
#! is a Debian
GNU/Linux based distribution offering a great blend of speed, style
and substance. Using the nimble Openbox window manager, it is highly
customizable and provides a modern, full-featured GNU/Linux system
without sacrificing performance. Put simply; CrunchBang could be
thought of as a layer built on top of Debian, specifically to provide
a great Openbox experience.
I noticed #! on
distrowatch.com a few
years ago but didn't give it a try until 12 months ago. I was
drawn to it because like most people in the tech industry, I have some
older functioning laptops & desktops that are serviceable and need a performant modern OS. Over
time the major operating systems such as Windows & OSX become
bogged down and performance tanks. Occasionally I've become somewhat
attached to particular machines such as the netbook I'm using to write this
blog because it's a very small & light device I use for travel. What ever the
reasons we may have for using older devices there should always be
available OS options for community users.
#! has brought life
back to my beloved netbook. In the past, I've installed many “light” weight
versions of Fedora & Ubuntu but they were all still too bloated &
slow. Finally I decided to try #! and eureka I struck gold!!! #! is
great because it offers an upto date Debian platform that is very
performant on older hardware.
Below are some of my opinions on #! :
Positives
- easy to install
- offers a snappy OS revival to older laptops & computers
- uses the Debian apt-get package system
- provides easy to use package install scripts to install the latest browsers, storage providers & other cloudy software
- well maintained
- has a great user community & knowledge base
Cons
- OpenBox can have a bit of a learning curve for non-linux users
- video card driver support limited for some of the older nvidia cards
- wouldn't use this distro as production servers
I have installed #! on
most of my favorite older machines and I'm very satisfied with the
overall experience & performance. So download the a #! install package, format a 2GB USB drive & install #! today. I'll post
random tips as encounter helpful information to share so keep an eye
on this blog for things to come.
Share some your favorite aspects of #!
-a
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