Why do you use #!Crunchbang (Page 9 of 19)

I use #! because (I guess thats the way my post has to start;)) it is fast even on my old hp pavilion notebook. Therefore I used Ubuntu Jaunty and I supposed it will be slim enough but damn #! is twice as fast as Ubuntu ... Besides I got no problems with my umts devices since the change.

If my english sounds odd to you - #! is used worldwide I hope. My hometown is in the boondocks of Germany but I know #!
<whisper>it's everywhere! no one can escape</whisper>

Really I use #! Linux so my netbook can work with great speed and the way I want it to work.
I have an LG X110 with 2GB RAM and 10GB HD, so needless to say speed is of the essence; and #! does the job. A nice change for the distro - Statler works incredible! If this is the future, I'm all in! Many thanks for a wonderful distro.

i use !# because it's better than using windows. and i like the idea of a package manager instead of having to download everything as a .exe from a questionable website. maybe that's why PC's get so many viruses.

I just had a quick browse through this thread - so many life stories here, man, a real vault. And there in between the lines the old win vs linux motive popping up - superb:) I will also drop something into the melting pot:))))
I'm a searching type - sort of 'dismantle it, oups I've broken it, gotta fix it, oh, in fact we could change that and replace that and oups, it a completely new thing, I'm loving it' and then one day I get bored and it starts all over again;)
Somebody mentioned win being ugly, security issues and so on - without going sooo deep from a perspective of a guy who uses his comp mainly for fun - films, music, internet browsing and occasional text editing you couldnt run windows without it getting completely booged down with stuff in a few months to the point of being unusable. Sure you can install this to protect it, and than that, and then add some more and than suddenly its a slow and bloated creature that cant move. So what do we do - we reinstall it trying to only install what we really need - but it doesn't work with windows, it's hard to sieve through the things you need from things you dont need, they're like shit, they stick together! And then on top of that there was xp with it's updates...
So one day 2 years ago I stumbled upon an article about Linux online - heard of it before, years back, then, later, I had a friend in Poland who was plying a bit with it but I never tried it. So I decided to give it a go. Tried Ubuntu Gnome and Mandriva KDE and did dual booting for about 5 days before ditching win altogether when I figured out I will always find a distro which has wireless running out of the box as it was the most important thing for me. Ubuntu and Gnome stayed, Mandriva and KDE went - I mentioned before how KDE reminds me of windows with all the k-apps - and every time I was trying to lose some of them it was trying to deinstall whole KDE - at that stage I couldn't figure it out and as I was after minimal I decided KDE is not for me.
Some time after that I switched to Mint with it's codecs out of the box and friendliness - for a beginner it was just a step more comfy than Ubuntu, but close enough to it so I didn't feel lost. In between I was trying every distro possible with every environment - Gnome, XFCE, LXDE and somewhere there I stumbled upon #!. I tried it but didn't like it - it was still too minimalistic and skeletal for me then (sorry guys;)
Went through Zenwalk, back to Mint and finally after braking enough distros I learned something in between the crashes. Got my hands on Zenwalk openbox but it wasn't working very well for me - there is something about Slackware that I wasn't digging. I remembered about #! - all I wanted was usable, modifiable lightweight distro with the simplicity of Openbox - tried 9.04 again, loved it, played with it for a month, fell in love with the forum, got a Statler bug and now it's my only distro, running Alha 2 for 3rd month now I believe, no probs. It's first time I didn't have to reinstall anything, didn't manage to break anything and it's still the same - fast and stable. Memory imprint upon bootup - 55mb, sweet:)

^ #! will be all you can wish for - maybe even more. Give it a shot!

This seems to be a new meme:

1.  Buy netbook.
2.  Install CrunchBang.
3.  ???
4.  Profit!

One can wonder why I use #! when I immediately replace Openbox w/ Fluxbox, but I guess I like my stuff light and customizable. Also, it's nice to have a light Live distro that uses nm-applet when you've got mobile broadband.

There are a lot of reasons why I use and love CrunchBang:

* The Installation process is blazing fast:

Even on my old but dearly beloved Compaq 1278 laptop it took much less than half an hour to get it fully installed. It was even faster than a Debian install I tried on it, and I mean any version of CrunchBang is a roadster at full speed. Due to that speed it was a no brainer to try out the Lite Edition on Gala (my laptop) and never have been happier.

Serena (my main system with dual Linux boot) happily uses CrunchBang as one of its OS.

I also use CrunchBang on a USB stick for emergency purposes, it's always with me inside one of my pockets.

* Amazing Boot Up time.

At some moment I tried Vector Linux (a very noble system) on my laptop but It took ages to load anything, anyway thanks Vector, was a great experience. The same applies for NimbleX and some Puppy variants.

Then, when I installed CrunchBang on it, at second boot, #! showed me three lines of code onscreen and then there was the light for my old lap ready to roll with every piece of hardware detected and working.

At some other moment I tried Slitaz (also a really beautifully designed, excellent and fun system to use) but it was too late, I knew Gala was in love with CrunchBang the moment I was modding everything on Slitaz to get the #! interface customizations and scripts on it. Why try to look like CrunchBang when you can have it.

Anyway, two thumbs up for Slitaz, it could have been ideal in terms of memory and storage footprint and usage, customization, modularity and speed, but it was just too late, #! was there before and it's impossible to forget. 

* Minimalist design, visually clean by nature:

It's not only a visual thing, it also helps on the performance side big time.

Its cleanliness is relaxing, inviting. I love open space and CrunchBang gives me that by default, that's priceless.

Systems with cartoonish look are not my cup of tea at all, I don't like to run graffity or comic book-like interfaces, unfortunately for me that seems to be the trend. Those two great graphic expressions have their own spaces, but those spaces are not at my GUI.

* Excellent Openbox implementation.

*Lots of great Openbox themes, though I love the "Surreal" theme, simplicity rocks.

* Great apps selection.

A system that really helps you to get the job done, non intrusive, fast, responsive, it doesn't get in your way. Yeah, finally again a Unix app philosophy well done, one application - one task but that task performed as expected. A brilliant implementation at a modular approach for a system built over an already excellent base (I'm talking here about Debian, it was great before Debian, but now it's superb). Did I said I love Tint2?  It's great to have "tintwizard" included by default and present in Obmenu as another customization option.

Very intelligent and subtle political statement regarding not to be committed with any major office application's vendor and giving priority to real free open source software alternatives, but with a flexible and open minded approach giving privilege to pragmatism. In that sense I must admit Cheese is great, and I also loved the choice of Evince as PDF viewer, that's where you see an open mind. Loved that approach.

* Greatly customizable. Flexible. Not bloated.

* A developer with an intelligent, openminded, honest, hardworking attitude with lots of integrity and a good pinch of humour. A real Linux Outlaw. My Respects to you Sir.

I can't celebrate enough the change to Debian sources. I'm more than a happy camper.
Personally, that's the level of integrity I want at the foundation of my system, just as it was in the beginning for me at Linux 15 years ago. It has been that way before, and today's Linux systems are the result of hundreds of thousands of developers and their communities working for years and years behind curtains for us, the end users. It has not been a miracle, nor merely the job of a specific distro or investor, vendor or developer, it has been collective work for everyone looking for alternatives, specially people without economical opportunities, and new generations everywhere, and of course everyone with an adventurous spirit and a clear notion of what is right. This is a developer with a real commitment with open source before popularity, expressed in facts not words. Thumbs up.

I haven't tried Statler Alpha 2 on its Xfce flavour, but sounds like a great idea since always, though I'm in love with Openbox+Tint, I'll do my homework and try it out at some moment. ¿How many forums can say they have as "richs-lxh" mentioned, a head dev who "really" actually takes part in the community?

* CrunchBang is a real lab for innnovation.

In the sense that you can find new alternative ways to do things in its enviroment.
I loved the Dropbox without Nautilus tutorial. That sort of things open ways, ears and eyes for developers to integrate more options for their software to work beyond some few selected plataforms without exclusiveness. Ahh, Gnome oh Gnome. Nothing worst than an uncorresponded love, let's see how you handle the lesson.

I frequently end up - by request of customers after seeing and prove my tests system, which use CunchBang and some other distros - implementing the #! scripts and customizations, cause at their eyes, aesthetically they rock. So it's not unusual to see even Linux Mint systems a la CrunchBang leaving my studio.

* A superb community.

Really, few communities feel so productive, openminded, creative, easygoing and generous as this one. Yes, there are some more numerous or more historically recognized communities, but this one is a pleasure. No BS flying all over the place, no blind fanatism. I know I'll see this community growing exponentially very soon, and that will be a pleasure too. Don't believe me? Just wait and see. Mr.Newborough hit gold (in the sense of valuable things) here, it's just a matter of time, sustained development and communication. CrunchBang is making noise everywhere on relevant circles and inspiring even the unthinkables, anyone Archbang? to mention just one. But no, sorry, it's not a matter of aesthetics or interface, it's a matter of concept behind implementation maybe not so visible for us end users.

* Stable as hell. Well, stable as Heaven. Hell's nature is unstability and repetition. For that, we all know there are other alternatives (Hasta la Vista, baby!)

* Small memory and storage footprint.

* I absolutely love Conky and I love it even more when installed by default.
Linux needs this kind of details. A Conky with a practical layout, absolutely love the keyboard shortcuts' section explained, can't get easier than that. Not an absolute fan of the selected font but nothing that can't be easily customized. Love Hanna's customizations here at the forums, great stuff.

* CrunchBang brings back for me the excitement and fun of rediscovering the Linux experience.

Things read here that made special echoes in my head:

* Crazybilly wrote it all:   #! is fun and Linuxy. Yeah, absolutely gotta love that statement.

* fsmo wrote it also:   #! is Sexy

*bender wrote:  "black-submarine-feeling"

* phaedrus wrote a very interesting thing that strangely was also in my head at some time:
"I realized that this was the operating system I would have designed for myself if I had the expertise and time."

* merelyjim wrote:   "I figure anyone who designs their system with the shortcuts off to the side has to view their creation as a tool to get stuff done"

* chaosz911 wrote:   "I just love to be totally in control of what happens on the computer. CrunchBang gives me that feeling. And it looks gorgeous, it's lightning fast. It's also a nice way to learn more about Linux and get your hands dirty, but at the same time have a working computer".

* vrkalak wrote:
Definition of a Linux Adventurer:
They are not scared to try something new or different.
They are willing to pick a random button and click it ...
To open a terminal and type gibberish they do not understand and hit 'enter'.
To type endless key words into Google, until they find relative directions and then to try each method until one works, or until they "b0rk" their OS so bad they have to start over.
To do a 'fresh' install, again ... and, again.
They are not scared to screw up ... they just do it.
Not afraid to make their computer go "crunch*bang"

*bodek wrote:   "I use it because it is fast and does everything I need, but most of all because it has a feeling like it is made with love and makes me feel good."

Last edited by errans (2010-12-03 06:37:25)

I use #! to demonstrate people who are stuck with Ubuntu and want to learn more how easy Linux can be. I also run it in a virtual machine to give friends Debian support. It's actually easier if you sit in front of such a machine.

By the way, #! forums are the best place to find infos about conky. Every time I search for Conky, I either land here or in the Arch forums.

@Sector11: Hi, thanks a lot 
What can I say?
CrunchBang works perfect for me and this community is just great.
Couldn't be happier. Is great to be here

I use it because  #!  #!ove  #!t

This is my first post;

Ive used larger Linux systems before, (umbuntu, fedora) and fancied giving CrunchBang a go on my laptop.

no problems so far....