Goodbye, Lowarch

The time has come to say goodbye. For almost two years now I’ve seeded the Lowarch ISO and made it available for download either via bittorrent or from a free hosting site.

But now it’s something like three years old, really. Even archlinux-i586.org hasn’t seen an update in more than a year, and holding on to an ISO that predates that by two years is almost silly.

Good times were had, but they are done now. There are still Pentium-era machines out there in serviceable condition, but there’s no need to clutch to that ISO as if it were some sort of crucial tool.

From where I stand though, there are still some options for 586-based machines, to include Debian and (almost) anything Debian-based, Slitaz, and of course ground-level distros like Crux, Gentoo or Linux From Scratch.

With that many solid, reliable and active options out in the wild, there’s no reason to carry a torch. Cheers and salud.

Ignorance does not suit you

I have a car, but I don’t really know how it works. I use it every day but it’s a big mystery — all the little spinning gadgets and wheels and oil and stuff under the hood. I don’t really care though, since I just want to go from here to there without any hassles. If something breaks or if it stops working, I’ll just wait for someone to come along and fix it for me, or get a new one.

I have a job, but I don’t really know how it works. I am part of it every day, but it’s a big mystery — all the different people and relationships and interactions and stuff within the group. I don’t really care though, since I just want to live from day to day without any hassles. If something breaks or if it stops working, I’ll just wait for someone to come along and fix it for me, or get a new one.

I have a body, but I don’t really know how it works. I use it every day, but it’s a big mystery — all the different organs and fluids and chemicals and stuff under the skin. I don’t really care though, since I just want to waddle around day to day without any hassles. If something breaks or if it stops working, I’ll just wait for someone to come along and fix it for me, or get a new one.

I have a computer, but I don’t really know how it works. I use it every day, but it’s a big mystery — all the different lights and buttons and switches and stuff inside the case. I don’t really care though, since I just want to surf the web or check my e-mail without any hassles. If something breaks or if it stops working, I’ll just wait for someone to come along and fix it for me, or get a new one.

Brought to you by a rather ignorant, albeit off-the-cuff remark by a co-worker the other day, when it was suggested that she learn a little more about how computers work. Urdummheit is not an option, friends.

Looking forward to Crux 2.7

The world doesn’t need me saying it, but I suppose it’s worth mentioning that Crux 2.7 is out.

Crux is still my favorite distro, with three of the four machines I have — all of them i586′s — running it. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s worth trying at least once.

What I’m really looking forward to this time is the bootable USB image, since it should mean that I don’t need the acrobatics I was performing six months ago, with the traditional ISO.

In any case, as soon as an i586 version is ready, and as soon as I have the few hours it takes to experiment, I’ll give some sort of note on how things go.

A console goodie grab bag

I have a few applications that I have tinkered with, but didn’t make a big enough impression to warrant a full post. Just in the interest of safekeeping the notes I made about them, I’m going to leave a list here, for the future.

ecasound

I found ecasound a long time ago, when I was troubleshooting sound on one Pentium or another. I had hoped that it would help give me some insight in how to set up the ISA sound card, but it wasn’t until much later that I found the answer to that.

Regardless, ecasound has an interactive interface for sound processing, including playback and mixing and quite a few other goodies. I am not enough of a sound geek to want to experiment much with it; if it appeals to you, give it a try.

P.S.: It was last updated in August, so it’s definitely not stale.

id3lib

If you are one of those programmer types who is looking for a project, I have a suggestion: An id3 renaming and tagging application for the console.

Technically speaking, I suppose id3lib by itself can do those things, but like most libraries it’s a bit unwieldy for large collections or heavy-duty editing and fine-tuning. Finding and searching and replacing, for example.

It’s not impossible to use this strictly as a command line tool, or even a la the hacky ogg editor I clumped together a while ago. But something with a bit more panache would be nice.

ised

ised is another command-line calculator, but intended to work in a way that resembles sed. It does have an interface of sorts, so it can function in a way similar to bc or wcalc.

I suppose as a background tool to a script or program that needed heavy calculations, ised would be great. I tried it once a while back and while it does what it promises, that’s about all I remember.

look

look was mentioned as an alternative when I mentioned aspell about six months ago. It relies on the /usr/share/dict/words or /usr/share/dict/web2 files though, and neither of those files appears in any of my systems, even if look does.

It does apparently have uses beyond just checking your spelling, so if it has a use for you that I seem to have skimmed over, let me know.

mdocml

Similarly, mdocml was offered to me via email as a substitute to the man utility, mostly on the grounds that it’s a faster and lighter tool than man.

If I understand it correctly, man relies on groff, which is rather heavy and at times unreliable. If there’s some sort of man vs. mdocml war going on though, it’s news to me.

I usually keep a machine online to check command options or look for example syntax. I rarely use man and have actually run systems that didn’t use it, but I won’t argue if a lighter, faster document interface is helpful to you.

nanoblogger

This one is a bit dusty from sitting in my list for so long. I made a note of it about a year and a half ago, when I was looking for a command-line blogging client, and found charm.

For a few moments I thought nanoblogger was what I was looking for, but it’s actually the opposite, if I understand it right. nanoblogger is the engine, not so much a client.

So if you want something incredibly light to serve as the basis for a web log, something that you host on your own and don’t use an external service for, it might be just right. And it’s actively updated, which is always a good thing.

nn

nn is a newsreader with a long history, if I understand it right. I don’t have much to tell about this one, mostly because I don’t know much about newsreading services. Sorry.

I do know things like alpine and slrn and so forth, and that they too can read news services, but I somehow missed over that intermediary step in life. I have no experience here.

orpie

orpie is another calculator, and one I would probably like a lot, except for two things: First, it needs not only ocaml to build, but ocaml-gsl, and those two together are rather hefty for most of the machines I own.

The other thing is that it’s a reverse polish notation calculator, which is something slightly alien to me. I was required to use an RPN calculator in high school, but it’s not something I’m terrifically comfortable with. I don’t think I’ve used one since then.

On the other hand, it does have a really slick interface and quite a few advanced options. Don’t miss out on this one.

password-wallet

This is a newer project by the look of it, and basically stores passwords in an encrypted text file. The owner can edit the text file and feel reasonably comfortable that their passwords are secure.

I tried it briefly a few months ago and it did what it promised, but again, beyond that I don’t have much to say. I can see where this might be useful though, for example in combination with ssh.

qodem

As a terminal emulator I suppose this has a practical side. I have almost no experience to report with anything that is claims to support though, so I am very much uninitiated on this one.

I would recommend checking it though, since it seems to be receiving updates — some within the last few weeks — so it may be that my ignorance is unknowingly embarrassing.

rdiffdir

rdiffdir is part of the duplicity package, which is in and of itself a rather nifty set of tools. I could show you rdiffdir and post a couple of screenshots, but I wouldn’t be doing a better job that what is already done here.

This is a great tool for someone who needs to synchronize between folders at home and at work, or on non-networked machines. I used it once a long time ago when I was diligent and dedicated and wanted to keep a mirror of my work directory on my home machine. Not so much these days …

svgatextmode

This I couldn’t find much documentation on, and the few places where it is mentioned (like on Freshmeat, above), it is already a decade out of use and probably not really what I need.

If anyone can vouch for it, please leave a note. I turned up my nose because I doubted it would run on newer software, but that comes with the admission that it’s running on older hardware.

That’s all for now. I can clear some of these off my to-do list. And as always, if you know about something that I don’t, please share.

Bug No. 602265: A forum bookmark

I have an Ubuntu gripe that needs … griped: To the best of my knowledge, there is no default shortcut to the Ubuntu Forums in a clean installation of Ubuntu.

For me, as a long-time moderator and as someone who relied heavily on the forums in my early Linux experience, that’s a bit of a disappointment.

Regardless of what you think about the distro, and regardless of what you think about the forums, it’s still one of the — if not the — largest Linux-focused forums on the Internet … and I have heard it said that it ranks among of the largest forums, period. (Of course, I don’t have numbers for that. Perhaps you can find some.)

In any case, I think a site of that size and with that much influence — and now with a five-plus-year history of helping people free themselves from Microsoft and Apple — deserves a better representation in the distro itself.

Any number of distros, from the smallest to the largest, make a point of sending users directly to help forums. Ubuntu should do the same … and lumping them all into a “support site” just isn’t the same thing for me. And yes, I know Linux’s traditional reliance on mailing lists.

There is, actually, a bug report that approaches this issue obliquely: Launchpad bug No. 602265. It’s been around for a while and was actually framed by philinux, another moderator, in the context that the default shortcuts in Firefox needed updating.

And on the whole I can agree with that. If it means a direct link to the forums, then yes, those shortcuts need updating.

Personally though, I am focused on only one of those links. To me it just seems like a good idea, and a worthy nod to a resource that has had such a huge impact on so many lives.

Oh great, another addiction: OpenRA

I’ve said before I’m not a huge gamer, but this is really great stuff.

I was never a giant Red Alert fan; I played it enough times to have a few fond memories, but not anything that would cause a crying fit.

On the other hand, OpenRA is a fantastic rendition. Sound effects, graphics and game play are all subtle mimics of what I remember from the original game.

It is, however, obviously a work in progress. Some of the sophisticated units, for example, are labeled “TODO,” and here and there debug messages pop up. And I don’t remember attack dogs chewing up concrete walls.

And it needs a few embellishments that seem lacking, given RTS games in the current day and age. Just to illustrate, it would be nice to have some patrol commands, or grouping functions. I can’t seem to find those.

But none of that impedes an otherwise exceptional game, even in this early state. And Arch users in particular can rejoice: For once, a downloadable package specific to the distro.