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Ubuntu CrunchBang on my old Compaq Armada: Works very well :) :)

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I have an old Armada E500 which could run XP, barely (1GHZ, 512MB ram).

I found a neat Ubuntu distro called CrunchBang. So far so good. Performance is very good, graphics look good, install was easy and painless.

Plus the name CrunchBang just amuses me….

The good part:

Ubuntu had NO problems finding any hardware, including several wireless adapters. Xwindows loaded right up, the sound worked, etc.

I was able to get the wireless networking going very easy. It’s been awhile since I loaded a laptop with Linux, and I have to say this worked easier and detected hardware better than XP, right out of the box.

The Ubuntu package manager, Synaptic, allowed me to grab and install several apps very easily, and it allowed me to update all the apps, including Firefox, perfectly. There are even packages for things like FlashBlock (firefox addin) and Wireshark (protocol analyzer).

Challenges:

Getting it to print to my HP printer (shared off an XP workstation) took some time. HPLIB is a great set of programs, and the printer drivers for my printer were there. But in order to print, I had to get samba working properly, which was a little tricky.

Getting Samba to browse shared folders on my XP machines was difficult. After fiddling with one app called smb fusion for an hour, I installed SMB4K and *bam* C= worked perfectly.

Figuring out how to add items to the menu took a few minutes.

And then there are the silly things, like trying to figure out where an app is installed, so I can add it to the program menu. After working with Windows for close to 30 years, having to figure out how to add a shortcut is humbling, very humbling.

For example Wireshark is in /usr/share/applications/ or something like that.

But overall, it works well, performance is great, and the interface is neat. I give it two thumbs up. :-bd :-bd

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well, at least

In reply to Ubuntu CrunchBang on my old Compaq Armada: Works very well :) :)

ubuntu was good for something. 😉

Check the livecd version of Mandriva [ Mandriva One ] the KDE option.
you will see the KDE 4 fiasco, and not have to actually install it to do so.

see if you like how easy Mandriva’s DrakXtools [ aka Control Centre ] make doing those same tasks.

Then, PCLinuxOS, the Mandriva based livecd which refused to go to KDE 4.

both make Ubuntu look really, really bad as far as easy system administration, and use the other school of how a system should function, with a TRUE system admin account*, not just sudo.

*Mandriva configures to block that account from logging into in runlevel 5 [ gui only mode, the default ] They so have the control centre run suid to allow admin tasks, but it still requires the admin password.

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