5th
My Perfect Desktop (or.. How to create a Frankenstien Linux Distro!)
For Linux beginners there is no denying that Ubuntu is the weapon of choice at the moment. I think the main reason I believe that is because of APT and how up-to-date and complete their default repositories are.
I really enjoy using Ubuntu as installing a program is as simple as installing it from Synaptic and then launching it! Sometimes building stuff from source can get you into a version-control nightmare, and updating versions can be risky.. not that I shy away from this; stuff like WebKit should be build from the source as it is constantly moving. I am talking about programs which generally release every 6 months+.
The one dislike about Ubuntu is that it feels a little bloated. Say you want to understand how Linux works; where would you start? There is SOO much going on under the covers in Ubuntu it can all be so confusing/overwhelming?!
So I challenged myself to build my own perfect desktop. The idea was to take the minimal Ubuntu install (installed takes about 1Gb of precious HD space) and then slowly build up from there until I have something I can use daily for development and general email/chat/web social functions. All this would happen from inside a Virtualbox VM, so I would also have to make sure everything was compatible with the Virtualbox kernel modules.
A successful project means I would achieve the following:
- I would be happy to use it everyday, replacing my beloved Ubuntu Desktop 8.10
- It looks sexy, without getting in the way of my geek-y ways!
- Be able to list the parts of the OS and how they work together
- Be comfortable with configuring/tweaking my desktop
- Install should take up less than 3.5Gb of disk space
- Have something which runs significantly faster than Ubuntu
Installing Ubuntu Minimal
Ubuntu Minimal Install is a version of Ubuntu with no GUI whatsoever, and barely enough apps to boot the system!!! You can download it here.
As I was using Virtualbox, all I needed to do was to create a new Ubuntu VM (remembering to check the 3D exceleration checkbox and I know I wanted to get compiz running at some point) and mount the install ISO to get going with a command-line install.
Once the install was out of the way, all I had was a blining cursor and bash to keep me company :S
To be continued…
