..Why are my posts being cut short? That's twice now that about half of what I've written has simply disappeared when I post it. When I preview my posts they're all there. But once posted they leave out big parts of my message!.. So here's yet another thing to be concerned with!..

Your quotes are being cut short any time you use an apostrophe. Its something I discovered yesterday...Looking into a fix...but until then, leave apostrophes out....new forum bumps..please be patient.

We will help anyone with any flavor of wattOS since I built them starting back in 2008. There may be a point where someone needs a package or fix or something that requires a forklift upgrade, and generally we have told people we don't support an in place upgrade typically.

However - I have a hard time saying no, so whoever or whatever Linux questions come along, either myself or someone will likely take a swing at it to help out.

tks....biff

I am going to make this sticky - please keep it focused on Debian/wattOS - but put links here from other sites you think are helpful relevant so we have the in one spot.

My first one is the Debian Openbox site and the main Openbox help site. Since its new to some people, and has lots of good links to other panels, tools, etc..etc..

https://wiki.debian.org/Openbox

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

Oh..hey missed that Balloon already added the quickest way (and they way a lot of openbox distros do it...by adding the Debian menu)

Read this post if you want to give that a whirl

http://planetwatt.com/newforum/index.php?topic=13.0

Hi there...its not a bug..it was on purpose. Crunchbang does it the same way. (but is much more mature and elegant than my first attempt in my opinion  )

There are a couple of "automatic" menu tools that can build a menu based upon the .desktop or other methods. I tested several and did not like them as they added giant menu structures. full of things that were not needed so I was trying to keep it simple and added the gui menu editor instead.

When I get some time (probably Sunday west coast US time) I will add some links and KB info on those as options as I know some people prefer that.

tks,

biff

The wattOS team is pleased to announce the release of the new version of wattOS - Release 8 - (also known as R8). After 5 years being an Ubuntu based distro, we have made the change to Debian. Specifically Debian Wheezy as the base, with some backports thrown in (for example a newer Kernel), and in a couple of small places a little Jessie where warranted. But for the most part, its Debian Wheezy as a base to build from.

The additional tweaks include the addition of the expected things to make it easy to use as a liveCD or install. So a reasonably complete desktop for all versions that includes things like support for multiple wireless chipsets, flash inclusion, printing support, and the ability to browse windows networks without a lot of command line magic needed.

There are three flavors included in this release. wattOS Mate edition, LXDE edition, and the Microwatt edition (running openbox this time around). The Mate and LXDE version include 32 and 64bit and the Microwatt is 32bit only.

As you can imagine there are a lot of changes since we went from Ubuntu to Debian, but the idea of a simple, quick operating system that gets out of your way, and can be a good base to build and customize on remains intact.

There will be several lengthy write ups  on the wattOS website www.planetwatt.com discussing the details of those changes. (especially with openbox and microwatt) and the expected learning curve. Also since this is our first go around wth Debian as the core, its expected that some bumps may be encountered. We have tested a good bit, but no amount of testing can replicate what the community can discover.

Core apps and versions for LXDE

Core system - Linux Kernel 3.13.10-1
File manager - PCManFM 1.1.2
Graphics Editing - Shotwell 0.12.3
Web Browsing (including flash support) - Iceweasel 24.5.0
File transfer - Filezilla 3.5.3
BitTorrent client - Transmission 2.52
PDF viewing - ePDFViewer 0.1.8
Music Player - Audacious 3.2.4
Video/multimedia player - VLC 2.0.3
CD burning utility - XFBurn 0.4.3
Power management utilities like powertop to optimize settings, support for power
management features of laptops

Core apps and differences for MATE-Desktop

Same as before as a base build of Mate but an update to Mate 1.8
and the same core applications as LXDE

Whats New in R8

- Debian based instead of Ubuntu
- Microwatt changed from PekWM to customized Openbox
- Microwatt includes Qupzilla browser
- non-pae support continues for 32bit systems/processors
- Changed to iceweasel browser for all versions except Microwatt
- Broad inclusion of wireless chipset support and their related drivers
- All versions built from scratch on base Debian images
- New simple installer (with tips and tricks taken from LMDE and Point Linux and their excellent installer implementations)

LXDE versions wattOS should be able to run on any system that has a Pentium 3 class
processor or better with 192-256MB of RAM to install but less than 128MB after
install is complete.

Microwatt version of wattOS should be able to run on the same class of machines
as LXDE but with a smaller memory footprint.