Comments on: Taking the plunge

By: Jeff Bauer

Jeff Bauer — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 23:33:26 +0000

Mandatory reading for uber-OpenBox fans:

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:ClaysViStyleSpatial

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:ClaysViStyleSpatial#Clay_Barnes.27_Vim-Style_Openbox_bindings

http://www.hci-matters.com/blog/2007/06/11/archives/7/

http://www.hci-matters.com/blog/2007/06/16/archives/8/

etc.

By: Back to Openbox « Motho ke motho ka botho

Back to Openbox « Motho ke motho ka botho — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 23:13:30 +0000

[...] because I was feeling a little nostalgic, I put that together to mimic a desktop I was using about four years ago, also at Christmas. The machine has changed, the distro is different, but the look is [...]

By: Subscribing, unsubscribing « Motho ke motho ka botho

Subscribing, unsubscribing « Motho ke motho ka botho — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:53:11 +0000

[...] less than a year ago I still had a full-blown Xubuntu installation in place on at least one computer. What a difference [...]

By: kmandla

kmandla — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 22:08:48 +0000

I’ll have to try out dban; I hadn’t heard of it. I know Killdisk is generally a trial version of their full software suite. It comes with the usual limitations on use (one pass only, writes zeroes only, etc.), but it has always done the job real well for me.

I’ll try out dban now though, and see what I think. Thanks!

By: dosnlinux

dosnlinux — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 21:27:30 +0000

Just out of curiosity how would you compare killdisk to dban? (http://dban.sourceforge.net/) I figure a hard drive wiper is a hard drive wiper, (at least if they support the same algorithms) but it’s always interesting to hear why people prefer different tools.

By: kmandla

kmandla — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:27:37 +0000

Hey aussiebear. Thanks for the ideas. I’ve worked with Arch in the past, and love it. When I want a really fast system, that’s what I use. I have a tendency to return to Ubuntu only because of the way it sets things up, and the completeness (?) of an installation. In Arch I always seem to be finding things I forgot to install, and putting them into place.

I’ve used Slackware in the past, but didn’t care much for it. (I’m sorry, but I don’t remember why.) If I try something new anytime soon, it’s likely to be Etch. I’ve heard good things off the forums about it, and I understand it’s possible to start with a very lightweight system and build up. That always appeals to me.

By: kmandla

kmandla — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:24:06 +0000

Hi Ron. I use Killdisk to low-level format drives before I reinstall system software. I have had problems simply reformatting and reinstalling software over existing systems, but running Killdisk solves it for me. It can be time-consuming to blank the entire drive, so I usually just run it to about 4 percent, which eradicates the MBR and anything close to the center of the drive. That's usually enough to reset the drive in a practical sense. By the way, that laptop has a pair of hard drives, so I make one the "system" drive and once the "archive" drive. Just a quirk of the way I do things, I guess.

By: aussiebear

aussiebear — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 16:12:19 +0000

IF you want fast, you go with something based on Slackware. Distros like Vector Linux (easy to use for desktop), Zenwalk, or even Slackware itself (if you wanna tweak).

Hell, Arch Linux can do the same job from GRUB to KDE in 46 seconds on my notebook. (But do bare in mind, your HDD is 7200rpm, my one is 4200rpm).

On the desktop, using a PIII 933Mhz with a 7200rpm HDD, Arch can do GRUB to KDE in 31 seconds.

If you want dependable, go for something like Debian or Slackware and build on that. (Ubuntu is essentially Debian “Etch” with changes and more stuff loaded on)

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 13:32:39 +0000

What do you mean “blanked the system drive”