Archive for the Distributions Category

Turnkey Linux rocks, but singular focused appliances are limiting

Posted in Distributions, Features on November 23, 2011 by ubducted

I have been playing a lot with the various Turnkey Linux options. Turnkey Linux is based on Ubuntu and

“…is a virtual appliance library that integrates and polishes the very best open source software into ready to use solutions. Each virtual appliance is optimized for ease of use and can be deployed in just a few minutes on bare metal, a virtual machine and in the cloud.”

It was super exciting to get Turnkey up and running on Amazon EC2. It was quick and easy. There was only one problem – it was damned expensive. After 5 days it cost me $13 US to host just one appliance. Game over.

Now if I could host multiple projects on one appliance, I’d use Turnkey Linux in a heartbeat. That is, a single installation that has both Drupal, Twiki and File Sharing. I suppose it can be done, but one seems to lose the “quick and easy” benefits.

There are other companies that host TurnkeyLinux, but there again you can only host one appliance per account.

I tried installed Turnkey Core in the hopes I could go into Webmin and install Turnkey patches to install Drupal or other projects, but that didn’t work.

This singular focus provides no value to me. I somehow need to get multiple appliances rolled up into one. If anyone knows of an easy way to do this, please let me know. I’d gladly let Turnkey Linux ubduct me all over again.

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Lightweight Xubuntu and Crunchbang

Posted in Distributions, Linux with tags on November 20, 2011 by ubducted

Wow, am I behind with the news. A couple years back I was on a lightweight distribution kick. I installed a number of distro’s and ended up stuck between Xubuntu and Crunchbang.

Xubuntu uses XFCE desktop environment.

Back then, Crunchbang was based on Ubuntu and used the Open Box Window Manager. What I found was that even though Crunchbang claimed lightweight, it was still running nearly all the same processes as Ubuntu. It quickly lost its status as a lightweight contender in my mind and I stopped using it. But Crunchbang has been been based on Debian for like 2 years now, so I guess it’s back on the list for me.

If you’re interested, TechRepublic has a fairly recent write-up of Xubuntu suggested opportunities.

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Linux Mint to sport customized Gnome 3

Posted in Distributions, Linux on November 19, 2011 by ubducted

Some news about Linux Mint, a distribution based off Ubuntu, will be using a special flavour of Gnome 3. Of particular note in this article is the link to the Linux Mint blog that lists shortcomings of Gnome 3.

The three shortcomings include:

  • It changes the way people use their computer
  • It’s application-centric, not task-centric (you switch between applications, not windows)
  • It doesn’t do multi-tasking well (you can’t see opened windows, system tray icons, etc..)

What I find most interesting about this move is that on both sides of the coin, the arguments are subjective to users preferences. But that is the benefit of linux – it’s all about freedom of choice. If you feel strongly about these “fixes” to Gnome 3, then use Mint. If you like how Ubuntu approaches it, then use Ubuntu. In any event, it’s better than using Windows :P

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