A Disappointing Review of #! 10 "Statler"

Before I say anything else, I'd just like to say that the reason why I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks has been due to me being quite busy with classes, my UROP, and other related stuff. I will definitely have another post out this week (and it'll actually be a bit like this one), but I can't really promise much more. After all, I did say that I couldn't count on posting stuff regularly during the semester.

Anyway, I haven't done a post like this in a while; in fact, it's been half a year, when I criticized Dedoimedo's review of Bodhi Linux 0.1.6. There, I criticized the author for holding Bodhi Linux to an artificially higher standard and then trashing it from there. Well, this time around, it's another Dedoimedo review that's caused me to write this: this time, it's the review of #! 10 "Statler". Follow the jump to read my issues with the review.

Featured Comments: Week of 2011 August 7

There was one post that got a few comments, so I'll repost most of those.

Revisited: CrunchBang ("#!") Linux 10 "Statler" Xfce r20110207

An anonymous reader said, "shortcuts for menu. #! made me fall in love with shortcuts. thanks, good review."
Commenter tshann had this tip: "Just FYI, you can pull up the xfce menu by hitting the windows key and the alt key. So you don't even need to click on the desktop @ all. Thanks for the review. I've been using Statler xfce for ... well since it came out. It's my main OS - awesome distro."

Thanks to all those who commented on that post. I don't have anything planned for this coming week, but I'm sure I'll be able to think of something to write. In any case, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing and commenting!

Revisited: CrunchBang ("#!") Linux 10 "Statler" Xfce r20110207

Main Screen + Xfce Main Right-Click Menu

When I've reviewed #! before, I've always stuck with the Openbox edition, because when #! started, it only had an Openbox edition. It wasn't until version 10 "Statler" that it gained an Xfce edition as well, but I always wanted to review just "the original" #! anyway. Fast forward to the last few days, and I haven't really been able to think of much to write. Then, I realized I had never checked out the Xfce edition, so I did so.

#! doesn't need much of an introduction for regular readers of this blog. It's a lightweight Debian-based distribution that, as mentioned before, uses Openbox or Xfce, and packs in lots of cool goodies and a large dose of user-friendliness as well.

I tried the Xfce edition of #! using a live USB made with MultiSystem. I did not test the installation because I did that before with the Openbox edition; my main purpose is to see how the Xfce edition generally behaves in comparison to the Openbox edition, so follow the jump to see how that works out.

Review: CrunchBang ("#!") Linux 10 "Statler" Openbox r20110105

Main Openbox Screen

I've had a couple of encounters with #! before, starting with this review of version 9.04.01 and including this review of version 10 "Statler" Openbox (Alpha 2). I was pleasantly surprised by the features and minimalistic beauty of version 9.04.01, and I was later slightly let down by the relative lack of polish and removal of some features in version 10 (Alpha 2). Now, the #! developers have come out with a (actually, two) post-alpha release(s) of version 10 "Statler". The website says this:

Regarding the “20101205″ thing, this release and any future Statler releases will now feature a date based revision identifier. There will not be any more “alpha” images and you should not expect to see any “beta”, “RC” or “final” images either.  From this point on, if anyone needs to make a judgment as to the stability of Statler, they should check the date based identifier against the progress of Debian Squeeze.

Given that Debian 6 "Squeeze" is probably going to come out soon, I think it's safe to assume that this is a stable release. I grabbed the newest version (r20110105) of the Openbox release (there is also an Xfce release available which I did not test) and went on my way.
In terms of testing, I tested the live session through a live USB (made through MultiSystem) on my computer. I mentioned in my previous post that VirtualBox on my Linux Mint system is broken; given that, I installed VirtualBox within the #! live session and used the already-downloaded ISO file to install #! onto a new virtual hard disk of size 10 GB (with 1024 MB of RAM allocated to the guest OS) — more on that later. Follow the jump to see how #! compares and to see if it has improved any since Alpha 2.