resurrection

By basd on Apr 24, 2009 | In kde4, linux

The second time with Arch went better. Okay, so I threw in the towel on the first time through. This computer originally came with Windows ME -- and it has never run so well.

...

I followed the beginner's guide a little more carefully and actually edited some of the conf files when it was offered -- and this time everything's running nicely.

Plus -- I'm learning the "quick way" to bring the latest computer up-to-speed with my firefox customizations, gpg, data, specialized scripts, etc. Once I have the new computer connected to a shared drive, I just copy over the existing files. So long as I maintain the same naming structure, everything works!

There is a lot I like about the Arch install. Of course, something always "breaks" in my installs. In this one, the KDE 4 globalshortcuts are not working. The config file is intact, the keys are reserved (eg., I can't assign alt f2 to krunner, even though alt f2 doesn't presently work) and the hotkeys system DOES work (I CAN assign alt R to krunner). Annoying problem -- and not the first time I have encountered it.

Definitely not as annoying as having to log into root to properly mount my encrypted drive before running my main OpSu install. (But, that install is running really well, too. And the desktops are looking very nice.)

KDE's desktop implementation is working nicely -- in fact, I prefer the look'n'feel of my OLD computer that WON'T run effects. And, even though there is no transparency, the widgets do a good job of emulating transparency. This raggedy ole' box is looking pretty good.

What's really surprising is that I'm getting acceptable performance out of a PIII at 750 MHz with only 256 megs. ram. Whoda' guessed?

I really like the Arch approach -- and the package manager allows proper dependency checking of tar.gz installs. So, there is no lack of software.

On the other hand, OpSu is more complete for the things I need on a regular basis. Using the Mozilla/Firefox repository from OpSu, my Firefox is a couple of clicks newer on that machine than on the Arch machine -- which is 3.09, but Mozilla is reporting the version as "obsolete". Arch also has its own branding, as "Gran Paradiso," apparently.

Speaking of Firefox, I just discovered the addon that allows keyboard based navigation. Takes a little getting used to, but I like it.