I use Antix 12.5 as an multimedia machine. I like it because it's fast booting, and light weight OS.
I have used it on a older P4 machine, with low amount of memory, and sound card with hard to find drivers. But I have always managed to find what was needed. Configuring hardware has not been a issue with Antix.
When It comes to software. If you can't find what you need using the meta package option. I have always opened another repository, and found what I have needed using Synaptic package manager.

I have only one thing that I think needs to be added to the meta package installer, Under office OpenDict would be nice...Many of us can use a dictionary.

All I can say is. Keep it lightweight, and highly configurable to fit everybody's needs.

When I said static splash screen I meant a logo or something along the lines of that with an option say f4 to change to text boot
For better control panel I meant instead of all the options opening in a new tab for it to open in the control center sort off like windows (yes I do realize this isn't possible with everything)
For iceweasel at least add the release repo by default or beta
One thing I forgot to mention better driver selection for wifi (long story short I had a tplink wifi adapter and ubuntu could use it but not antix then I found out ubuntu automatically tried the experimental driver when I had to manually activate it in antix)
I do realize it was experimental but it was in the kernel and it would be nice if it at least gave me an option to use it
It would also be nice if the antix installer gave an option to update after installing (minor thing I noticed)

Bestusernameever wrote: It would also be nice if the antix installer gave an option to update after installing (minor thing I noticed)

Wouldn't it be better to update before installing?

Bestusernameever wrote:When I said static splash screen I meant a logo or something along the lines of that with an option say f4 to change to text boot

I understand.

I'm reminded of what an EU official said about the economic problems they face:

We know what we have to do to fix the problems. What we don't know is how to fix the problems and also get re-elected.

Personally, I love graphical splash screens and I would love to see one on antiX. Even though the technology to implement them has been a moving target, the real problem is that they conflict with our primary design goals of keeping antiX small and fast. The size of software has been increasing but the size of cdroms remains fixed (this isn't quite true because compression technology has improved but it hasn't nearly kept pace with the size of software). We've committed to keeping the full version of antiX small enough to fit on a cdrom. The only way we can continue to do that is to watch every megabyte (which would have sounded ridiculous 30 years ago). We are always facing painful choices about what to throw out. Choosing between bootsplash and enabling, say, Japanese language support is a much easier decision.

There are also the speed and RAM size problems. For example, I recently checked out adding Plymouth to an initramfs image. Plymouth alone requires 3 extra megabytes at maximum compression. Our existing initramfs image is half that size so adding Plymouth would triple the size of our initramfs which would result in a noticeably slower boot. The extra RAM required would increase our minimum RAM requirement by at least 7 or 8 megabytes. I can't imagine telling someone "Sorry antiX no longer works on your system but if it did work you would get this great background image during the initial seconds of booting".

I love boot splash. On the system I'm running now I have a different background on every vconsole and a different background on every desktop in my window manager. I've been trying to at least keep antiX compatible with boot splash so people can add their own if they want to. Even this can be difficult due to kernel patches and moving target issues.

The problem isn't that we are lazy or haven't thought about it or wanted it. The problem is that we don't know how to implement it without chewing up scarce resources we are trying very hard to conserve. If you have any suggestions on how to implement this without taking up significant RAM or boot time or diskspace, I'm all ears.

Well there is one thing I know grub can have a boot image sort of like puppy Linux so that may be an option

Side note I would suggest lxtask
Also an easier user management

Big thing I suggest is to add an update manager that updates beta so say if you have 12.5 and antix 13 beta came out you would have an option to upgrade without reinstall
Note I said option so no auto update unless community wants it

I vote against having a splash screen. It was the first thing I have removed to speed up Ubuntu boot process. Unlike the desktop background, we would see it only for a few seconds, but it eats up boot time and memory. Also it doesn't help debugging, when picture displayed instead of the error message.
Due to the 'economic downturn', I really don't know when I will have a new machine, and running AntiX on my old desktop is my last option before going offline. Please, keep the system as fast and efficient, as possible.

Actually, I also didn't use a desktop background for several years, but finally was convinced to have one.

Bestusernameever wrote:Well there is one thing I know grub can have a boot image sort of like puppy Linux so that may be an option

We already do that. When you booted antiX you should have seen a menu that looks something like the first image below. I've also attached an image showing how we plan to change that look a little.

Not bad look but the date that the beta came out can go
Here's a random idea I came up with what if to boot it stays on that page with a loading bar or something showing how long the boot is taking then with my old idea of f4 for normal text boot

If it really were that easy and resource-free then we would have done that. Everybody would have done that and all the work on the various versions of boot splash would never have happened. The bootloader is an entirely different program from Linux. It disappears entirely from memory when Linux starts.

One easy thing you can do is set a boot parameter like vga=795 (or video=1280x1024 if you are using nouveau), this will increase the resolution of the console to 1280x1024 which IMO looks much better than the default resolution. If everyone's display everywhere supported this resolution (or even 1024x768) then we would have made one of them the default but we strive to boot on as many older systems as possible. Sometimes this makes things less glitzy for people with newer and more powerful hardware.

Another option if you are using nouveau is to try to use
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. It can be installed in an initramfs to give you a boot splash image very early in the boot process.

BitJam wrote: Another option if you are using nouveau is to try to use
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. It can be installed in an initramfs to give you a boot splash image very early in the boot process.

Plymouth has had an on going bug with NVIDIA, and AMD controllers.
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url was:"https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/1080977"
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I am starting to get why you never added a splash screen but some programs have to go we don't need 3 wifi managers in the full version but keep Ceni it picks up where the others fail
I suggest if you can to make separate desktop downloads sort off like Linux mint to help reduce the size
Also I would say add smplayer over mplayer or update it to mplayer 2 since I got mplayer 1
And an auto software updater

I had a issue with the install of antix 13- 2 beta as a stand alone. Then I tried the install as an upgrade. I happy to announce that my previous configuration of 12.5 was kept. All of my added software still works.

Matter of fact, the surround sound works better even tho the same drivers are being used. Music in the flac format shows the processor working a little harder. I'm not complaining, I'll take it for the better sound quality.
Here is my system now.. Other than installing a gnome keyring so I did't get an error in the pyNeighborhood. Everything works great. I can see a promising future for Antix.

I am not sure whether gftp came with antix or is a dependency to some program i got but if it came with antix to replace it with vsftpd
Sorry if does not come with antix