The CrunchBang distribution [1] was originally based on Ubuntu and then subsequently on Debian. The minimalist nature of this distribution was evident even from the way its name became abbreviated to #!. This no-frills distribution attracted a lot of fans before its developer, Philip Newborough, dropped it in February 2015.

At that point, the community made it known that they did not want this distribution to disappear. Since then, BunsenLabs Linux has emerged as the legitimate successor to CrunchBang, having won out over many candidates such as CrunchBang++ and CrunchBang Monara. BunsenLabs has continued using the Openbox window manager for the distro, and the developers have preserved the modest design. Its gray-toned elegance does not distract from what is really important about the distribution, namely that it is well-functioning, stable, and popular among users who favor minimalism.

Debian 8.2 Jessie works in the background providing a rock-solid base for the distribution. In contrast to the Debian derivative MX, which was also tested for this issue, the start system for BunsenLabs consists of Systemd version 215. The BunsenLabs version on the DVD included with this magazine is a first release candidate codenamed "Hydrogen" from the end of October 2015. The image is approximately 850MB in size. The first complete version of BunsenLabs was due to appear in January 2016.

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