My love Affair with Arch Linux

[bobf]

Very nice! <^8#

[cod3poet]

More Conky modifications, installation of pulseaudio, getting a usb headset working for audio output (recording / microphone is pending).

Emulation works the next hurdle is getting my Logitech Dual Action.

Video playback not only works but is accelerated thanks to the binary drivers from Nvidia (yes not FOSS, but it's a waste of hardware to not use it)

VIRTUALIZATION!!! (to be continued) So the last piece of the puzzle is to make sure that I can still work the dayjob from this box. Using Remmina and FreeRDP I can remote into my pretty little boxes at OVH, and Cogeco in Toronto so I am not without the work resources I need on the road.

And of course because it's linux all my SSH and remote access to my other Linux boxen is controlled secure and reliable. Next up is a mass of VPN concentration so I can close off the RDP ports to my assets out there as there are far too many automated attacks that are hammering away at my infrastructure.

I LOVE THIS STUFF!

[cod3poet]

Just a quick update,

To compare the amount of packages it takes to go from a webserver, to a full blown desktop it takes a lot.

162 packages - A webserver running PHP and Mysql (Maria-db) and no X or graphical interface.

600 packages - Arch laptop also has X, Qemu, EmulationStation, a LAMP stack, NodeJS, Docker and much more.

But still I wonder how many packages it takes for Ubuntu or Fedora.... (I can check centos )

[cod3poet]

So I was sipping my coffee and working on some shell scripts and thought I might as well check on the Centos package numbers

395 packages for a centos LAMP server with zabbix installed - This is my development server so it has next to nothing on it.
1595 with a full gnome desktop installed - This is so I can show my colleages at work that linux is not all commandline and that it can make for a very powerfull workstation


That is a significantly larger number. A part of me is suprised but another part of me is not.

Also keeping in on the Minimal all the things vein, It turns out that this site and Forum work 100% with surf - http://suckless.org/ a simpler easier browser that tends to break bloaty non-standards based websites. Which can actually be a good thing and let you focus on the important stuff like posting stats to a LUG.

[Jason]

Interesting. Although different distros often package things differently, a package in one distro could be three packages in another distro. I think it'd be better to go by disk space used on a default install and not # of packages.

[cod3poet]

But wait There is more!!!!!

So this machine has been running since I started and I have been keeping it alive and updated with no breaking changes.

I finally had my most recent breakthrough!

Getting XRDP running so I can remote into my linux box without having to install client software on windows / Macs and having access to my arch install from anywhere in the world, encrypted secure and NOT purely ssh based.

[Jason]

Okay, I have to admit. This is pretty awesome!

[cod3poet]

This machine is a VM on some pretty beastly hardware, so rather than eating up resources locally I can have it on big metal and it will run even when all the machines in my house are off. Hey MA! I done built a cloud!

[cod3poet]

Arch, booting from USB on desktop under modification to be a mutli system setup. Running in savage 4k.

THIS is the desktop I will be porting to my surface, this is the desktop that I will setup xrdp on. This is the desktop that I so fell in love with.

[fox]

Pretty sparse, but I guess you aren't the Code Poet for nothing.

[Jason]

Cool. Are you going to dual-boot it with Arch? The surface, I mean.