review (ish)


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anticapitalista wrote:review (ish)


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I can echo what the reviewer states except for one thing: in my memory usage studies, at least ones that I have done in the past, I do not find a great deal of difference in memory usage difference between IceWM and Fluxbox, although if one is lighter, I'd give a slight nod to IceWM. Maybe we've added a few"ease of use" features in IceWM to raise memory usage slightly; frankly either of them is excellent, and JWM makes yet another solid alternative. It really amounts to more of a personal preference. Fluxbox is commonly viewed as more easily extensible by its fans; you have to run an Icewmbg process with IceWM, for example, to get any extra desktop effects that you may want; this may account for the memory usage differences. I happen to like and prefer IceWM; it's easier for those with novice backgrounds; the veterans among us can grab and use whatever we want! As for JWM, what's nice about it is that Puppy converts (or those who use both Puppy and antiX) may prefer JWM because many Puppy releases feature JWM. But frankly, all of them are good.

wmii and dwm are also pretty fast and good, but they take a bit of getting used to; I haven't decided if their techniques save me any time; I've pretty much stuck with IceWM, except on a system that I set up for my Mom; that one, I went with JWM, auto login to the desktop, then relabeled the icon to"Web Browser" to make it really easy for her to spot, then showed her the RED logout/shutdown task bar item to make it easy for her, when she's finished using the system. I simply set up an antiX Base configuration for her with just a browser, media add-ons, so that she can view any Jpg, Mpeg, or things she may unexpectedly receive - pictures, slides, or movies of her grandchildren. Other than that, all she uses the system for is reading Webmail, occasionally using a search engine, and occasionally reading the news headlines. Base is PERFECT for that; I only added a small handful of packages to that really light configuration, and it works perfectly for a novice like her, so JWM makes another outstanding starting point.

I appreciate the article being from a"non-techie" point of view and I agree with the writer's assessments of antiX. I prefer Fluxbox over IceWM but find no appreciable difference in either's use of system resources.

...it is the most complete light-weight Os I have ever used. Kudos to the developers.

Same here.

regards
cap

Yeah, naturally we agree with the main conclusions: antiX is light, nimble, well engineered, and anti really listens to the community for ideas, and several in the community have helped over the years to provide addtions and improvements. A few years ago, it was John, a.k.a. ou812, who helped us come up with a nice IceWM implementation. Recently, Dave has been a huge help, providing development expertise and even server repositories to complement what we've had in the past. LOTS of people help test, so it's not any one person; it's the cumulative effort of everyone involved. I find it not only complete, but flexible; I can further change it and make whatever I want.

Several years ago now, Eriefisher was one who set up an antiX configuration with a desktop environment, the Xfce desktop. I did likewise. Later, as an experiment, I created a KDE-based system out of antiX, but with much newer software than what comes with the parent SimplyMEPIS. A year or two ago, I created an evaluation system using antiX core to compare LXDE and Xfce, and found I could create a nimble system with either of them.

Lately, I've been using a newer antiX core (though not M12.0). I have that one set up with just Xfce and it's based on M11.0, but with Debian Sid packages and M12.0 kernel. It's great. My other system now contains antiX M12.0 RC 2 Base, and it, too, is great, and as anti has suggested; it's ready for 99% of us, including me. But I really appreciate that we also work hard on that 1% to satisfy as many potential users as possible. Yes, it's the most complete lightweight distribution; not the smallest (Tiny Core or SliTAZ are smaller, but nowhere near as usable or complete). Puppy is real flexible, and you can make something like antiX from it, but to me, it's easier to make your own creation with antiX; it's definitely the most complete lightweight distribution! I actively promote it, not only at release time; I try to get new people to test it out early, so we come up with a great finished work... and this one will be the best one yet!

I was always amazed how many apps and tools antiX offers (and i still am).
That needed to be said once, by me, and now i did it. __{{emoticon}}__

There is no community like antiX, we come from diverse backgrounds, have different political views, different countries, philosophies, but in the end of the process, everyone connected with the antiX communitiy seems to contribute what is needed, I still believe that even though anticaptilista stands for anti-captilist, that we need to support him, we all got to eat, so I would propose that each person that uses antX contribute some money!! I'll be the firs,t so here you go anti, 100,00 US dollars to anti

cheers,
ohh

oldhoghead wrote:There is no community like antiX, we come from diverse backgrounds, have different political views, different countries, philosophies, but in the end of the process, everyone connected with the antiX communitiy seems to contribute what is needed, I still believe that even though anticaptilista stands for anti-captilist, that we need to support him, we all got to eat, so I would propose that each person that uses antX contribute some money!! I'll be the firs,t so here you go anti, 100,00 US dollars to anti

cheers,
ohh

Well, I'm with you, my good man, except for the financial end of things. Certainly not the only reason, but a contributory reason for me using free software is that I simply cannot afford to buy either equipment or software. I try to contribute in other ways, by actively testing, helping others when they have questions, and by promoting our work. Occasionally I am able to make a contribution in a financial way, but that does not come very often, and though anti certainly deserves it, I don't think we ever want to make something like that anything but voluntary.

Well, several of the forums I am at, has a"donate" button, where you can...uh...donate...
Usually they are setup thru paypal, and have a reminder to click the"gift" button, so the reciever don't have to pay paypal.

Something like that would be ok, IMO. as you can donate as much, or little you want, when you want(or can)
And I don't really care what he does with the money, beer is ok, as long as it doesn't have anything to do with football.

AntiX-12 is a great distro!

What more can one say. Oh all right, I tried 8.5, but didn''t really like it that much & returned to Debian, & I probably will again; but I know that I can safely recommend this distro to others who are not so capable of setting up a small, but ultimately, very usable system.

Congratulations on a job well done.