So, after installing CrunchBang… I started hanging out in the Debian chat channels. I figured that CrunchBang was based directly on Debian… so for all practical purposes, any advice or support for Debian would also pertain to CrunchBang.
But, when I mentioned CrunchBang in the #debian channel, I was told in no uncertain terms that CrunchBang != Debian. And they refused to even talk to me (in spite of the fact that I wasn’t actually seeking support).
So… that evening I wiped my two systems and installed Debian proper. They won’t support something “based” on Debian, so I’ll just run Debian itself and then I can avail myself of the community support.
After installing Debian, I was surprised to discover that the default Debian desktop environment is Gnome. I was totally expecting something more light-weight. A bit disappointing. Then I thought, hey… why can’t I just install a few additional desktop environments along side Gnome and play around? The oh-so-kind folks in the #debian channel assured me that would be a piece of cake.
And piece of cake it was. Up until the point where I checked out the available programs in the Gnome GUI and saw four different file managers, several image viewers, and duplicates of just about every type of program and utility that came pre-installed. You see, each desktop environment normally gets paired with different programs to fulfill particular functions. So I essentially ended up with three or four programs in each category that did essentially the same thing. Bogus!
I proceeded to wipe both systems (yet again). I reinstalled Debian on both, but this time I decided to stick to only one desktop environment. I chose Xfce for my desktop machine and LXDE for my laptop.
So they’re both installed and running perfectly. But holy cow, this is getting old. After all this screwing around I am actually considering going back to Ubuntu or a supported flavor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the most popular. But when it comes to “mainstream”… Ubuntu is pretty much for newbies, while Fedora and Debian are the two heavy hitters for people who don’t need their hands held.
As good as CrunchBang was… I don’t really like the idea of running something that is “almost” Debian. Or something that is “based on” a mainstream distro… but comes without any real support from that originating distro’s community (think red-headed step-child).