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Arch User Magazine [Issue 1]

Authors Daniel Griffiths David Crouse

License CC-BY-SA-3.0

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     user   The content of this magazine is released under
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            3.0 Unported license. For more information visit
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                                                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
                  EDITORS DESK
           Welcome to the first issue of Arch User Magazine!                                      ARCH USER STAFF
                                                                                       Daniel Griffiths (Ghost1227) ........... Editor

  H    ello, and thank you for picking up issue #1 of Arch User Magazine! While
       the vast majority of you probably know me (or have at least seen me
       around the forums), I feel that I should take a moment to introduce myself.
                                                                                       David Crouse (Crouse) .......... Contributor



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
griffithsdj@archusermagazine.org                                                       learn more about Arch.


                                                              2
        NEWS

                      COMMUNITY NEWS
    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
                     CHOOSING A DE/WM BY DANIEL J GRIFFITHS
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
                      CHOOSING A DE/WM BY DANIEL J GRIFFITHS
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.
but the most dedicated tinkerers.                Of course, if you want to be really
                                                 hardcore, get rid of the graphical interface
         Among the ranks of tiling window        altogether and rely solely on screen and
         managers, XMonad is probably the        the CLI interface. What's screen, you ask?
         most popular. Originally based on       Check back with us next month for an
         DWM, XMonad has far outdone its         article on the wonders of GNU screen and
predecessor, allowing advanced                   just what it can do!
configuration and dynamic extensibility
 through the functional programming
                                                    Daniel Griffiths is Editor of Arch User
language Haskell. While its dependancy on
                                                  Magazine, a dedicated Arch user himself,
Haskell makes XMonad the largest of the
                                                 and uses the Awesome WM. For more info,
tiling window managers, its relative stability
                                                        head over to his website at
and extensibility make it an excellent
                                                            http://ghost1227.com
choice for someone new to tiling.

                                                                      5
                     HARDENING SSH IN 60 SECONDS BY DAVID CROUSE
Before we even get started, it should be       on the installation of OpenSSH at                 your machine, and exponentially decrease
known that the number one security             http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH. If       the chances you will ever have your
measure you can have in place is a good        you are totally unfamiliar with OpenSSH,          system compromised by crackers. How
username and password.                         read the wiki page to become more familiar        easy is that? Edit one configuration file,
                                               with what it is and what it does. There are a     harden your machine to the point of
From the OpenSSH website:                      couple more files to configure in order to        making it a useless target, all in less than
"OpenSSH is a FREE version of the SSH          make OpenSSH behave as expected, most             60 seconds. Sound too good to be true?
suite of network connectivity tools that       notably /etc/hosts.allow. This configuration      Ok, so maybe 60 seconds is a stretch if
increasing numbers of people on the            file has the power to limit who can and can       you have never edited this file before, but it
Internet are coming to rely on. Many users     not access your system via ssh, but for this      really can take less than 60 seconds to
of telnet, rlogin, ftp, and other such         article we will concentrate on configuring        make the changes. Now that you have
programs might not realize that their          one file, /etc/ssh/sshd_config.                   your goal set for you, read on.
password is transmitted across the Internet
unencrypted, but it is. OpenSSH encrypts       Some of us live in a command line world,          Here is an example that will be an eye
all traffic (including passwords) to           some don't. As an Arch user you are               opener for some of you.
effectively eliminate eavesdropping,           probably at least somewhat familiar with
connection hijacking, and other network-       the command line, as it is almost a                    less /var/log/auth.log | grep fail
level attacks."                                prerequisite for this distribution. Sometimes                          or
                                               things do get overlooked though, even by a                           lastb
Installation of OpenSSH on Arch Linux is       command line junkie. Security of your
extremely simple. As root, issue the           OpenSSH server is one of those things             If your machine is connected to the net and
command pacman -S openssh.                     that doesn't always get quite as much             not behind a firewall, you're in for quite a
                                               attention as it probably should. Let's face it,   surprise. I did a clean install once and let it
Open the /etc/rc.conf file and in the          there are just too many other fun things to       run for five days without a firewall. Below
daemon section add sshd to start the           do with your machine. So in this article, we      are the results.
OpenSSH server daemon at boot time.            offer some very simple suggestions for
Now issue the command /etc/rc.d/sshd           hardening OpenSSH. It doesn't take very           wtmp begins Thu Jul 17 21:57:08 2008
start to start the daemon immediately. You     much effort, or time, on your part to make a      [root@VistaCrusher1 ~]# lastb | wc -l
now have OpenSSH installed and running,        huge difference in the security of your Arch      25349
but you should take the time to secure it as   Linux system. In fact, making a few simple
well! The Arch Linux wiki has a good page      changes can greatly improve the security of       This means that there were 25,349 failed

                                                                     6
                      HARDENING SSH IN 60 SECONDS BY DAVID CROUSE
login attempts on my machine. No one             #Port 22                                        anyone. Authentication requires both a
ever got in, but it was very interesting to      Port 20044                                      valid username and valid password. If they
view the logs and grep the most used IP to                                                       can log in as root, half the battle is over for
see who was doing what.                          Every port scanner on the planet knows          them and they just have to find a correct
                                                 that port 22 is the standard ssh port. In       match on a password. Make them guess
Your best friend when locking down               fact, changing this one line will stop 99% of   both, and if they manage to get in as a
OpenSSH is the default sshd_config file.         the port scans and hacking attempts             user they still don't have root permissions.
This file is normally located at                 through ssh. Yea, I sort of made up that        Don't make it easy. Remember everyone
/etc/ssh/sshd_config on Arch Linux               number, but I know I'm close. Changing the      preaching about "don't run as root?" Well
machines. Before you do ANYTHING else,           default port to a five or six digit port can    don't login via ssh as root either. Setting
it is suggested that you backup your             take you from 25,000+ failed login attempts     this line explicitly prevents this.
configuration file. This can be done quite       in five days, to zero in over two years. This
simply by issuing the command                    doesn't affect the usefulness of your ssh       SSH TWEAK #3 - MaxAuthTries 3
cp /etc/ssh/ssh_config{,-bak}. This              server at all, and about the only thing it      Look for the line that says "#MaxAuthTries
makes quick work of starting over if             might require is for you to forward a router    6." Uncomment it and set it to 3.
something goes horribly wrong. Hey, it           port to that machine. In fact, I do this
happens to the best of us, and it is better to   intentionally so that I can login to my three   #MaxAuthTries 6
be overly cautious than to be reckless and       machines easily. I set the port numbers for     MaxAuthTries 3
lose time and data trying to recover the file    ssh to three different numbers and have
you just screwed up. So now that we have         my router forward that port to the correct      After three unsuccessful login attempts...
our configuration file backed up, let's start    machine.                                        well, you get the idea. If you don't get it
editing the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file!                                                           right in three attempts, you're out of luck.
                                                 SSH TWEAK #2 - PermitRootLogin no
Stopwatches please...                            Look for the line that says                     SSH TWEAK #4 - MaxSessions 10
                                                 "PermitRootLogin yes". Uncomment this           Look for the line that says "#MaxSessions
SSH TWEAK #1 - Port                              line and change it to no!                       10" and uncomment that as well.
...and in my humble opinion, the very first
thing you should change.                         #PermitRootLogin yes                            #MaxSessions 10
                                                 PermitRootLogin no                              MaxSessions 10
Change the port number from 22 to
something else.                                  There is no sense in making it easy for         This option limits the maximum number of

                                                                      7
                           HARDENING SSH IN 60 SECONDS BY DAVID CROUSE
                                                          unauthenticated sessions. This will help           So there are a few simple configuration
                                                          keep someone from attempting to DDOS               changes that are guaranteed to make your
                                                          the server via ssh.                                box much safer. And that took what, 60
                                                                                                             seconds to change those lines in
                    2009.02 ISO                           SSH TWEAK #5 - AllowUsers
                                                          Set this. This one isn't in the sshd_config
                                                                                                             sshd_config? This is by no means the
                                                                                                             extent to which you can configure your
                    RELEASED!                             file by default, but it's one of the better        OpenSSH server. First, read man
                                                          things to look at setting explicitly. Setting it   sshd_config. I know, a big "duh," but I
                                                          only allows listed users to login via ssh.         would be remiss if I didn't include that
Features:                                                                                                    statement. There are lots of other cool
                                                          AllowUsers johnsmith                               things you can do in there, but I'll leave that
- Kernel 2.6.28                                                                                              for you to discover. Just read the man page.
                                                          This will allow ONLY johnsmith to login via
- Full ext4 support                                       ssh. Everyone else is denied access.               Hopefully this article has provided you with
- ISOLINUX version                                        AllowUsers is a list of username patterns,         some useful tips in securing your
                                                          separated by spaces. So, if you have               OpenSSH server. In all reality, it probably
- Updated documentation                                   multiple users, the config file would look         took you longer to read this than it will to
                                                          something like:                                    edit your configuration file, so get to it!
- Next generation installer
  Arch installation CDs are for new installations only.   AllowUsers johnsmith user3 admin
 To upgrade an existing installation, use pacman -Syu.
                                                                                                              David Crouse is the founder of the USA
                                                          SSH TWEAK #6 - Protocol 2                           Linux Users Group (http://usalug.org) as
                                                          Find and uncomment the protocol line and           well as setting up the archlinux.us webmail
  GET IT NOW!                                             set it to 2.                                         service for Arch users. Keep an eye on
                                                                                                                AUM for more articles by David in the
                                                          #Protocol 2,1                                         series "Living at the Command Line".
                                                          Protocol 2

                                                          This means that only protocol 2 will be
                                                          used, since protocol 1 is considered
                                                          somewhat insecure.

                                                                                 8
                      GAMERS CORNER
One of the first things that every new Linux                                                                     bit of a name for yourself
user asks is "where are the games?"                                                                              (through gunfighting,
Unfortunately, the gaming industry has                                                                           obviously) you will be able
always been the single greatest stumbling                                                                        to obtain new equipment
block for the Linux community. Sure, we've                                                                       through the in-game
always had our share of games, but with                                                                          purchasing system. One
the plethora of 3D games available on                                                                            of the first things you will
Windows, somehow classics like abuse                                                                             probably want to pick up
and nethack just aren't cutting it any more.                                                                     is a good boiler plate.
And yet, there is hope! The Gamers Corner                                                                        While it isn't modern body
section of Arch User Magazine will be used                                                                       armor, a boiler plate will
to showcase some of the incredible games                                                                         keep a few torso shots
that are starting to appear on the Linux                                                                         from hitting you, and in
horizon.                                                                                                         this game that can make
                                                                                                                 a huge difference as there
For Issue 1, we will be reviewing the first-                                                                     are no health packs to be
person shooter Smokin Guns. Based on                                                                             found in the Wild West.
the Quake 3 engine, Smokin Guns is a
remarkable simulation of the old west. Six-                                                                      Aside from the traditional
shooters, long rifles, stagecoaches and          the single player mode is little more than a                  deathmatch and team
bank robberies are all faithfully recreated in   deathmatch game.                               deathmatch game modes, Smokin Guns
three dimensions. One of the most unique                                                        includes a bank robbery mode and a duel
aspects of this game is a money system           Thankfully, Smokin Guns more than              mode which ensure that the gameplay is
that allows for equipment purchase with          redeems itself with an outstanding multi-      plenty varied.
reward money.                                    player mode. After logging in (or starting a
                                                 new game server), you will find yourself at    Smokin Guns weapons, maps, models and
Like most games of its type, Smokin Guns         some random location on the map.               sounds all contribute to an incredible
features both single and multiplayer             Regardless of what team you are playing        gaming experience. Whether you are a fan
gameplay. Unfortunately, the single player       on, or which map has been selected, you        of classic westerns, or are simply looking
mode has been severely neglected.                always start with a Remingon 58 six-           for a new challenge, this game is definitely
Lacking any sort of plot or any real quests,     shooter and knife. Once you have made a        worth a look!

                                                                      9
                       TIPS & TRICKS
CREATING SECURE PASSWORDS                         remember, convertible password without        password, it's just a matter of putting them
                                                  sacrificing security? Here is one possible    together to come up with a password that
So everyone knows that passwords like             option; build each password from two parts.   is both easy to remember and secure!
"bgAitb;Wgft!" or "emTpi4ma@a.us" are
fairly safe, but who can remember them?           PART 1 - STATIC COMPONENT                     Finally, don't forget to regularly change the
You can! But how you ask? Your                                                                  static component of your password. Using
passwords are crucial to maintaining the          You can make your password more secure        this method, there are a virtually infinite
integrity of your system and private data.        by mixing different types of characters. A    pool of possibilities from which to draw so
Unfortunately, all too often users forget         jumble of uppercase and lowercase,            there should never be a need to re-use a
their passwords. As a result, many people         numbers and special characters can make       password. Just be creative!
use simple passwords such as a birthday,          a password exceedingly difficult to figure
address, pet name or similar.                     out. One way to accomplish this while
                                                  making it easy to remember is pick a           Got a useful tip or trick you'd like to share
To anyone who might wish to gain access           sentance and use the first letter of each     with the community? How about an idea for
to your system, this is akin to leaving the       word to create your static component.         an article or a particularly nifty screenshot?
key under the welcome mat. Without any                                                                          Drop us a line!
real effort, a hacker can discover your             "This password is for my account at
basic information and try each of these                        archlinux.us"                                Gamers Corner
potential passwords.                                             becomes                               gamerscorner@archuser.com
                                                              "Tpi4ma@a.us"
A second problem that affects even secure                                                                    Pimp My Arch
passwords is that users frequently use the                                                              pimpmyarch@archuser.com
same password for everything. This means          PART 2 - DYNAMIC COMPONENT
that if someone does gain access to one                                                                        Tips & Tricks
piece of the puzzle, whether it be the            This component can be easily defined by               tipsandtricks@archuser.com
actual computer, an email account, blog, or       what the specific account is used for. In
whatever, the rest of the pieces just fall into   other words, for an email account, you                  General Submissions
place and suddenly your life is an open           might use something like "em" or "mail", a            submissions@archuser.com
book.                                             bank account could be "bk" and a blog
                                                  could be "bl". You get the idea. Now that                     Corrections
So how does one come up with an easy to           you have the two components of your                    corrections@archuser.com


                                                                     10
                  PIMP MY ARCH




I use Gnome with the Clearlooks-Darklime GTK theme and Oxygen-
Refit 2 icons. Also in use are Gnome-Do, Docky, Compiz, and
Screenlets.
                                                                      I use Awesome 3.1 with the standard Gnome iconset (sad, I know).
Matt Runion (mrunion)                                                 The wallpaper is one of mine called "Awesome Arch" and is
                                                                      available from my website (http://ghost1227.com). All of my configs
                                                                      are available from github (http://github.com/ghost1227).

                                                                      Daniel Griffiths (Ghost1227)



                                                                 11
                      SOFTWARE REVIEW: TEXT EDITORS
SCITE                                            BLUEFISH                                         GEANY

http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html              http://bluefish.openoffice.nl                    http://geany.org

This SCIntilla based editor was originally       Bluefish is a powerful editor designed for       Geany is a lightweight Integrated
built solely to demonstrate SCIntilla. Since     developers and web designers. Featuring          Development Environment designed to
its humble beginnings it has grown to be a       syntax highlighting for an incredible array      provide a small and fast IDE with minimal
generally useful editor with development         of languages, Bluefish strives to be a lean      dependencies. Featuring syntax
support for building and running programs        and clean editor and boasts that it uses 55-     highlighting, code folding, auto-closing
as well as detailed syntax highlighting. Built   70% less memory than comparible editors.         tags, code navigation, a built-in project
on the GTK+ toolkit, SciTE is built to be        Bluefish employs a multiple document             manager and a complete build system,
cross-platform, functioning well on both         interface, project support, tag auto-            Geany somehow manages to fit an
various Linux distributions and Windows.         completion and built-in support for remote       impressive array of features into a
Having virtually no dependencies and             editing through gnome-vfs. For those of us       relatively small package. Extendable
featuring an incredibly useful tabbed            who constantly like to tinker, Bluefish          through plugins, Geany ships with plugins
interface, SciTE is the perfect option if you    allows the user to specify custom dialogs        that provide a classbuilder, export
are looking for a full-featured, yet             and keybinding to speed up the                   functionality, a sidebar filebrowser, HTML
minimalistic text editor.                        development process. External compiler           characters, and window splitting. If that
                                                 integration and a built-in function reference    isn't enough, several additional plugins are
To install SciTE, use the `scite` package in     browser make this a formidable editor. If        easily available through their website.
[community].                                     you're looking for simplicity, this definitely   Known to run under Linux, BSD, MacOS X,
                                                 isn't it. However, if you need a full-featured   AIX, Solaris and Windows, Geany is said
                                                 development environment (or just want to         to run on every platform that supports the
                                                 try something different), than Bluefish just     standard GTK libraries.
                                                 might be right for you!
                                                                                                  To install Geany, use the `geany` package
                                                 To install Bluefish, use the `bluefish`          in [community]. Several plugins are also
                                                 package in [extra].                              available in the AUR.




                                                                      12
                       SOFTWARE REVIEW: TEXT EDITORS
GEDIT                                             KATE                                             VIM

http://projects.gnome.org/gedit                   http://kate-editor.org/kate                      http://www.vim.org

As the official text editor of the GNOME          Kate is a multi-document editor based on a       Although we have focused thus far on GUI
desktop, most users should recognize this         rewritten version of kwrite. Now an official     editors, this review would be incomplete
one. Aimed at simplicity and ease of use,         part of KDE, Kate offers all the features of     without mentioning Vim. Vim (Vi IMproved)
gedit is a powerful general purpose text          its predecessor plus a slew of new ones.         is the de-facto favorite text editor for
editor. Its feature set currently includes        Featuring window splitting and tabbing,          developers and *nix users. Although it is
configurable syntax highlighting, remote          syntax highlighting, code folding, block         notorious for its steep learning curve and
editing, auto indentation, line numbers and       selection, auto indentation and completion       less-than-friendly user interface, vim
font support, although it is extendable           and an integrated command line, Kate             maintains a radically loyal fanbase due to
through the use of a flexible plugin system.      packs quite a punch. Like many other             its efficiency, customization, and
                                                  editors, Kate features a built-in plugin         extensibility. If you are looking for features
To install gedit, use the `gedit` package in      architecture, so users can extend the            more commonly found in a word processor
[extra]. A set of plugins is also available for   already impressive feature set to suit their     like font support or WYSIWYG editing,
gedit through the official repositories. You      individual needs. If you are using GNOME         steer clear of this one. On the flip side,
can install them by using the `gedit-             or a similar DE, or if you are looking for       users might want to keep this one on hand
plugins` and `gedit-plugins-extra`                something minimalistic, this is definitely not   to aid in the occasional system SNAFU.
packages in [community]. Additional               the editor for you. On the other hand, if you    Among the ranks of console editors, vim is
plugins may be available through the AUR.         are already a KDE user, you probably won't       definitely the best.
                                                  need to look further than this for your
                                                  editing needs.                                   To install vim, use the `vim` package in
                                                                                                   [extra]. Numerous plugins are available
                                                  If you use KDE, Kate is installed by default.    through [extra], [community] and the AUR.
                                                  If not, you will have to install the `kdesdk`
                                                  package in [extra]. Several plugins are
                                                  available through the AUR.




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                       Q&A
WHY AREN'T THERE ANY
QUESTIONS HERE? DOESN'T
THAT DEFEAT THE PURPOSE OF
A QUESTION AND ANSWER
SECTION?

Why yes! It does defeat the purpose of a
question and answer section! However,
given that this is the first issue and no
questions have been asked, we have
nothing to answer! If you have an Arch
related question (or Arch unrelated for that
                                                   THIS SPACE FOR RENT
matter) feel free to ask!                            No, this space isn't really for rent. However, given the lack of questions (or submissions in general for
                                                   that matter... what did you expect? Issue 1 is expected to be small) I had a nice, big space to fill. I figured
ONLY FOURTEEN PAGES? ISN'T                         that at the very least, this would catch your attention and show you just how important your support is to
THAT A BIT SHORT FOR A                                                      the continuation of Arch User Magazine. Please! Contribute!
MAGAZINE?

Once again, as this is our first issue, we
don't have a lot of content. As of now, Arch
User is working with a bit of a skeleton
staff. If you think you'd like to contribute (as
a regular contributor or just passing along
an idea) please feel free to contact us!




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