I will look at the topic of Palemoon in various distributions community recently.
This seems to have been increasing adoption of lightweight distributions.

@skidoo, I agree with you that they have a bad attitude towards critcism on Pale Moon Forum. Maybe a PM at Moonchild would give a better result. But it is sad that they suffer from groupthink. Let's hope that htey recieve the message about this issue you were refering to. Anyway, the existence of this issue does not mean that antiX should exclude palemoon from the security check to prevent it being executed from root terminal. __{{emoticon}}__
Thanks for pointing me at this issue. I'm happy that I never use my full name in any OS.

how about qmmp instead of xmms? xmms has an issue on high resolution monitors in that the playlist controls are very tiny. The"double" mode doesn't work on the playlist window.

qmmp uses xmms skins, and the double mode works on all windows. functionality is very similar. I did a little checking and I think the size of the packages required is similar.

***edit*** ram usage is quite a bit higher in qmmp. so that's a reason to keep xmms.

dolphin_oracle wrote:***edit*** ram usage is quite a bit higher in qmmp. so that's a reason to keep xmms.

It will be really worthwhile trying to keep XMMS, it dovetails very well with the wider antiX goal of being lightweight and nimble.

Does anyone in the community fancy having a go at making the interface buttons and text larger and easier to read and work with? (particularly on the playlist window).

anticapitalista wrote:Thanks for ALL the feedback so far.

I forgot to mention that antiX-16 will be systemd-free (like antiX-15 and unlike Debian). We will also come with eudev by default (that is a systemd-free udev).

Testing or stable? My personal preference is for antiX-16 to be based off Testing (that is our roots). antiX-15 is already based on stable and will be supported until the end of Debian Jessie lifespan - at least until 2019, probably longer. I can provide updated antiX-15 with minimal changes from the original a bit like Debian does with its point releases.

Added: antiX-16 stable based is 698MB. Exact same apps on testing is 798MB!

I personally like a version based on Testing. The fact that we have one based on Stable, particularly if we can have occasional point release updates matching Debian makes that option appealing to me; otherwise a focus on lean, any advances in persistence, nimbleness and tools are the things I can personally use in my regular use.

I'm flexible though; anything that keeps the main antiX model active is good from my end.

Joe Wingbermuehle is going to add some features to the new JWM
- in Oblogout there will be a"noconfirm" option for session logout
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- the window title will now be centred
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I am pretty happy with AntiX overall. First thing I would like to say to the developers is do what you like to do with the distro. No one is paying you a salary for this and it isn't making you famous. I appreciate what you do and realize if it stops being fun for you the distro dies. As far a suggestions I have several. One thing I would like to point out before I start is most of the people on the forum are developers or hobbyists (me) while many of the users of the distro are endusers. You don't see them on the forum much but they are out there.

Laptops
I appreciate the incorporation of wlan entries in conky you did last time. I would suggest not commenting out the battery bar entry and the wireless link strength. I realize the entry for the battery bar would have to have an addition made to it since it doesn't automatically select the correct battery BAT1, BAT0, etc. If it could be made to do that I thing a lot of laptop users would appreciate it. Screen brightness- I use xbacklight to control screen brightness. I change the settings on this frequently as I move the laptop from place to place. If the control center had a place to directly enter the number in that would be helpful. Right now I open a terminal, type xbacklight -set 45 to change the brightness. Another option might be a slider on the panel like that used in the panel for volume.

There is a strong commitment to keep the ISO smaller than CD size, support old hardware, and support computers with limited or no internet access. The ISO images do this but they have a lot of added features that support people like me. I want fluxbox and icewm and lots of cool themes, wallpapers, small programs etc. I want something that is easy to customize. We are getting to the point where it may not be possible to do all these things. Why not offer a full ISO that geared for this. Strip out all window managers except jwm. Keep iceweasel and libreoffice (at least the critical parts) and base it on 32bit debian stable. I like the cool stuff but many people want a simple system that runs on old hardware. A system that doesn't require a fast internet connection to keep up with all the updates. I mean I will still use the regular ISO but I have good hardware many people don't. It may not be worth it right now to produce 7 ISOs instead of 6 (core, base, and full in 32 and 64bit) but it's something to think about.

In the recently updated video on Connectshares,


^---- embedded YouTube-hosted video: https://www.youtube.com/pp95SzXLp7Q


dolphin_oracle mentions at some length the difficulty of setting it up by using its built-in editor.

He notes that it is"really hard to see" the text in the editor window also says"we need to get these colours adjusted". Ultimately he gives up trying to use the editor and demonstates a workaround method of setting up share access.

For reference this is how the window should look

usable connectshares editor

usable connectshares editor

This is how antiX-15 makes it look

effectively disabled editor

effectively disabled editor

The problem is caused by moving from using ~/.Xdefaults in antiX-13.2 to ~/.Xresources in antiX-15. In that file a section has been added (which was not present in antiX-13.2) titled"!!!--- Colors (slightly more colorful than Zenburn)". It is these that are causing the problem. As far as I can tell these are purely cosmetic and are neither essential nor required.

The fix requested by dolphin_oracle is to comment the entries in that section and log out then log in to read the changed file.

The benefit of these cosmetic changes is, at the very least, questionable. This is particularly the case when they effectively disable an integral part of of a shipped antiX app. It is out-of-step with the antiX maxim of letting the user choose how their system is set up.

A reasonable course will be for future releases of antiX to ship with these cosmetic items commented and allow the user to decide whether they want them or a fully usable Connectshares suite.

Keep it CD size for sure !!!

Add some little things. Like: Add Distro and/or Software update to the menu. Simple but, will help with new to antix.. I added to my remix of antix and installed on neighbors and friends old computers and now they can update it now without knowing the terminal... Will be no need for a"how to update antix" video either... Ever little bit helps... Make wicd-client run default to. Will help someone new too...

Take the games off... Leave the DosBox...

Going to have to do something now Google-Chrome is no more 32bit.. There goes netflix..

Remove systemd dependence of NetworkManager, Wicd is a poor substitute. I spoke with the one developer of NM he would be able to help. I everyday connect into proxy with login, Wifi, wired Net and tethering, Wicd for this is a disaster.

ECHO THIS. Relatively new to Linux. Prefer MX to Antix because of superior wi-fi detection. I, FINALLY, managed to get Wicd to detect my neighborhood wi-fi's (as well as my own), but user friendliness IS NOT its strong suit.

NM is pretty bloated as well as dependent on systemd as you say. Once the devs remove the dependency, we will consider it. Until then, it's not going to be on antiX.

azrielle wrote:

Remove systemd dependence of NetworkManager, Wicd is a poor substitute. I spoke with the one developer of NM he would be able to help. I everyday connect into proxy with login, Wifi, wired Net and tethering, Wicd for this is a disaster.

ECHO THIS. Relatively new to Linux. Prefer MX to Antix because of superior wi-fi detection. I, FINALLY, managed to get Wicd to detect my neighborhood wi-fi's (as well as my own), but user friendliness IS NOT its strong suit.

Alas, I've not had the unfortunate experience the two of you have had with either Wicd or the command-based ceni tool that antiX and MX have used for a long time. But I did wonder about it. Several years ago these were the best tools available, but they did certainly have their weaknesses even then - the network device detection was not automatic, and in the case of ceni, everything was command-based.

Regarding the"user friendliness" of wicd, the only issue I've ever encountered is that wicd does not automatically know about all network devices the first time it is installed. However, a good distribution configuration could scan for the appropriate network devices - and virtually eliminate any"user friendliness" issues. If we can't support 100% of our hardware requirements with some new network manager, I'd rather invest some custom development into the configuration of network detection utilities that can then configure wicd, or whatever grouping of network managers we choose to use.

In the past, the other network managers were pretty erratic. Before making any final solution, I think it would be wise to look at the larger scope of network and system usage. My suspicion is that older devices and newer devices (just as they have with recent Linux kernels) have had differing levels of support - one works better for relatively new hardware, and others work better for older hardware.

Wicd worked well on old systems pretty well, even with its warts. Depending on the size of the network manager tools available, we may still want to keep an"older" network manager, but also look into newer network managers, consider configuring the existing tools to automatically configure the networks detected at installation and then examine what combinations would best serve our community.

If one network manager can be light, effective, easy to use, and get the job done for all known hardware types, then I'm good with it. But before casting off the old network infrastructure, let's make sure that a new one can serve really old hardware as well as much newer hardware.

I thought initially, as with so many other distros I have tried, that it was an Acer/Broadcom driver problem. MANY distros dating 2015 and 2016 can STILL only detect my Ethernet chipset. This is unconscionable. My Intel 3317mu i5 based 11.6" mini laptop (v5-171 series) was manufactured in the middle of 2012. I can understand that distros from 2012 wouldn't detect my wifi, but NOW?? At least one that I downloaded from that era CAN (LXLE 12). As far as I--and many like me--are concerned, the time to abandon the practice of crippling otherwise fine distros over the exclusion of non-free drivers (that actually work) is long overdue.
In my particular case, though, wicd DID detect my broadcom chipset, but I had to, by trial and error, click through a bunch of stuff in order to figure that out. My initial impression 2 months ago was that my wifi didn't work in Antix, but DID work in Antix-MX. So I abandoned it. I tried again with a multiple live usb a few days ago, and found that it did work.

And favorite lapwarmer. A Dell D630 , Broadcom drivers are not problem in Antix, but MX , I finally gave up.

azrielle wrote:I thought initially, as with so many other distros I have tried, that it was an Acer/Broadcom driver problem. MANY distros dating 2015 and 2016 can STILL only detect my Ethernet chipset. This is unconscionable. My Intel 3317mu i5 based 11.6" mini laptop (v5-171 series) was manufactured in the middle of 2012. I can understand that distros from 2012 wouldn't detect my wifi, but NOW?? At least one that I downloaded from that era CAN (LXLE 12). As far as I--and many like me--are concerned, the time to abandon the practice of crippling otherwise fine distros over the exclusion of non-free drivers (that actually work) is long overdue.
In my particular case, though, wicd DID detect my broadcom chipset, but I had to, by trial and error, click through a bunch of stuff in order to figure that out. My initial impression 2 months ago was that my wifi didn't work in Antix, but DID work in Antix-MX. So I abandoned it. I tried again with a multiple live usb a few days ago, and found that it did work.

Quite frankly, these are the kinds of reasons that any freely available system needs people from a wide, diverse audience to try out, test, and report issues in the TESTING phase of a development project - which really ought to be at the point that the first development build is available. It is very difficult for a small development team to test and anticipate every possible nuance that may cause a particular feature not to work on a specific configuration, and that is why community testing and reporting is important and necessary.

I have long felt that the antiX and MEPIS communities have some of the most solid, stable base code and the percentage of mostly working, quality software is high, even in initial builds, but that does not mean that we can all wait until the final release, then complain when something does not work right. If anyone even gets paid as part of any of these tasks, it is rare (and if rare, even more deserved if income is earned). For the vast majority of people, it is the satisfaction of participating in a freely available, joint effort, that motivates people to contribute in some way.

I write here either to provide ideas, share feedback, or guide others in using software. I do not test quite as much or as deeply as I have in the past, but I still try to test as many builds as I can, and provide feedback when I notice something that needs improvement. I encourage others to do likewise. Every little bit helps, whether it's an idea, a piece of code, a report of a minor issue, a language translation, assistance to a beginner; it all matters. I hope we can each help in some way, because this is very good software and a very good community to work with!