[lug] Personal Linux Install Guide: Fedora 18

[Davide Del Vento]

Thanks for sharing. Here are my thoughts.

For me, the problem with this approach is that it either takes a too
long upfront investment, if everything is done at install time, or it
takes "forever" if everything is done "when needed". The fast pace of
the Fedora update process is such that either investing a long time
upfront, or doing it "when needed" seems wrong (too much time wasted,
or it's never reached the "optimal" status). Either way, one has to
start from scratch very often. Having great notes (like yours) helps a
lot, but is not enough, especially because I use a number of
workstations, I'm root only on about half of them, and have to repeat
the thing on each one of them (at present this number is at an
historic low of only 4 or 5 depending on how you count).
So far, I've sidestepped the problem by using only LTS'es and pushed
the issue down in frequency. However, as a software engineer, I know
this is the wrong approach: if it hurts I have to do it more
frequently, not less:
http://martinfowler.com/bliki/FrequencyReducesDifficulty.html

So, I believe I've found what can be a game changer and let me stop
whining (and stop using only LTS) while achieving what I want. Now,
don't laugh at me, because this is so simple....

DRY and use version control! Use also make, chef or puppet! I've got
the idea from my intern Sean Fisk. Of course I want to do many things
differently and I'm starting doing it on a more familiar environment,
but having all the settings is version control and therefore being
able to tell at any time what did I change and when (and hopefully
why, if I use meaningful commit messages) is empowering. Not to
mention the opportunity to deploy all my must-haves with a simple
"make install" or equivalent in a newly installed box, as opposed to
be forced to read, re-read the notes, type and re-type (or
cut-n-paste, not a bit time saver) from them....

https://github.com/seanfisk/dotfiles
https://github.com/seanfisk/local-install-scripts
https://github.com/seanfisk/emacs
https://github.com/seanfisk/oh-my-zsh
https://github.com/seanfisk/macbook-chef-repo

So in other words what I'm saying is make our notes executable (yours
and mine almost are, but the "almost" is what burns). Once they are
executable, they must be in version control. The specific detail of
how they are executable (makefile or chef or other) and which version
control to use is matter of taste and familiarity with the tool.

Thanks again for your talk and for sharing!
Davide


On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 11:40 PM, Maxwell Spangler
<maxlists at maxwellspangler.com> wrote:
>
> In my Gnome 3 talk last month I mentioned an install guide which I use to take a generic Fedora 18 install and turn it into a customized workstation for my needs.
>
> Part of the process is "tuning" Gnome3's GnomeShell to work the way I want.
>
> This is documented in the install guide here:
>
> http://www.maxwellspangler.com/linux/install/fedora18.html
>
> You may enjoy reviewing all the content but Gnome3 specific content is in the sections
>
> Gnome Environment Settings
> and
> Gnome Shell Extensions
>
> I'll be updating this soon for Fedora 19 but many things should remain the same.
>
> Please let me know if you see any typos or have suggestions on how I can improve it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Maxwell Spangler
> ========================================================================
> Linux System Administration / Virtualization / Development / Computing Services
> Photography / Graphics Design / Writing
> Fort Collins, Colorado
> http://www.maxwellspangler.com
>
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