Mgccl's Ivory Towerso tired

Arch Linux installation is so ez...
The laptop spec. I got it off newegg much cheaper than the price listing now.
The time saved in the installation dwarfs against the amount of post installation configurations one have to do.

It took me two days to configure everything correctly.

Now my laptop is up and running, using less than 400MB of ram with Chrome opened. It's also pretty FAST in response time.

Some essential packages for me.
I list them here so I can let the packman do it's job for hours on a slow internet connection and I can go relax.

Pre-Application
alsa
xorg
vim
slim (or cdm)
awesome
openssh

Applications:
irssi
eclipse (or in the future vim+some auto complete feature)
texlive
python
htop
screen
kile (vim might replace it later)
git
thunar (for automount)
mc (non-graphical file manager)
xfe (graphical file manager)
rxvt-unicode (don't know how to use it efficiently yet)
chromium (browser of choice)
firefox (just in case chrome failz)
mpg123 (so I can write script to play sounds easily)
mplayer
smplayer
flashplugin
fctix (for Chinese input)

I have switched to Ubuntu for 2 days now. It's awesome, I'm using awesome window manager. I'm more efficient than usual. I have got wireless to work(not manually), battery status to work, start up programs to work and more. It's a interesting experience.

It's not the first time I used linux, but this is the first time my only machine is running Linux. So I have no way to get back to windows except on library machines.

I shall get a new laptop this November and I will put Debian on it.

I'm using bitlbee+irssi for IM. Meebo when I'm in the library.

Currently I'm learning to use vi, and I just realized how to paste in urxvt.

It still take me a few seconds to do some basic operations. If i do them often enough, I will get used to them.

I'm using Texlive+Kile+graphviz+dot2tex for homeworks. I have already produced AMS 301 hw with directed and undirected graphs! Epic! Soon I will be able to create finite state machine diagrams in LaTeX and in pdf. When I graduate I will have every single hw I have ever written in PDF files! (although I have no idea what the questions are because I never record them, but looking though those work formatted is AWESOME.)

I won't be using Chinese anytime soon. The input method for Chinese on windows system is much superior than the Linux version. I will wait till Google Pinyin have a Linux version.

Something not awesome:
1. SBU access irc requires SSL.
2. Airnet pptp thing is not working. I can't be on IRC while I'm in the library and places.
3. I still use the mouse.
4. Stony Brook doesn't offer Linux version of Maple and Mathematica.

I wish I can get k desktops and use Synergy to connect them all together. I can even use different operating system at the same time. AWESOME.

I bet there is over 9000 people want Otaku Linux to be made.

The first week of Linux is absolutely fascinating. I took some time to get use to the system, like sudo my way around permissions and stuff. For the first time, Linux didn't screw up my life.
Linux made me feel high tech, I feel completely mobile. This is what using computer is all about.
I use putty on my windows computer to SSH into my gPC. Using WinSCP access my drives, with SftpDrive, it turns gPC's hard disk into a normal windows network drive. With TightVNC and x11vnc, I can control both the current display and X server sessions and create new ones remotely, way better than window's remote assistant.
The gPC installed a PCI wifi card, cost me 2 days to get it to work, a valuable experience.

I'm writing this post in my bed, and periodically access the gPC 6 meters away, checking up on the downloading progress, without getting up! I can even shut it down when I'm done with it.

My math problem database prototype is also ready, so far, LaTeX worked as expected. I still have to create scripts automatically process Asymptote and PStrick's outputs and cache them.
shutdown -h now
Next task in my list... make it the central home server that can stream media.

I feel so sophisticated and I want to own more computers, a lot more! Money is really important to me now

Great idea for families with many kids to save money:
1. Get a really powerful desktop
2. Get a nice router
3. Get some cheap old laptops, desktops, connect to the main computer though VNC. Linux have no problem manage users.

That's what I'm going to do. Back at China, I got a very old machine (P133), I can make it into one of the graphic terminals, or a powerful wireless router that consumes quite a lot energy.

I believe my router have some problem, I still can't access my gPC with an external IP, else I would show off to everyone in my school.

I spent $199 on Newegg and brought a gPC.
But with no monitor, I can do nothing with it.
Kuzew offered me a monitor for free, now the computer is complete :)

Over 4 hours of hard work, now it's running with everything I want, include Apache, PHP, MySQL, SFTP, LaTeX...

More on that later, $199 is really good deal for a PC :)