• ali
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-05-31
  • Posts: 1,034

Topic: how do you like your #! and why

i thought it would be a good idea for everyone to know what we like and why
i am hoping to find out about new software here and maybe others will too
i always thought #! had a lot of stuff that i never used, mainly because the first thing i did on my last install was to delete everything from the root-menu so i did not know what apps i had installed by default big_smile
not this time tho, this time before deleting everything there i read what i had installed first and then removed it

so here is a list with things i removed and the reasons why:
volumeicon - i'm not a mouse-type of guy, i prefer to adjust the volume from my keyboard and that thing was just taking up space
xscreensaver - by now everybody should know that screensavers are useless, they don't save power and everything (i made my display sleep if i have 5 minutes of inactivity [which saves power]), besides this one looked really bad in the lock screen thing so i decided it's time for it to go
gimp - i never really figured out how to do basic stuff with it, say how to crop an avatar out of a picture, way too complicated for me
xfburn - i'm on a netbook, no optical unit here
transmission - i never really liked it, it always felt painfully slow and not very friendly so i'm not keeping it, (i use utorrent via wine until there is a native release)
xchat - i don't do the chat thing
pino - i'm not into social networking either or whatever its for
abiword - i use gedit for text
gnumeric - don't use it
orage - this thing was so annoying ever since i first installed #! so i just had to get rid of it, in fact it was the first thing i removed in my first ever #! install

here's a list with things i replaced:
network manager => wicd: for wicd users it should be obvious why. if you are like me you probably don't switch between networks very often so the nm-applet was just taking up space in my taskbar with no purpose since i almost never clicked it. also i like wicd because by the time my netbook boots up its already connected to the internet, it took network manager about 10 seconds to load after my netbook was on
iceweasel => google-chrome: well i'm a netbook user and i have to say this is a fairly small display and iceweasel was taking up too much space from my display with the user interface, google-chome takes up as little as possible and i love it, also the ui looks much nicer than iceweasel
notify-osd => notification-daemon: i just like the way notification-daemon notifies me, i love the popup pointing to where the notification comes from and that small time gauge thing, it just looks nicer to me

FAILED replacements:
xfce4-power-manager => gnome power manager: the reason why  i like gnome power manager over xfce4 power manager is that the gnome one has a battery information  thing, it tells you how much your battery was designed for, what was your maximum load and stuff like that, it's nice to see the way my battery slowly dies
it was designed for 55 whatever, 3 months ago when it was full it had 52.3 and now its 51.8 max so i like to see the way it goes, but the replacement never worked out, as i said before i don't like things taking up space and the gnome-power-manager icon wouldnt stay off the taskbar even if i specifically told it to never show the icon so i got back to xfce4-power-manager, hopefully someone knows a tool that does what gnome-power-manager battery information did

newly installed and why:
rhythmbox - i'm pretty surprised this wasn't installed by default, it's the most lightweight linux music player that i know of
minitube - for watching youtube without flash (there's nothing greater)
tuxguitar - a guitar tabulature program (not surprised it wasn't installed by default because i'm probably the only one here using it)
icedove - for email smile

hopefully i will hear everyone else's preferences on programs so that maybe i (and others, of course) will find out about new stuff smile

p.s. here's a screenshot of my nothing-extra taskbar smile
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/6407/2010072212797721851024x.th.png

Last edited by ali (2010-07-22 04:37:29)

openbox-logout exit on escape
  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: how do you like your #! and why

I don't actually use Statler but heres the changes I would make:

Software I would remove or replace:

abiword - I prefer using MS Office
evince - I prefer epdfview
fbxkb - I don't need it
file-roller - I prefer using atool
gdm - Console login is good enough for me
gedit - I prefer Geany
gftp - I don't need it
gparted - I don't need it
Nitrogen - I prefer feh with an Openbox pipemenu
orage - Having a calendar in my conky is enough.
pino - I don't need it
thunar plugins - I don't need them
volumeicon - I prefer alsamixer
xchat - I don't need it
xcompmgr - I don't need it
xfburn - I prefer booting into Windows and use InfraRecorder or BurnAware.
xscreensaver - I prefer xlockmore

Software I would add:

BleachBit - its like CCleaner for Linux
fahmon - I use it to monitor my folding progress
htop - simple and effective process manager
Quod Libet - besides MPD, its one of the few players that can remember the last song you played and its position

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BTW if you're looking for new programs, take a look at these threads:

http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … rred-apps/
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … ps-to-add/

Note: ** Please read before posting **

BTW if you wish to contact me, send me an e-mail instead of a PM.
  • From: Scotland
  • Registered: 2009-12-29
  • Posts: 330

Re: how do you like your #! and why

I really do not see how your Chorme/ium is taking less space than my firefox for example. It's really convenient, if you're "keyboard guy" like you said, just have custom shortcuts to your regularly visited sites, may be imitate opera  a bit and use "g search term" like me to search google via the location bar. smile
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3816/76235738.th.png

  • ali
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-05-31
  • Posts: 1,034

Re: how do you like your #! and why

iceweasel has the extra title bar as you can see in your screenshot/browser. it also has a frame all over notice chrome doesn't have that

openbox-logout exit on escape
  • From: Scotland
  • Registered: 2009-12-29
  • Posts: 330

Re: how do you like your #! and why

alexander wrote:

iceweasel has the extra title bar as you can see in your screenshot/browser. it also has a frame all over notice chrome doesn't have that

Yes it have, but it's not such big deal, especially if you're using openbox, and you could make the title bar smaller. Or even better - make it loose for firefox, so you could navigate away via keybinds. smile

  • ali
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-05-31
  • Posts: 1,034

Re: how do you like your #! and why

well when you have a 10" screen every bit counts, in my opinion

openbox-logout exit on escape
  • From: Scotland
  • Registered: 2009-12-29
  • Posts: 330

Re: how do you like your #! and why

That's true. And Firefox have way more ways to trim down screen space than Chromium smile

  • Registered: 2010-03-26
  • Posts: 548

Re: how do you like your #! and why

alexander wrote:

iceweasel has the extra title bar as you can see in your screenshot/browser. it also has a frame all over notice chrome doesn't have that

It doesn't have to.  big_smile 

http://omploader.org/tNTBkZA

SEE https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13505/ among several others currently listed.  SEARCH TERM: titlebar

  • ali
  • #! Die-hard
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-05-31
  • Posts: 1,034

Re: how do you like your #! and why

this is going waaay too off topic

openbox-logout exit on escape
  • From: Bleeding Kansas
  • Registered: 2009-11-09
  • Posts: 178

Re: how do you like your #! and why

alexander wrote:

tuxguitar - a guitar tabulature program (not surprised it wasn't installed by default because i'm probably the only one here using it)

Nope, not the only one. Gotta get my power tabs sometimes. wink

Like anonymous, I'm not using Statler, but my system is very much #! inspired.

I'm using a majority of the LXDE stuff with openbox to create my environment, but application choosing is an ever evolving process.

Right now I'm using:
LXDM for my login manager. Gotta figure out how to hack the theme, but no big deal. Function over form with that right now.
LXTerm for terminal. It's light and does what I want and need.
PCManFM 0.9.7 which I think is PCManFM2 now. I even let it control my wallpaper. Nitrogen means one more app to me now.
Leafpad or nano for text editing, but I do like Geany quite a bit.
Chromium over firefox, but I keep firefox around just in case.
osmo over orage.
adeskbar for my launchy launch needs.
tilda for my drop down term. Haven't fully decided if I'll keep it or not.
cairo-compmgr for compositing.
shotwell for photo management.

There's more stuff I use, but that should give and idea. I shoot for things to integrate as best as possible with each other. I'm also digging on using more CLI apps lately.

|My Band: 12 Honest Men| |My Screenshot Gallery on Minus|
  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 1,858

Re: how do you like your #! and why

Removed: Nothing.

Added: Rhythmbox, OpenOffice, VirtualBox, Liquorix kernel

Other: One box (an old laptop) is upgraded to Sid repos with smxi and sidux kernel.

  • From: the Netherlands
  • Registered: 2010-03-07
  • Posts: 812

Re: how do you like your #! and why

Zen:Core wrote:

PCManFM 0.9.7 which I think is PCManFM2 now. I even let it control my wallpaper. Nitrogen means one more app to me now.

Would that be possible in Statler as well? I can't find the option in pcmanfm 0.9.7


To stay on topic... my most important changes are:
I prefer OpenOffice over Abiword and Gnumeric
I use pcmanfm because the columns are not getting wider and wider as in thunar.
I replace viewnior with mirage.
I add smplayer subtitleeditor exaile devede pidgin newsbeuter icedove enigmail skype cups numlockx ntp guake rcconf less virtualbox gnomad2
And i install and remove stuff all the time... i have a different media player every week.... smile

Last edited by Tunafish (2010-07-22 15:39:33)

Compaq Presario A900 - #! Statler Alpha2 Openbox
Privacy & Security on #! - Application List
  • From: Bleeding Kansas
  • Registered: 2009-11-09
  • Posts: 178

Re: how do you like your #! and why

Tunafish wrote:
Zen:Core wrote:

PCManFM 0.9.7 which I think is PCManFM2 now. I even let it control my wallpaper. Nitrogen means one more app to me now.

Would that be possible in Statler as well? I can't find the option in pcmanfm 0.9.7

To let pcmanfm take over the desktop in gmrun, terminal or your autstart.sh run:

pcmanfm --desktop

That'll give pcmanfm control of you desktop, but it'll also show the contents of your desktop folder on your screen. I keep my desktop folder empty, so it still looks like openbox. wink

To change the wallpaper and such:

pcmanfm --desktop-pref

Also in the pref menu click the advanced tab and check the box that says "Show menus provided by window manager........." that'll give you the right click openbox menu.

To turn off:

pcmanfm --desktop-off

EDIT: P.S. One reason I use pcmanfm to control the desktop is because it works better with cairo-compmngr.

Last edited by Zen:Core (2010-07-22 15:56:26)

|My Band: 12 Honest Men| |My Screenshot Gallery on Minus|
  • jcris
  • #! Member
  • Offline
  • From: midwest
  • Registered: 2010-04-25
  • Posts: 73

Re: how do you like your #! and why

Statler 10 Alpha 2 Xfce on 4 PC's Haven't removed anything since all the drives are fairly large. Id be tempted to ditch abiword, gnumeric, and transmission if I was trimming space.

For system based tools I installed gtkorphan, bleachbit, bum, sysv-rc-sys, gufw, gnome-nettools, gnome-system-monitor, hard info, unetbootin, WINE, remastersys, and all the needed printing files.

Games I installed zsnes, frozen-bubble, chromium, lin-city, and assaultcube.

Media I think minitube, deadbeef, skype, Pidgin, and Y!Epic about does it.

For Email I have to have sylpheed, thats the only program I will not do without. And I like chromium for a fast web browser. I know some of these programs seem like overkill, but Im not the only one using these PC's, and everyone has a certain program there used to so I didnt wanna make it confusing for em.

Off Like A Prom Dress...

jcris's Website

  • Registered: 2010-08-12
  • Posts: 4

Re: how do you like your #! and why

alexander wrote:

well when you have a 10" screen every bit counts, in my opinion

ever tryied vimperator?
http://vimperator.org
http://vimperator.org/screenshots/vimperator_completions.png
http://vimperator.org/screenshots/vimperator_hints.png

i'm a keyboard guy too, and if you try it,  you will love it, it removes all bars and you can brose the web just using keyboard, fast and handy

  • From: Louisiana, US
  • Registered: 2010-01-06
  • Posts: 8

Re: how do you like your #! and why

Removed Conky added nothing yet
kept tint2 so now i have an empty desktop

  • Registered: 2010-08-10
  • Posts: 9

Re: how do you like your #! and why

On my Eee 900:

Removed-
GIMP - I have neither the power nor the screen space to run this adequately on a netbook.
Transmission - Find it awkward to use. Would normally use deluge but I don't torrent on this machine anyway.
Pino - Don't use twitter.
VLC - Prefer Totem.
Brasero - My favourite (xfburn) is already there.
Tint2 - Couldn't get it the way I like it, installed lxpanel.

Added-
Kolourpaint - Awesome Paint clone.
Kalzium - Periodic table program.
Epiphany - My favourite lightweight browser, though I've kept Iceweasel as I've never used that before.
Rhythmbox - Streams from my desktop or server.
Unetbootin - Creates live USB sticks of distros.
A few cursor packages.

  • From: Ontario, Canada
  • Registered: 2009-06-29
  • Posts: 1,409

Re: how do you like your #! and why

I removed a tonne of stuff, so I'll just tell you the parts i remember tongue (This is on xfce)
Geany instead of Gedit.  Geany is much better for programming IMO, and does well enough with generic text that i don't need both.
Empathy Instant Messenger - I've had some problems with pidgin cutting in and out.
Got rid of GIMP, no use at the moment. Might try to find something lighter, for the small edits.... or i might install gimp haha. its hard to tell.
DeaDBeef to play music. It's so super snappy, and being able to scroll through a > 8000 song library like it was butter is nice.
I'm also using compiz and emerald over xfce4wm, originally because it has better support for my graphics card, but i also am starting to prefer for it for the nice eye candy and easy customization.

just call me...
~FSM~
  • pvsage
  • Internal Affairs
  • Online
  • From: Section Six
  • Registered: 2009-10-18
  • Posts: 4,912

Re: how do you like your #! and why

I like my CrunchBang with a little hazelnut-flavored cream and Nutrasweet. tongue

I really don't remove anything, because I don't want to risk breaking any Iceweasel plugins.  (Somehow the Totem gstreamer plugins are prone to accidental breakage.)  Right now, I start with Statler a2 Openbox and add:
- multisession support for XFCE
- locate
- cpufrequtils
- moc & moc-ffmpeg-plugin
- several font sets for eastern and middle-eastern character sets
- xfce4-weather-plugin
- epdfview (evince sometimes has problems printing)
- tgif (lightweight vector drawing program)
- ffmpegthumbnailer
- xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra
- wine
- asunder (great, lightweight CD ripper)
- mp3diags (makes it really easy to fix ID3V2.3.0 tags)
- totem
- geda (schematic & PCB development package)
- mozplugger (lets programs like evince and epdfview semi-integrate with Iceweasel)
- minitube

EDIT:  Strike mozplugger from the above list; that's what's been breaking my totem-mozilla.  I went crawling back to acroread from debian-multimedia.  Rumors persist about debian-multimedia "silently breaking" something, but so far the only "bad"(?) thing I see it doing is it adds libmp3lame0, which ffmpeg needs to transcode files to mp3.

Last edited by pvsage (2010-08-22 15:22:31)

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