A good sources.list for Debian Testing:

As of playing mp3's, installing Picasa, Flash, Opera, Skype, and codecs, here's my sources.list:

(you need to open a terminal, log in as toot, edit (with Leafpad or Gedit) /etc/apt/sources.list)

-My sources.list: 

#################### 
## Debian Testing ## 
#################### 
 
# Testing 
deb ftp://bigmirror.crossbowproject.net/pub/debian/ testing main contrib non-free  
deb-src ftp://bigmirror.crossbowproject.net/pub/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

 
#Testing Security updates 
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib 
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib 
 
#debian multimedia repository (http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/24283/) 
deb ftp://linorg.usp.br/debian-marillat/ testing main 
deb-src ftp://linorg.usp.br/debian-marillat/ testing main 
 
# Official site for latest version of skype. 
deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free 
 
# Google picasa  
#(wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add - ) 
# or (gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv A040830F7FAC5991 && gpg --export --armor A040830F7FAC5991 | sudo apt-key add - ) 
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free 
 
### Opera Browser (http://deb.opera.com/) ### 
deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ testing non-free 

Back here....

Ok, I haven't been writing for over a month now... But those who know me can understand why. I moved !
I finally left downtown Las Terrenas, its dusty & noisy streets, for a paradise-like atmosphere in Playa Bonita...
Fantastic change, I am very happy with it ! (my family too...)
But I was busy setlling down, getting things to work in my new place, like having my ADSL internet transfered, for instance, and installing my workshop in a smaller space...
It's done now. Well, almost...
I shall be here more often, sharing thoughts, asking myself questions, or simply ranting, if it is not too wildly incorrect...

One of my favorite swims... see the yellow line:

An "Arch-like" Debian Testing !

Well, I finally made my own cooking, thanks to all people whom advices I have read here and there in the world wide web...

I decided to keep my working Ubuntu Hardy and Arch partition, and use the 3rd partition available to setup a minimal install of Debian Testing, following this guide: http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/432

But I didn't install any GDM or XDM... Stciked to startx...

Only OpenBox (with PyPanel...)

Enjoyed reading this gentleman's choice of apps: http://kmandla.wordpress.com/software/

That gave me some good tips, so I installed Mirage (to view photos), ePDFView (instead of xPDF), Leafpad (instead of Mousepad)...

Aterm for a terminal, Exaile for music, radio & podcasts, Claws-mail, Emesene for MSN messenger Alsamixergui for sound control,  and for the rest, very classical apps such as Iceweasel, Opera, Skype, Abiword/Gnumeric, PCManFM, TVtime, Brasero, Transission, aMule, Picasa, Gimp...

I must say I am not yet very used to OpenBox (I have always used Fluxbox for lightweight...), but it seems a dynamic community of users, and I have been reading those guides: http://urukrama.wordpress.com/openbox-guide/ as well as the one from the Arch wiki...

Very informative !

Needless to say the PC boots in no time !!!

One thing, I kept a 32bit Debian, despite having this 64bit amd Sempron... I just don't want to mix any libs... I am on a 486 kernel, might upgrade to 686... Not sure yet...

So the whole concept of this install was to do it "the Arch way", but with a Debian Testing base, since it is my area of choice...

Of course, I will miss my good ol' Nautilus, but the whole point of that is not to install Gnome... And if I really need to connect to other PC's (which I will !), that mean I'll have to reboot into either Ubuntu or Arch :(

Or learn how to better handle ssh and smb without Nautilus... But I am so used to the easy gui thing... We'll see...

bored... (but lots of swimming !!!)... Making my distros to go faster...

Ok, day off today, Corpus Cristi... Sunny days, went to the beach, and swam my @$$ off :)

Been arguing about Arch in the Ubuntu forum... (it's here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=773260&page=3 ), and finally admited that it did boot faster indeed... So that made me want to improve my 'Buntu !

I read that guide: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Optimize-Ubuntu-Feisty-Fawn-for-Speed-53836.shtml

...and it worked... I gain (...only...) 8 seconds at boot time, but overall my Gnome desktop seems faster...

-Is it only a feeling ???

What else... I wiped Slackware for Sidux, but I still am not happy... I guess I am simply allergic to KDE... Or is it the overly complicated version of the apt-get system that disoriented me ?

I might stick some Slack derivative or maybe Mandriva... Don't know... But I'll stick to 32bit...

I know now: I would use a 64bit distro if I needed no 32bit apps... And I still need just one: Skype !

I just dislike mixing 64 & 32...

Bottom line, this Debianista here is still happy with his 'Buntu, despite all of what's online about it... I downloaded a snapshot of Debian Testing netinst i386, but I feel lazy...

I gotta swim more... much more !

I went swimming again, 4 days in a row ! Beautiful, I feel so much better !
It's been warm, we had the elections... Leonel won, here's a photo fo him:



We'll see if he (still) does a good job (it's his 3rd term !)

Strange impressions about Arch...

Ok, so I managed to instal Arch Linux on my main box... I now have a multi-boot with Ubuntu 8.04, Slackware 12.1 and Arch... All are 32 bit version, despite my cpu being a 64bit Sempron... So far I feel better with a 32bit distro...

So I made it... I basically followed the Arch Beginners Guide...

It wasn't that hard since the guide is well done. I understood that I had to set my eth0 to DHCP to connect. That was the mistake that stopped me last week, when I first tried... (and failed).

So now I have a nice Gnome desktop, with mostly exactly the same apps that I use in Debian and Ubuntu... I only changed 2 of my usual regulars: Thunderbird instead of Evolution, and Exaile instead of Rhythmbox... But that was only a fantasy...

It seems to work well... I must admit that I cheated for one thing during the install: Since my xorg.conf file didn't seem to give me the proper res' at my first gui boot, I booted back in Slackware, and copied my Slack's xorg.conf to Arch... Booted back to Arch, and it worked great ! That is one of the beauty of the multiboot...

Also I need to precise that each distro has its own /home partition... I didn't try to have them all share the same one... Easier...

But now, here comes my greatest impression: I don't really see any difference in speed between Arch, Slackware and Ubuntu ! Now, I must tell you that I have been performing any type of exact measure... But the "human" feeling is that they all "work" at the same rhythm...

Furthermore, I would say that (it seems to me...) Ubuntu boots much faster than both Slack & Arch... Strange... I was expecting a "Ferrari" after all those years reading comments on how fast Arch was...

At the end of the day, I am only a "soho user", but apart from the educational factor and the "rolling release" factor, I don't see the big advantage of using Arch over Debian (or Ubuntu)...

I will however keep both Arch & Slack partition and update them often, to see if I missed something, to learn more...