Saviour

I recently ran into a file system corruption on my laptop. Today, everything is fine. The day it happened, I thought I lost over 400 pictures. I realize that it is my fault for not backing up that single copy, but that is besides the point. I had deleted all of these pictures off my memory card (Via Linux - FAT32 Formatted SD Card), and my laptop file system was inaccessible. How did I recover the photos? I recovered them with a free software named Restoration. This little software may not be the best way of recovering these pictures, but it worked for my purpose. This software is not Open Source, and it runs on Windows, but it was perfect for my situation. It also doesn't need an installation, and if you are in a dire situation without rights to a computer, this means a great deal.
Restoration was able to retrieve the "deleted" pictures from the SD card, as files are not deleted until they are overwritten on the FAT32 file system. Thanks Restoration!
Unfortunately, I believe that undelete capabilities do not exist on Linux's EXT3 and EXT4 file systems, correct me if I am wrong.
Restoration
My laptop has a new install of Arch, and I will be working on that to show off when it is ready!

Current Arch Setup

After my review about Arch, I reinstalled from scratch. I started again, building up from the basics. I do this because I appreciate the leanest system possible. Here is a screenshot of my current desktop-
This is Openbox with an XFCE4 Panel. I also use GDM for the login. The total memory usage with Firefox and Pidgin running is 195 MB. This is one lean setup. It boots with Xorg started in about 21 seconds, on an Intel Atom. Arch is my favorite distribution that I have found, and I am sure that it will continue to be so for a while.

Linux Review 11: Arch Linux

After 11 successful looks at Linux, I think I may have found my favorite...

Arch Linux is a Linux distribution striving to Keep it simple. My opinions on this? Its great. Arch is lightweight and you can do anything in relation to Desktop Managers and configuration. I installed it on my Eee PC 904HA, and had similar results to Fedora. Sound from the headphone output is full of static, but I think that might be a hardware problem. Wireless basically worked out of box. Even with the core install, essentials to a laptop configuration were working. I went from there, installing and configuring X.org, GDM, Gnome, XFCE, and getting programs like Firefox, Pidgin, and OpenOffice.org. What I got out of doing this all by hand was a fast, slim system with only the essentials.

Arch Install
The Arch Linux installer is a text base installer, covering everything needed to get a working install on first reboot. It goes through partitioning, keyboard, time zone, and other settings. If you download the FTP image, you download packages from mirrors to use on the first reboot. I downloaded the ~150MB FTP image, and then downloaded some packages such as the kernel and Text editor, nano. I also dived into using EXT4 for my root partition. EXT4 is the latest EXT filesystem, and it seems faster than EXT3 would be. I had to use EXT3 for my /boot partition as GRUB doesn't yet support EXT4. Otherwise, the install went smooth, and I checked the configuration files to make sure that they were ok. They were, and I proceeded into my first installed start-up of Arch.

Arch Startup
The installed system was blazingly fast. I logged in as root, and I had a command line based system, that I was ready to install things like X onto. I read around the Arch wiki (Great wiki), figuring out how to go around installing what I wanted. Soon after, my system was ready and very usable.

Overview
Arch is a nice Linux distribution. It is lightweight and fast. It works great, once you have it configured properly. It gives you flexibility. You only download things you need. I have to say, with all of these things together in one distribution, it is my favorite. I have to give it a 5/5. I think this will be my distribution of choice for a while. Until something similar to arch comes along with a better mixture of performance and features, Arch will be my favorite. For now, I will stop distribution hopping and stay with Arch.

Fedora on the Eee PC 904HA

I installed Fedora 10 onto my EeePC. Here is what works and what doesn't work-


Worked Out of Box
Wireless, Ethernet, All normal things, sound, correct resolution on the screen, etc...

Does not work out of box
Headphones :(

The Good And Bad things about a Multi-Touch Touch Pad

After that much of a title, lets get talking. My new laptop, the Eee PC 904HA, came with a multitouch touchpad. It is similar to the technology found in the newer Apple Macbooks. The whole concept makes it easier to navigate the interface. It allows gestures to be used to zoom, scroll, change workspaces, etc... What do I think about it? I think this technology is great. It makes doing certain things quicker, which increases productivity, and makes the computing experience that little bit greater. Is it the next big feature? I'm not sure, it could be. More and more laptops (now the most popular type of computer) will get touchpads with new features.
I found myself immediately using the gestures with the touchpad. It only takes a little while to master the easiest of them. Multi-Touch-Pads, the tech of the future?