How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

fox · 2016-05-14 22:53:22

As a new user of Bunsenlabs , I volunteered to make a presentation on BL to my local Linux club in Peterborough (Ontario, Canada). I previously made a presentation to my club on Crunchbang, so what I would like to do is emphasize the differences between them. Here are the ones I have discovered so far:
BL has a live USB, updated Debian sources, and it has several application icons on the tint2 panel. In my "Introduction" post, damo added that there are also differences in the OB/gtk themes, the user setup, power management and sound setup, and that the default configs location isn't '/etc/skel'. Can anyone else note other differences between the two that are noteworthy in a presentation? Thanks in advance.

damo · 2016-05-14 23:23:11

NB CB also had a live iso

Other differences:

The main menu has many more dynamic entries (see '~/.config/openbox/pipemenus.rc for example)
Install default user configs depending on presence of '~/.config/bunsen/bl-setup'
Debian recommendations used for several default filepaths, eg '~/.local/themes' instead of '~/.themes', '/usr/share/bunsen/skel' instead of populating '/etc/skel'
Much more reliance on Debian repos, with far fewer BL-specific packages compared to the CB repo
Many more user scripts in BL, eg BLOB Themes Manager, the Conky and Tint Chooser scripts etc

@johnraff, @hhh et al will have much more knowledge than me about how the system is put together though.

hhh · 2016-05-14 23:23:56

#! was also a live-ISO, that's not new.

The biggest change is that it uses Debian jessie as it's base while #! ended life while still based on wheezy. So BL has all of those package updates and security fixes and whatnot (systemd).

The other big change is that the OS is no longer a one-man project, we have more than one person to work on bugfixes and upgrades. The BL Team hopes that continuing and building on the #! community will ensure the distro's continued development.

Since there is more than one developer, we have more than one person to work on bugfixes and upgrades.

The default #! GTK theme broke for GTK3 apps with the upgrade to jessie, BL's default themes include an updated Waldorf theme.

We've added a bunch of improvements and additions to the #! scripts that make it easier to use openbox.

To support very old hardware, we offer a CD-sized ISO that uses the 586 kernel. We also added support for old Broadcom b43 drivers.

We've added custom bl-alternatives to Debian Alternatives that makes changing common apps (browser, terminal, text editor, file manager, etc...) a snap.

We've added our BLOB Themes Manager that lets you save your desktop customizations for easy theme switching.

We've removed some #! applications (most of LibreOffice, for example) to keep our ISO sizes and system install times down and have added install scripts to our right-click menu that makes it simple to install some popular applications.

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of things, but that's a good start.

Sector11 · 2016-05-14 23:40:21

Well, I'm not all that knowledgeable about things under the hood but the conkys are different. I did those, although based on the original #! conky. Done in such a way as to work OOTB on "most" machines. Have not seen any problems yet.

damo, if he hasn't told you, created the script found at Settings » Conky to manages them which is pretty damn cool and that's "unique" to this distro - although GPL and may exist elsewhere now.

Move the conky(s), reboot/logout and come back and the conkys are where you left them.

Welcome to BunsenLabs from one Canuck to another. Lived in Belleville in the late 70's. Good luck with your presentation.

EDIT: Ninja'd by damo and hhh - and they had a lot more to add and better quality as well. Those post were not there when I started ... I type slow.

Last edited by Sector11 (2016-05-14 23:42:32)

hhh · 2016-05-14 23:47:01

Click and drag conkies were not in #!

Sector11 · 2016-05-14 23:51:35

They were in my #! and still are in my #! here. It's a simple change:
own_window_type desktop to own_window_type normal
The magic is the BLOB theme manager - damo, take a bow.

porkpiehat · 2016-05-15 01:01:18

hhh wrote:

The biggest change is that it uses Debian jessie as it's base while #! ended life while still based on squeeze. So BL has all of those package updates and security fixes and whatnot (systemd).

Don't you mean Wheezy? I thought Statler was Squeeze and Waldorf was Wheezy.

Last edited by porkpiehat (2016-05-15 01:01:37)

Sector11 · 2016-05-15 01:27:07

This is true, #! Statler (Debian Squeeze) and #! Waldorf (Debian Wheezy) discussing the arrival of #! Janice (Debian Jessie), that alas never happened in the #! world.

But Dr Bunsen saved the day. And that's a bit of CrunchBang-BunsenLabs history.

hhh · 2016-05-15 03:39:57

porkpiehat wrote:

Don't you mean Wheezy? I thought Statler was Squeeze and Waldorf was Wheezy.

I fixed my post, thanks for catching that!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-05-15 09:05:42

The forums are much whiter here, for me anyway.

Don't forget to mention systemd, that's always a crowd pleaser ]:D

EDIT: BunsenLabs is init agnostic O:)

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2016-05-15 09:06:12)

fox · 2016-05-15 10:59:32

OMG - whiter, yes. How could I have missed that? Good point about systemd. I followed the controversy, but didn't have a strong view one way or the other. The members of my Linux group are more concerned with things working than with the philosophy of inits.

damo · 2016-05-15 11:26:22

fox wrote:

OMG - whiter, yes...

You can change the forum theme via your forum "Profile". Pick "Crunchbang" if you want

fox · 2016-05-15 11:44:15

This might be CB heresy, but I really like the default appearance of the BL forums! In fact, I like the default BL desktop more than that of CB. Thanks to these forums, I am now exploring some of the appearance options I didn't realize existed.

fox · 2016-06-07 11:15:59

I made a presentation of BL to my local Linux club last night. I ended up talking more about what is great about BL than how it is different from Crunchbang. Attendees were definitely interested, and at coffee afterwards 3 individuals either tried my USB in live mode or actually installed it. I posted my presentation notes here if you're interested.

Incidentally, one of the participants was unable to even boot from the USB; he has an old MacBook and I don't think one can just turn off EFI in those. I referred him to some posts related to installing Debian on a MacBook Pro; hopefully he can figure this out.

hhh · 2016-06-07 13:42:27

Hey, cool. I've seen this newsgroup before (this thread), I didn't realize this was you...
http://plugintolinux.ca/node/396

I hope you told them all about the T-shirts!
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=2066

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-06-07 17:57:10

fox wrote:

Incidentally, one of the participants was unable to even boot from the USB; he has an old MacBook and I don't think one can just turn off EFI in those.

For that situation, I would recommend using a Debian jessie netinstall ISO image and making sure only the "standard system utilities" checkbox is ticked in the tasksel section; once the basic system is installed then the BunsenLabs netinstall script can be downloaded and run from the console screen.

See https://github.com/BunsenLabs/bunsen-netinstall for more on this.

Once the upstream Debian jessie live images support UEFI, BunsenLabs will also gain that functionality.

ww227 · 2016-06-09 07:33:14

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Don't forget to mention systemd, that's always a crowd pleaser ]:D
EDIT: BunsenLabs is init agnostic O:)

I just installed a devuan [dev-one] variant called nelum.
For those not aware it's debian fork with systemd blocked.
It's a testing [ascii] release but I added sid [ceres].
It's beta, and I don't expect it to last long before exploding my lappy
While searching for the cb-scripts on the dormant site
I was sent to here for 'continuation' of a script thread,
and noted that you all claimed more scripts than cb.
I even thought I might add your repositories [being careful to spot the nasty systemd stuff].

Any ways, I'm going to try some out, but any warnings/advise from you all would be appreciated.
thankyou for your service,
tom
=-==

p.s. I'm not promoting this sort of thing, I just like mixing the chlorine and the ammonia. If this mingling Does work, mayhaps I'll call it phosgene!

brontosaurusrex · 2016-06-09 08:35:55

One could add (if not obvious): better documented (Links in ob menu), development happens openly (forums/github/irc?).

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2016-06-09 08:36:13)

#1 2016-05-14 22:53:22

How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#2 2016-05-14 23:23:11

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#3 2016-05-14 23:23:56

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#4 2016-05-14 23:40:21

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#5 2016-05-14 23:47:01

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#6 2016-05-14 23:51:35

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#7 2016-05-15 01:01:18

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#8 2016-05-15 01:27:07

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#9 2016-05-15 03:39:57

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#10 2016-05-15 09:05:42

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#11 2016-05-15 10:59:32

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#12 2016-05-15 11:26:22

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#13 2016-05-15 11:44:15

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#14 2016-06-07 11:15:59

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#15 2016-06-07 13:42:27

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#16 2016-06-07 17:57:10

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#17 2016-06-09 07:33:14

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

#18 2016-06-09 08:35:55

Re: How does BunsenLabs Linux differ from Crunchbang?

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