the repo.

Or, if there were a small team of maintainers, it could be done easily.

Is there a need to continue it though? The point has been made, I think, and copied/cloned as well.

[Snap]

I've spent a good time on Crunchbang. Sad it's dead. It was a reference and one of the best Debian Stable customizations available. Also, one of the best communities in the Nix world.

[zephyr]

First time I installed #!, I really didn't know what to make of it, after all I was new to Linux, and was sick of Windows. But, I kept it and messed with it, and when ran I met problems, and a lot back then, it seemed MachineBacon was the man with the answer and helped me tremendously, along with another individual Dano, they really guided me a lot. It is no wonder that the great folks of VSIDO were also on the Crunchbang forums helping out with scripts and sharing what  they could offer. I recently download an old smxi how to tutorial by VastOne, and used it on other distro's to install. All of you and I am sure you know who I am talking about, have been around a great while, I think Crunchbang and VSIDO have a lot of the same stuff under the hood, and that makes VSIDO the awesome machine that it is. Crunchbang has an enormous forum and hopefully the community will carry it forward, so much info that it is mind boggling. But, really what I am suggesting, I know here I go again. But, a vacuum has been created for a really awesome, lightweight, modern, and recent Debian Testing or Sid distro that maybe, why not reintroduce VSIDO openbox as an option. I am quite aware there is not a replacement of any substance. I also have VSIDO openbox on my computer, enjoying just how well it behaves and appearance. No one wants to be an opportunist at someone else expense, but a lot of folks are lost on what to turn to as a replacement. Just an idea, because I think VastOne and Jedi, and the other great talents on this forum could deliver an awesome openbox.  I don't think corenominal would be offended in the slightest.  Just saying, you know. -zephyr

[VastOne]

Thank you zephyr for being such a great addition to VSIDO...   

We are pretty much a democracy here and most every decision is made by the community...

We eliminated all but FluxBox from the choices on VSIDO primarily because there was not any other distro that used only it..  that is a unique flavor for VSIDO much like how if you wanted an OB distro you chose #!

I have no issue using and having OB as a choice with VSIDO but will say that it makes no sense (to me) as to why we would do it.  It is probably the easiest and lightest app ever to install with apt-get... and once you or anyone who loves OB installs it, you then proceed to make it just what you want... If there is a base VSIDO look to OB, what would that be?  Would we make it look just like FluxBox but a different menu style?

There are some requirements to any WM or addition... the tint2 systray and tint2 dock as it is now and the menu items as they are now... I do not care for icons on the menus in OB but if it is done that is fine too...

So choose it, make it and I will implement it..

For the record, I have done all I can to separate VSIDO (and myself) from #! as a build and a distro. I never ever wanted VSIDO to be anything like #!. The only thing I ever used was the excellent welcome script that is part of VSIDO

[zephyr]

I agree completely with the ease of installing openbox on probably any distro. Yes, apt-get delivers all the key apps for the build. I have enjoyed the completeness of VSIDO, and my distro of choice for just everything computer related. I do enjoying using openbox, very easy to configure and tweak. Fluxbox is almost identical, but a lot more visual effects and a bit more sophisticated. I do see your point. I think that VSIDO will experience an increase in  weekly downloads. No one does it better than VSIDO. By the way while I'm on the forum, I personaly liked the refracta installer, hope everyone decides to keep it. -zephyr

[jedi]

VSIDO has been Fluxbox only for quite some time now.  (aprx 2 years or a little longer?)  In the end, like VastOne has said, it was a community decision.  The offer was made to keep Openbox as a choice if someone would maintain a thread with configs, themes, and such to keep it looking uniformly the same with Fluxbox as much as possible, to maintain a sort of VSIDO identity.  No one really ever stepped into that role, and the end result turned out to be a Fluxbox only distro.

The first few releases of VSIDO originally came with the Xfce4.10 Desktop Environment, with Openbox as a second choice for a lean Window Manager.  This made lots of sense then as VSIDO had several Xfce4 dependencies with some of the default apps at that time.  (and still does)  So, we had Xfce4.10 for the bling and fancy looks and bells and whistles, and at the other end of the spectrum, Openbox for the minimalists among us.  Then along came a user named vrkalak, sometime in Feb. of 2013, and said "hey, have you guys looked at Fluxbox"?  Long story short, a lot of us tried it, loved it, and now it is the default for the distro!  The Fluxbox website even lists VSIDO as one of the few Linux distro's that use Fluxbox as the default Window Manager.  (btw vrkalak, your help back then was invaluable to all of us and very much appreciated!)

I remember being the second or third person to have the pleasure of using VSIDO before it was released 'into the wild' as they say.  VastOne adamantly made sure I knew that it was not a Crunchbang derivative, or in any way related to or comparable to Crunchbang.  We knew there would inevitably be folks from the dark side giving VSIDO a serious ride.  Crunchbang came with Openbox.  I can still remember the user who requested Openbox as a part of VSIDO in the beginning.  With it's small footprint and having no bloat in it, the decision was simple to include it.  However, over the next few months as VSIDO grew, the interest in Openbox became non-existent.

Sorry for the little history lesson, it is posted here as much for my benefit as anything else.  I'm sure there is a wonderful spot waiting over in the Window Managers thread for someone to start an OB configs and such post.  With the demise of Crunchbang, it would be simple enough for an Openbox fan to get some configs, styles, and themes posted there for those that might prefer OB to FB in a distro that will continue to "Roll On"...