EvilZone

I "prefare" CrunchBang. Because it's fast (very fast imo), Debian based and frankly because I'm used to it.
You should give it a try.

I quote, I have used CrunchBang before BackBox and it's damn fast, aslo on my cheap netbook.   It uses Openbox and thunar.

The project was born as a table football score counter.
It was my first project and it's very simple.

Clicking on one of the two buttons you increment a variable for the score of each team. By the difference from the two values the software print on an lcd messages like: Reds takes the lid, or OMG It's over 9000! or I don't know, whatever you want. Then during the play you can se the two scores printed on screen. If you want you can also use a flex sensor to automatically increment the variable when taking a point.
You can also create a cycle to get a game with only 10 balls.
You reset the values reinitializing arduino pushing the reset button.


There are two buttons connected with the pin 2 and 3 of arduino.
The lcd is connected as follow:
16 LED-  to Gnd
15 LED+ to 5V
14-11 DB 7-4 to 12, 11, 10, 9
10-7 Unused
6 E to 8
5 R/W to Gnd (unused)
4 RS to 7
3 V0 to a 10K ohm potentiometer
2 VDD to 5V
1 VSS to Gnd




Here the code (I'm sorry but messages are in italian... Really, I don't know how to translate them XD)

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>


LiquidCrystal lcd(7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12);
const int  RbuttonPin = 2;
const int  BbuttonPin = 3;


int RbuttonPushCounter = 0;   
int RbuttonState = 0;         
int RlastButtonState = 0;
int BbuttonPushCounter = 0;   
int BbuttonState = 0;         
int BlastButtonState = 0;


void setup() {
  lcd.begin(16, 2);
  lcd.print("Rossi  vs    Blu");
  pinMode(RbuttonPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(BbuttonPin, INPUT);
}


void loop() {
  RbuttonState = digitalRead(RbuttonPin);
  BbuttonState = digitalRead(BbuttonPin);
  lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
  lcd.print("Rossi  vs    Blu");
  //INCREMENTO ROSSO
  if (RbuttonState != RlastButtonState) {
    if (RbuttonState == HIGH) {
      RbuttonPushCounter++;
      if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == 1)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print("   La rimonta    ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print("   dei rossi!   ");
           delay(2000); }
      if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == 0)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print("Le squadre sono  ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print(" Testa a testa ");
           delay(2000);
         }
       if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == -1)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print("I rossi passano ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print("  in vantaggio  "); 
           delay(2000);
         }
       if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == -6)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print("      OMG!      ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print(" It's over 9000 "); 
           delay(2000);
         }
    }
    }
      RlastButtonState = RbuttonState;
   //INCREMENTO BLU
  if (BbuttonState != BlastButtonState) {
    if (BbuttonState == HIGH) {
      BbuttonPushCounter++;
      if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == -1)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print("   La rimonta   ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print("   dei blu!    ");
           delay(2000); }
     
      if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == 0)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print("Le squadre sono ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print(" Testa a testa "); 
           delay(2000);
         }
       if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == 1)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print(" I blu passano ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print("  in vantaggio  "); 
           delay(2000);
         }
       if (BbuttonPushCounter - RbuttonPushCounter == 6)
          {lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
            lcd.print("      OMG!      ");
           lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
           lcd.print(" It's over 9000 "); 
           delay(2000);
         }
    }
    }
   
     BlastButtonState = BbuttonState;
    lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
    lcd.print(RbuttonPushCounter);
   
    if (RbuttonPushCounter<10) {
    lcd.print("      -      ");
  } else {
  lcd.print("     -      ");
  }
    lcd.print(BbuttonPushCounter);
  }