Hello,

I used a lot old computers, and like to make them better by putting lightweight software. The problem is that even in open source community we find more and more heavy programs and technicals choices. And internet become more and more complicated (I like to use w3m with picture support, fast and well working, almost better than netsurf, and better than dillo). Internet evolution lead to computer wasting that I hate.

I like dwm and jwm, simple configuration made by editing text dot files, good documentation made by wiki, programs like sylpheed.

I used archlinux a lot, and liked its simplicity and ability to configure what you want (I could not configure all what I want because I don't know enough). With xdm login manager and dwm I had very low RAM and CPU consumption. The first times it was 37Mo! But with time and updates it became more and more… I finished to ask myself questions about systemd and complications I don't need.
It made me tired, and I prefer to change.

My brother gave me some laptops. I gave two equipped with archlinux to friends who are happy, and took one for me (a little asus netbook).
On this asus I installed antix, and I start to test it. I must work to put antix on other old computers, to give them to people (some asked me).
Antix on this asus is not extremely lightweight like I wanted but works very well. I must install linux on a very old computer (256 Mo Ram, old processor) and want to test antix.

For now I'm impressed by the work, this distribution works very well without bugs. I was stunned by the automatic editing of .jwmrc and some other nice things. I like the choice of applications, it's lightweight and seem very cool.

But coming from archlinux I search naturally for /etc files, .xinitrc, something to control daemons (like the old archlinux's rc.conf)…

When I'm not doing things on computers I like botany, wild edible plants, tropical plants, photography, bike riding (especially recumbent bikes), bike repairing, basketry, braiding… and discover new things and ideas.

I like hospitality, sharing things…

Howdy and Welcome to the forum. From the Tex/Mex border rat.

Greetings, reflets-de-vert and welcome to the antiX forum.

There is no doubt that Arch Linux allows the potential to create an extremely lightweight system. I'm glad to hear that you have found antiX useful. As you learn more about antiX, you may find value in the different varieties available. With antiX Full you get a completely configured,"full featured, lightly configured" system. If you want more control over what is installed, you can use antiX Base to get a complete base system, and install the applications and configurations that you like, and if you want to approach the likes of completely configurable systems like Arch, Gentoo, and Linux From Scratch, antiX Core provides a kernel and a Core set of utilities and not much else, so you have a variety of starting points, depending on your expertise, the specific setup you want to establish, and your specific interests and needs. I hope that you'll find the right ones for you as you learn more about them and the most effective way to build the types of systems that work best for you.

Thank you.

I installed antix full. I removed icewm, fluxbox, herbstluftwm (which I don't like) and now I have jwm and dwm. I removed slim login manager and put xdm instead.

For now I modify antix full. I don't know enough to start from base or core even if I'd like to do so (with archlinux there is so much documentation you can read, it makes these things more easy).

Arch has incredible documentation!

Welcome aboard. __{{emoticon}}__

Don't be frightened of using antiX base, it is my preffered installation, as it comes with most of what is needed, firefox, etc. - but leaves out heavyweights like openoffice & the gimp.

Good to hear that you are keeping all those old, but usable computers alive. __{{emoticon}}__

Hello,

I made some mistakes, and preferred to reinstall base. It's working well now!

I found a way to force slim to use .xinitrc (there is a line to decomment in slim.conf); it's good and allow me to have bepo and simplify things. I installed dwm (I like this one better than herbstluftwm).

I installed open office and gimp for this computer, because it's relatively modern and I need them (but in the other install I will make, with old one, I must find other alternatives).

If you don't start these programs, normally it won't load the computer? (I don't know, I heard a lot of ideas but never asked to people who know better).
I must install an old computer with 256Mo of Ram and an old processor, I will tell you the result.

For me firefox is incredibly heavy. I use netsurf a lot, w3m, and firefox only for websites which need it (I don't like dillo for now).

reflets-de-vert wrote:But coming from archlinux I search naturally for /etc files, .xinitrc, something to control daemons (like the old archlinux's rc.conf)

Did you find how to control daemons or would you like more help/hints?

reflets-de-vert wrote:I found a way to force slim to use .xinitrc (there is a line to decomment in slim.conf); it's good and allow me to have bepo and simplify things. I installed dwm (I like this one better than herbstluftwm).

I'm glad you got this to work the way you want it to. We use ~./desktop-session/startup instead of ~/.xinitrc. There are several benefits to using desktop-session. But you may not want/need them. Desktop-session only exists in the antiX distro.

• It automatically remembers the last window manager you used across reboots and uses that for the default
• It automatically adds any new window managers you have installed to its lists without you having to edit any files
• It allows you to switch windows-managers without closing windows or logging out
• In the desktop menus of the windows-managers that come pre-installed there is a Desktop --> Other Desktops menu that allows you to change the window manager and the desktop icons

Unfortunately, we don't provide an"Other Desktops" menu for window managers that are not pre-installed which greatly limits the convenience and usefulness of desktop-session. It now seems obvious (to me) that we could fix this glaring problem by making a GUI interface for desktop-session that would work with any window-manger.

Welcome and Howdy from Southwest Louisiana, where French is spoken from the 18th century. Its not proper French. Its Cajun french.