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BunsenLabs


saturnian

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BunsenLabs Linux is a distribution offering a light-weight and easily customizable Openbox desktop. The BunsenLabs distribution is based on Debian's Stable branch and is a community continuation of the CrunchBang Linux distribution.

 

https://www.distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=bunsenlabs

 

Home page: https://www.bunsenlabs.org/

 

I used to run CrunchBang, until its dev quit the project. I'm always interested in anything based on Debian Stable, and I enjoy using Openbox; I was saddened when CrunchBang came to an end. I thought it was an excellent distro.

 

One thing I enjoyed about CrunchBang was that I could take a look at its config files and use that info to help me set up Openbox in other installations.

 

I was aware that folks from that project were working on a spin-off, but I hadn't gotten around to checking back to see how things were coming along

 

I haven't tried BunsenLabs yet; I'll be kinda busy for the next week or so, but I'm planning on taking it for a spin sometime after that. Not sure if anyone here has taken a look at it yet.

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Hedon James

Depends on how you define "take a look"! LOL! I haven't installed or played with it, but I did discover it recently (had never heard of it before!) and it has proved to be an excellent resource in my recent Fluxbox quest. Even though Bunsen uses Openbox, there is a healthy contingent of Fluxbox users on that site and they share configuration tips & tricks with each other. And there's a boatload of ex-Crunchbangers on there. In my limited exposure, they seem like a good group who truly help each other out.

 

If you can imagine everyone HERE agreeing on a specific base distro, then migrating en masse to a newly created site, where we all shared information on our specific customizations of that distro...that's what Bunsen looks like from my outside perusing.

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Yes, BunsenLabs are admirably continuing the Crunchbang tradition. The forums have the same goldmine of information and expertise.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got around to installing BunsenLabs "Hydrogen". CrunchBang lives! Openbox lovers, rejoice! Very nice distro.

 

They have the tint2 panel placed horizontally at the top of the screen, which I'm okay with for now even though I usually prefer a vertical panel on the left side.

 

The main menu includes several pipe menus, which I don't use when I'm installing Openbox from scratch, and various entries for installation scripts to make it easier for folks to add certain apps (I haven't tried running any of those scripts -- it's easy enough for me to go to Synaptic to get what I want). The first run starts up a "Welcome" post-installation script that's supposed to help users finish configuring the system; I passed on that, too, figuring that I probably didn't need it. It can be run later with the bl-welcome command.

 

The main menu also includes links to some helpful stuff -- Debian's documentation page, the Debian Administrator's Handbook, the Debian Wiki, etc.; also, Openbox, tint2, and Conky websites. There's even one for the Arch Wiki! Nice touch -- I referred to the Arch Wiki quite a bit even before I ever started using Arch.

 

They've gone with sudo instead of su, as did CrunchBang, as I recall. Fine with me, I can go either way.

 

Some of the default apps:

 

- Iceweasel

- Geany text editor

- Thunar

- Terminator

- LibreOffice Writer (but not the rest of LibreOffice)

- Gnumeric

- Galculator

- Mirage

- xfce4-screenshooter and scrot

- VLC media player

- Conky

- tint2 panel

- Nitrogen (for handling wallpapers)

- obmenu for editing the Openbox menu

- Openbox Configuration Manager

- lxappearance

- Synaptic

- GParted

 

I haven't made all that many changes yet, but I've added a few apps, going with Firefox-ESR to use instead of Iceweasel, SpaceFM to use instead of Thunar, xfce4-terminal rather than Terminator, and a few other things. Made a few edits to the main menu, swapped out some launchers on the panel, increased the number of workspaces from two to three, changed the cursor from white to black.

 

If you're like me, you'll want to know what the default repo set-up looks like. In /etc/apt/sources.list:

 

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian jessie main non-free contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian jessie-updates main contrib non-free

 

And there's this line in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list:

 

deb http://pkg.bunsenlabs.org/debian bunsen-hydrogen main

 

 

I'm quite impressed with what I've seen so far. Very good job.

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Here's one, with Firefox minimized:

 

bunsenlabs_1.png

 

I haven't changed from the default wallpaper.

 

There's a screenshot slideshow at https://www.bunsenlabs.org/. The first shot looks like the actual default desktop. Click on any of the images there for a better view.

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Thanks for the info. So many unheard of distros and so little time! I may have to make a USB stick. I do more testing now that I don't need to burn CDs or DVDs.

 

I tried Crunchbang on my 701 eeepc but it was very slow. I ended up using distros that were faster instead.

I do like Debian so that's a selling point for me.

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I took a quick look at BunsenLabs about a month or two ago, and I must say I like the default apps (I'd list Geany, Terminator and VLC as my main must-haves.)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest LilBambi

JL used Crunchbang for some computers and used it as a cross pkg from the Duke Nukem 3D for Crunchbang for our use on our vanilla Debian before Crunchbang went defunct. So glad to see it working resurrected and alive and well under another name. I think my JL also got old XMMS from Crunchbang repositories as well. He didn't like the newer XMMS 2 or whatever they call it. He used XMMS and vlc for everything.

 

Sounds like it may be the ticket for Virtualbox on my Mac, and a couple older systems for native installs.

Edited by LilBambi
clarity lol
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Cluttermagnet

If I weren't on dialup at the moment, I'd download it right now.

Always interested in trying new Debian offshoots. I'll grab a

copy from Betty's and try the live DVD...

 

Clutter

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