- This topic has 17 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated Jan 6-5:55 pm by Brian Masinick.
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stevesr0
With a very limited number of developers/maintainers, it seems to me to be a very challenging task to keep the distro both up to date in the central aspects (reliable booting and updating/upgrading tools, ease of use, available in multiple languages, low resource requirements AND functional without systemd).
Following and participating the forum activity over a number of years, it is apparent that individual users have a wide variety of specific uses and applications in the distro. At the same time, there are “custom” features that are used by very many users (live usb maker, for example).
The questions I am asking my “fellow” antiX users to respond to are (a) what they see as the tools that they need in antiX26, (b) what “custom” tools they feel are important, and (c) how simple they need things to be made (“easy to find answers on the “web”” vs “I can analyze any problem via scrutiny of error logs” vs “I ask for help on the forum” vs “if it don’t work automatically, I don’t use it”).
- This topic was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by stevesr0.
PPC
Nice idea, but answering all that would probably fill inteire books, and it depends from people to people.
a and b- probably there are 2 handy tools that I think I need in antiX 26 (that are not present in antiX26b2) – the conky Manager GUI (that allows to easily activate the more modern conky I’m used to, a MX Linux style one) and using Robin’s Screen Capture software. I’ll probably can suggest more nice stuff. Problem with that- adding more and more apps can be viewed as bloat
c – Things should be as simples as possible. For example, when antiX CC and IceWM CC have ample tooltips to help users and the unoficial FAQ’s in the forum can help most newbies solve the most usual day-to-day problems. For more particular tasks or very special cases – ask here for help almost never failsP.
Brian Masinick
Nice idea, but answering all that would probably fill inteire books, and it depends from people to people.
a and b- probably there are 2 handy tools that I think I need in antiX 26 (that are not present in antiX26b2) – the conky Manager GUI (that allows to easily activate the more modern conky I’m used to, a MX Linux style one) and using Robin’s Screen Capture software. I’ll probably can suggest more nice stuff. Problem with that- adding more and more apps can be viewed as bloat
c – Things should be as simples as possible. For example, when antiX CC and IceWM CC have ample tooltips to help users and the unoficial FAQ’s in the forum can help most newbies solve the most usual day-to-day problems. For more particular tasks or very special cases – ask here for help almost never failsP.
@PPC your helpful documents have actually helped – that’s a good thing for something referred to as HELP!
Also our friend Marcelo refers to several of these documents in his extended welcome notes.If you see any value added updates or replacements when the next version of antiX is released, I’d be very happy to proof read, (spell check and correct) and offer my own comments and suggestions. Your work has passed the test of time very well.
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Brian Masinick
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No offense intended anywhere, but I got so used to xfce4-screenshooter before living in this tree that I always grab it, now. Was super happy to find the custom antiX tool (vs scrot or, the old standby xwd + a convert operation) to begin-with, but find it minor-annoying that it pops-up all over the place and seems to take longer. Again, grateful to have it, but xfce4-screenshooter doesn’t drag-in a bunch of crap and it’s pretty slick. No real functional difference, it just seems cleaner and always lands in the center of the screen. Just bung a launch icon in whatever panel and/or hardwire to PrtScr and life is slightly easier from this chair. FWIW.
Wallon
People’s needs are so different.
I use multiple screens.
So I need an application that allows me to select screen 1 or screen 2 or screen … to take a screenshot.My own answers:
(a) Needs (User case).
Web browsing, email, printing and scanning, modest av (listening to music and podcasts, video watching, teleconferencing), creation of live usb and installer
(b) Custom tools.
To accomplish the above.(c) Level of understanding/approach to problem solving.
Permanent noobie. Minimal technical skill. Use search engines to find clear information on basic things. Use “site:antiX forum.com” to find discussions of the problems I am having. Post please for help when I don’t find something promptly.
punranger
(a) what they see as the tools that they need in antiX26.
For me personally, the most important thing is that antiX makes the computer WORK. Whenever I boot up antiX on a new (well, old) machine, I’m pleased to see the hardware being supported out of the box.
(b) what “custom” tools they feel are important, and
antiX is generally speaking more than complex enough. If anything, I would like it a little less complicated and a little more streamlined.
(c) how simple they need things to be made (“easy to find answers on the “web”” vs “I can analyze any problem via scrutiny of error logs” vs “I ask for help on the forum” vs “if it don’t work automatically, I don’t use it”).
Common tasks should be simple. For highly specialized individual tasks, I don’t expect to find easy answers. There’s an inherent tradeoff there.
antiX linux: The best way to revive an old computer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTaUAP6sSg
Brian Masinick
I’ve been enjoying the evaluation of the different init alternatives, but in the past week I’ve grown concerned about the system startup performance for all but the classic sysVinit, which boots all the way to the desktop as effectively as ever. For me at least, runit has taken some big steps backward; maybe it’s only my system, and maybe I’ll experience something different in the next update. I’m frustrated at the moment because I’ve been unable to locate anything concrete to assist the development team in finding out what’s wrong, and I’m concerned that it may actually be something *I’ve done*, but that doesn’t lessen my frustration.
The live Beta 2 instance runs all five inits as expected, which completely confounds me.
Installed, s6-66 wasn’t starting the networking properly, but I figured out my own workaround by adding a Connman start command to the /etc/66 rc.local (which is DIFFERENT from rc.local for the other inits; I haven’t finished my research here, but I think each init has the potential to have their own individual rc.local for procedures that individuals want to add.I’m not sure if I borked something else up when I did that, but it’d be nice to get a good write up about the particulars of each of the init alternatives, since most of them are only somewhat familiar to testers of the @ProwlerGr “init-diversity” effort, which we’re now incorporating into this release. So a huge suggestion would be for someone well versed in all the particulars and quirks of each init to write a document. Ideally TWO documents would be nice: 1) a simple one to help beginners to all of this get a high level introduction on using these; maybe I can help, along with someone like @ProwlerGr with this part. 2) A detailed explanation of each init option; we definitely need developer understanding and expertise to do this one correctly. I can assist with grammar and spelling if anyone needs a person to put the polish on documentation, but I’m lacking the internals experience, well shown by my own problems resolving some of the Beta 2 issues.
So those are some of my thoughts that would really be useful to antiX 26 participants and users.
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Brian Masinick
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On my system (antix25-b2 installed) sysvinit doesn’t work, boot stops at saying that eth0 is waiting for a carrier signal. The other inits work fine for me.
System:
Kernel: 6.6.101-antix.1-amd64-smp arch: x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Fluxbox v: 1.3.7 Distro: antiX-25-b2_x64-full Stephen Kapos 17
December 2025
Machine:
Type: Laptop Mobo: N/A model: SmbiosType2_BoardProductName
serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC.
v: JB01_XX_005_AUTO001 date: 02/25/2022
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Celeron N5105 bits: 64 type: MCP cache:
L2: 1.5 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 777 min/max: 800/2900 cores: 1: 777 2: 777 3: 777 4: 777
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel JasperLake [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
Display: server: X.Org v: 21.1.16 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 resolution: 3440×1440~60Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,swrast platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.0.7-2
renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (JSL)
Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Jasper Lake HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: Zoran Personal Media Division (Nogatech) USB Audio and HID
driver: snd-usb-audio type: USB
API: ALSA v: k6.6.101-antix.1-amd64-smp status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.2 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Ethernet I225-V driver: igc
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface driver: btusb type: USB
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: stopped
rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 119.24 GiB used: 29.17 GiB (24.5%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: KingSpec model: NT-128 size: 119.24 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 116.56 GiB used: 29.17 GiB (25.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 252 MiB used: 290 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 69.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 8 GiB available: 7.55 GiB used: 3.28 GiB (43.4%)
Processes: 238 Uptime: 21m Shell: Zsh inxi: 3.3.39"Nowadays people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing."
Fan of minimalist computing.Brian Masinick
On my system (antix25-b2 installed) sysvinit doesn’t work, boot stops at saying that eth0 is waiting for a carrier signal. The other inits work fine for me.
Since you are using WiFi instead of Ethernet, turn off Ethernet in the Connman system using CMST. You can see the network interfaces in the main view; turn off Ethernet and any other network interface you don’t need.
Also the interfaces file (in the /etc directory) should not reference eth0.
Finally if you are using IceWM window manager then the ~/.icewm/preferences file has a network variable that has [EWP].
Find that and change it to [WP]. These items will keep the system from looking at the unused Ethernet adapter.--
Brian Masinick
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sybok
If anything, I would like it a little less complicated and a little more streamlined.
Care to elaborate?
Xunzi_23
All inits booting fine on my two setups.
Reported cups quirks already.Change I would like. No grey on grey symbols or text in applications, too hard to see,
a real step backwards in ergonomics compared to old stable.
Reminds a bit of apple eyebreaking mind boggling liquid gl ass.
That is really discrimination against visually impaired persons.Other than that I am fully with PPC. antiX full is great, usable as is, and/or a starting
point for variants. Here, my heavy fully customized version and one for students.El Tangas
Personally I’m quite happy with antiX as it is. What do I use that could be part of the distro?
Maybe antixscreenshot2 (https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/antixscreenshot2-updated-version-1-09-ready-for-antix-25/) and double commander.- This reply was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by El Tangas.
j_luz
From what I have picked up on this forum, I am likely not antiX OS target user, I’ll put that out there so my response is given less weight.
I liked what Xunzi_23 mentioned about things that could be improved for visually impaired users. Along those lines, also proper translations to different languages is important as I have seen marcelocripe mention elsewhere.
My own answers (but copied the format):
(a) Needs (User case).
Not too sure what is meant by this. Like what we need to do on the computer? Scan. Print. Web browser. Data entry. Bookkeeping. Screen recording. Video editing. Writing. Graphics and sound design. Video conferencing. Virtualization. Build, package and deploy. Screen captures.(b) Custom tools.
Not sure about this one either. The tools antiX comes with to administer to the needs of my computer seem fine. I don’t play with it too much I just set it up how I need it to be. And tools like the screenshot tool, whatever comes with antiX full when you press PrtSc, seem fine to me. As long as the custom tool is similar enough to agnostic tools that I can figure it while I’m using it, and don’t have to stop to read a users manual.(c) Level of understanding/approach to problem solving.
Easily frustrated and overwhelmed by computer problems. If I’m working I don’t have time to hold my computer’s hand while it’s having some sort of nervous breakdown. If it’s something that seems simple to solve, I prefer internet research to figure it out. Hopefully I quickly find clear, step by step instructions or articles that are written by someone that assumes their readers have never actually used a computer in their life. From multiple credible sources.
That’s if it’s something absolutely vital to complete my work at the moment. If it’s software that I don’t absolutely need to complete my work, such as the OS itself, an init, or an app that I can easily replace with something similar, I will simply shut down whatever OS or app is behaving unacceptably and boot into another OS or use another app to get the job done. Later when I have some free time, I will see about fixing whatever the heck was happening if I expect to net a reasonable gain in return for my time and effort.
When my work is done and I have a bit of free time, I don’t mind figuring out computer stuff. But it’s something I’d rather do on my own time for entertainment, not because there is something going haywire in my system.
punranger
If anything, I would like it a little less complicated and a little more streamlined.
Care to elaborate?
I’m a non-technical user. I came to antiX looking for a way to keep some old computers alive. And antiX does that better than any distro I’ve tried. Fortunately, most of the stuff works right out of the box. But a lot of the experts here on this forum seem to have a somewhat different approach than mine, they value complexity and user freedom, along with having ideological stances on things like systemd. Another example is the recent projects with multi-init systems. I can see why this interests people, but it has little practical use for me.
The irony for me is that I think antiX could broaden its user base a LOT by streamlining things and having less choices. For example, I think it would be fine to just have ONE edition: The Full 64-bit version. If possible, a 32-bit version would be nice too, although that seems to become a challenge in the future. I’d be happy with just ONE desktop, the current default works great. I’m still bewildered by the complexity of setting up USB persistence, I really wish there could be a simple one-click solution for setting up persistence. And so on.
Of course, these wishes go against the grain of most of the experts here, so I try to ignore complexity and just find a simple way that works. But I do think that antiX could be a “people’s distribution” to a much larger extent if it was a little less complex. Like many things in life, there seems to be a trade off.
I’m eternally grateful for finding antiX, by the way.
antiX linux: The best way to revive an old computer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTaUAP6sSg
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