14 DAY TRIAL // The developer of CrunchBang, a Linux distribution based on Debian that uses the Openbox window manager, has announced that he is closing the project, which basically means that CrunchBang is no more.
CrunchBang was a fairly successful Linux distribution, but the last major upgrade for the OS was made back in May 2013. That is quite a long while for any Linux distro, so it's not like the news came as a major surprise. The only good thing about this whole business is that we got a good and heartfelt explanation from the developer, which doesn't happen very often.
In fact, many Linux distros disappear overnight and we never get to hear about them again. The developers remain silent and no one really knows what exactly happened. Pear OS is a good example of that. Users don't actually know what happened at the beginning of 2014. They just woke up one day and the developer said it was over, with no details and no explanations.
CrunchBang will be missed
Despite the fact that CrunchBang hasn't received any major updates in a long while, the distribution had quite a few fans and users. Judging from the reactions on the official forums and in the online community, the operating system will be missed, much more than the developer has even anticipated.
"I have decided to stop developing CrunchBang. This has not been an easy decision to make and I’ve been putting it off for months. It’s hard to let go of something you love. I’m leaving it behind because I honestly believe that it no longer holds any value, and whilst I could hold on to it for sentimental reasons, I don't believe that would be in the best interest of its users, who would benefit from using vanilla Debian," wrote developer Philip Newborough.
In the meantime, the downloads are still working from the official link, then the distro will probably slip away. We are now hosting the CrunchBang distro on our servers and you can download it from there.
