The content of this magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. For more information visit user http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 TM Issue #1 - April 2009 EDITORS DESK ................................ 2 COMMUNITY NEWS ........................ 3 CHOOSING A DE/WM ...................... 4 HARDENING SSH IN 60 SECONDS .................................... 6 GAMERS CORNER .......................... 9 TIPS & TRICKS ............................... 10 PIMP MY ARCH .............................. 11 SOFTWARE REVIEW ......................12 Q&A ..................................................14 EEDDIITTOORRSS DDEESSKK Welcome to the first issue of Arch User Magazine! ARCH USER STAFF Daniel Griffiths (Ghost1227) ........... Editor ello, and thank you for picking up issue #1 of Arch User Magazine! While David Crouse (Crouse) .......... Contributor the vast majority of you probably know me (or have at least seen me H around the forums), I feel that I should take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Daniel Griffiths, and I am a 26-year-old independent contractor in Delaware, US. Throughout my life, I have wandered through various UNIX/Linux systems including (but not limited to) MINIX, RedHat, Mandrake, Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, and even two home made distributions based on Linux From Scratch. I finally found Arch in 2007 and instantly fell in love with its elegant simplicity. Some of our more attentive readers may note that Arch already has a monthly newsletter. With the existence of the aformentioned newsletter, what is the point of adding another news medium to the mix? Fear not, newsletter readers, I have no intention of letting Arch User Magazine take the place of the newsletter. In fact, Arch User Magazine and the newsletter are intended to fill two very different needs in the Arch community. While the newsletter gives you a glimpse into the lives of WHAT IS ARCH LINUX? the Developers and the status of the distribution itself, Arch User is designed to Arch Linux is a lightweight, flexible Linux® showcase the community itself. distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. As this is our first issue, I give you no assurances as to the continued release of Our strong community is diverse and Arch User Magazine. However, I do promise that as long as you, the community, helpful, and we pride ourselves on the continue to express interest, I will continue to write. range of skillsets and uses for Arch that stem from it. Please check out our forums Daniel Griffiths (Ghost1227) and mailing lists to get your feet wet. Also Editor, Arch User Magazine glance through our wiki if you want to [email protected] learn more about Arch. 2 NEWS CCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY NNEEWWSS Become a CLI black-belt line-fu is a community-driven site that been proven that Ada's program for allows users and administrators alike to calculating a sequence of Bernoulli Whether you are a struggling newbie or a share their favorite command line gems numbers would have run correctly, had it veteran CLI aficionado, most everyone and have them ranked by the community. If been given the chance. would agree that knowing the command you're looking to expand your knowledge of line is an important part of being a Linux the command line, this would be an The contributions of women in the field of user. But just how well do you really know excellent place to start! technology all too frequently remain forever it? Hopefully, every Arch user knows the unacknowledged. However, the ranks of "cd" command. Even the youngest users Source: female developers, designers, tech quickly learn that typing "cd ~" returns you http://www.commandlinefu.com journalists and consultants is steadily to your home directory. But how many of growing. A prime example of this you knew that the similar command "cd -" unfortunate oversight is the well known will return you to your previous working blog Lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com). directory? Ada Lovelace Day Lifehacker has quickly gained recognition and has been praised by several Most experienced users will recognize that For those of you who hadn't heard, March publications including TIME, Wired and PC prefacing a command with "!" will recall the 24th was Ada Lovelace Day. But what is Magazine. But did you know that last used instance of the referenced Ada Lovelace Day? It is an international Lifehacker was developed by female command. For example executing "!echo" day of blogging to draw attention to women programmer Gina Trapani? I didn't. will retrieve the last time "echo" was used excelling in technology. Typically, Linux and rerun it. This is a wonderful trick, but users (as well as developers in general) Source: some users may be hesitant to use it for are know to be predominantly male. But http://www.findingada.com fear of accidentally running the wrong did you know that the first computer command and damaging their precious programmer was actually female? During system. Thankfully, there is an easy way the early 1840s (yes, I said the 1840s) the around this! Simply by affixing ":p" to the Lady Lovelace began writing programs for end of the command it will simply be her husbands proposed invention, the printed to the screen rather than actually Analytical Engine. run. What a lifesaver! Although Charles Babbage's Analytical Do I have your attention yet? Command- Engine was never actually built, it has since 3 CCHHOOOOSSIINNGG AA DDEE//WWMM BY DANIIEL J GRIIFFIITHS At some point in time in the life of every Based on the QT toolkit, KDE (or designed to be a minimalistic alternative to Linux user, you will inevitably come across the K Desktop Environment) is KDE or GNOME. Weighing in at a tiny a situation in which you become probably the single most complete 15MB, XFCE is designed for productivity disillusioned with whichever Desktop DE available for Linux today. while also giving low memory systems all Environment or Window Manager you are However, its complexity comes at a price. the advantages of a full DE without the using. Maybe you have been using KDE With a minimum install size of 210MB, cost. and want to slim your system down, or KDE weighs in as the largest mainstream maybe you use XMonad and are missing DE out there. Unlike Windows, that size While it is technically a window the pretty 3D effects that some of the isn't all unnecessary bloat. With its focus manager rather than a desktop bulkier options offer. Regardless of your on ease of use and outstanding graphic environment, another full featured situation, you may find yourself asking the design, not to mention a well supported option is Enlightenment. age-old question, 'which option is the best and complete suite of prepackaged Enlightenment features advanced graphics for me?' The recommended way to applications, KDE is an ideal system for libraries (read plenty of eye-candy) and an determine your best fit is to try them and beginners or users who impressive install size of only 15MB. decide for yourself, but there are a lot of prefer eye-candy to simplicity. Unfortunately, it also relies on a proprietary options out there and it can be a daunting toolkit, requiring you to additionally install (and time consuming) task. Henceforth, I If you like the idea of a full DE, but GTK or QT to use most of your favorite am going to try to help you narrow down not having such a large install, programs. Another downside is a very long your list of candidates. GNOME might be more to your release cycle and occasional stability liking. At roughly 180MB for a minimum issues. If you want something that doesn't The first step in deciding what best suits install, GNOME still packs a punch but is require much you is determining what you need. Are you definitely a step in the right direction for the tinkering, stay away from this one. looking for fancy graphics and space-conscious. Based on the GTK compositing? A Windows-like feel? Or are toolkit, GNOME shares a similar goal with In the category of floating window you trying for something more KDE, allowing a fully-featured interface managers, none is more popular minimalistic? If you want a little help with lots of eye-candy yet keeping a slightly than the *box family. Built off of the slimming down .your options, please read slimmer footprint and requiring less RAM to Blackbox framework, the most popular on. run smoothly. variations today include Fluxbox and Openbox. While the default installation of A third option among the ranks of Blackbox and its derivatives skips things fully featured DEs is XFCE. Based that many users are accustomed to (such 4 CCHHOOOOSSIINNGG AA DDEE//WWMM BY DANIIEL J GRIIFFIITHS oversights are easily correctable through a Similarly to XMonad, the Awesome plethora of available extensions, addons, window manager was originally a and scripts. If you are looking for a fork of DWM. Also like XMonad, it minimalistic system without losing the has far superseded its predecessor. floating window manager feel, the *box Although its ever-changing lua-based family may well fit the bill. configuration Awesome can be frustrating for new users, Awesome boasts a few firsts DWM is probably the smallest among tiling window managers (use of the window manager available, XCB library to communicate with the X boasting less than 2000 lines server, support for the Pango markup of code. Unfortunately, it's miniscule size language and D-Bus) and a very dedicated comes at a cost. All user configuration is user base. done through the modification of a single header file. What does this mean? It So what is the best solution for you? You means that the slightest change in tell me! Decide what is most important to configuration requires a recompile of the you, try out the available options, and WM, making this an unlikely option for all maybe even learn a little bit along the way.