One of the nice things about this blog is that I have a means for checking events in the past — like a diary. (Gee, imagine that, a blog is like a diary. 🙄 ) And I don’t just mean configuration files or autobiographical howtos — I mean things like anniversaries too.

For example, it’s been one year since I finally stepped off the Xubuntu train and went to minimal Openbox installations all-around. In case you’re curious, here’s the desktop from that first, full-time Openbox setup.

That proved to be an important point in my Linux adventure, since it not only cut the last ties I had with the Gnome environment (even a year ago, parts of Gnome were trickling into Xubuntu), but it forced me to start paying closer attention to the way Linux works at lower levels. Without the xubuntu-dev team to hold my hand, things like automounting and module management were my responsibility, and I learned a lot.

It also meant I was more inclined to try distros that were less … “full figured?” … than Ubuntu, because I wasn’t intimidated by those smaller details any longer. And it reinforced a few suspicions or opinions I had already formed, regarding Ubuntu and how it is built — like its relative bulk, even at the lightest levels.

I have another anniversary coming, in another week — I built my first full-time Ubuntu system, with the intention of keeping it, on New Year’s Day 2006. In the months before then I had only used dual-boot setups, because I was still relying on Windows as a crutch.

Of course, things can change in a year’s time, and even more so in two years’ time.