I have two friends who have been life long Windows users. They are fed up with it and would like to venture into the world of Linux. I'm looking for a distro that is easy and straight forward to use. I feel hat the xfce environment is the way to go for them. At the moment I am trying Mint 17.1 XFCE edition. Very nice and clean distro.

But!! Just a few minutes ago I installed the new MX-14.4. So far, I am AMAZED at the amount of work that went into creating this beautiful distro. A huge thank you to all involved!!

I love the way I can quickly move around as well as setup Samba shares using the excellent system-config-samba app supplied with MX. The MX-Tools are awesome as well. Just wanted to let you know that you are doing a great job with this distro and I think I will be able to recommend it to my friends. We'll see.

I, too, am very impressed with MX-14.4! May I suggest something post-install? The smxi script.

Create a root password to bypass sudo then simply run it as root, because it is built-in to antiX and the MEPIS hybrids. Look at smxi.org for more info.

This script makes post-install tweaks very easy for true-Debian distros like our favorite.

Don't be too surprised that most of your buddies will not like the"work" involved with even a simpler true-Debian distro like these, however. C'est la vie!

I would also like to express my satisfaction and appreciation for MX-14. It turns out that this distribution embodies most of the customizations I used to manually perform myself, which I've done in the past to both MEPIS and antiX distributions, so when I first noticed MX-14 being released, at that time I was already running an instance of antiX Core, which I had configured against Debian Sid, Liquorix kernel updates, and the Xfce desktop environment.

I hasten to add that in over a decade of working with both MEPIS and antiX builds (and I've probably installed about 75% of them dating back to May 2003, I can only recall one of them that would not install. It was a first build of a MEPIS development many years ago, and it had a problem with a PAE-based kernel. I reported the problem with my configuration, it was fixed, the next build worked, and I never had another build issue.

One other time, I ran into a firmware packaging issue, but it wasn't a build issue, it was a matter of disabling another conflicting module. Again I reported my issue and I've never seen it again.

Considering more than a decade of testing, and many first builds in most of the releases, and nearly all of the final releases, I can tell you that this community produces some of the most solid stuff you can find, and the community is always very helpful and follows up when there are issues.

I'm have not been as active over the past couple of years in these forums as I have been in the past, but I've noticed no change in the high quality of every work and there is always useful background information available and plenty of helpful people to interact with.

I continue to endorse, recommend, and use MEPIS Community projects. In the case of this project, MX-14 has moved up another notch: Debian Sid, SimplyMEPIS, and antiX have been my three leading distributions on my two portable home systems for many years, but until recently, Debian Sid was the one I used most often.

Because of the speed and stability of MX-14, particularly the start up and shut down times, and a decreasing amount of discretionary time, I've been spending the most time in recent months using MX-14 and at the present time, it is my every day system of choice at home - where I have that choice available to me.

I dedicate my use of Xfce on my antiX and MEPIS-based systems to an old forum friend from the early days of antiX, someone with the handle of"ErieFisher". I have not seen ErieFisher here in a long time, but those of you who were with antiX in the early days may remember him well.

Back when we had only Fluxbox as our window manager, before we started integrating a lot of the other choices, Erie was customizing his antiX systems to use an Xfce desktop, a different choice of applications, and his own distinctive appearance. I think it was efforts like his and others like him that influenced anticapitalista to start offering a variety of antiX alternatives. First we added a"Base" build to the"Full" edition, and later we added a"Core" build, both of which allowed increasingly greater opportunities to create a unique system, customized to suit individual needs and preferences.

Over time, the technology to remaster the work, save the configuration context of Live instances, and packaging convenience tools, made creating your own system not only easy, but practically automatic. It may be that guys like ErieFisher really didn't need to come back here often because they could build their own systems and use them for years.

I've had my own antiX Core for at least five years, if not longer, and that has contributed to less of a need to look for other things. Coupled with work and personal life, these things have sent me elsewhere, but they have not diminished either my interest or my enthusiasm for the community and the software that gets produced here, and the quality of support, suggestions, new tools, and friendly discussions, so I felt that it was time to write here again to say that all of this is very much alive and represented better than ever in the latest update to the MX-14 series.

I want to thank and congratulate everyone who has participated in the work of this project, and once again endorse
MX-14 as a top distribution, and arguably one of the"best kept secrets" in the free software sector.

I'm endorsing MX-14 AGAIN in an attempt to change that perception. I tell my friends about the various releases and I have installed many of these systems, not only on my own personal systems, but on those of nearby family and friends as well, and I've successfully convinced a few other friends to do so. But since my time is limited and I can only do so much, I'm writing to encourage others to do the same:

Try out MX-14 yourself, and if you like it, write about it, speak about it, share it, or even install it for those you know who may be looking for something that really works well, but doesn't require an expensive computer or expensive software. This one may be the best release this community has made yet, and the work continues! Thank you very much!

I agree with Brian Masinick regarding the quality of the AntiX/MX distros, whilst I am but a mere newcomer in here, I have used Linux, & BSD, since 1999.

Mainly Debian, but got fed up having to download firmware every time I re loaded the distro. This led me to looking at Debian based systems, Crunchbang being one that I used for a couple of years, before I found AntiX. __{{emoticon}}__

Then when I heard Mepis was to use Debian instead of Ubuntu as its base, I decided to take a look at MX14 - I like it as a medium weight distro - but my personal preference is for a light weight system, hence my staying with AntiX.

fatmac wrote:I agree with Brian Masinick regarding the quality of the AntiX/MX distros, whilst I am but a mere newcomer in here, I have used Linux, & BSD, since 1999.

Mainly Debian, but got fed up having to download firmware every time I re loaded the distro. This led me to looking at Debian based systems, Crunchbang being one that I used for a couple of years, before I found AntiX. __{{emoticon}}__

Then when I heard Mepis was to use Debian instead of Ubuntu as its base, I decided to take a look at MX14 - I like it as a medium weight distro - but my personal preference is for a light weight system, hence my staying with AntiX.

I love the fact that we have a number of different varieties and flavors of antiX and also that antiX remains an important and integral part of the MEPIS family. It's unclear, but unlikely, that we will ever see another release of"MEPIS" as we've known it in the past. Warren Woodford, from what I can tell, is involved in software patent management, a very lucrative endeavor, and though he gave much to Linux in general and MEPIS in particular, as well as previous work with NeXT, the object-oriented Unix implementation that paved the way for what we know today as Apple's OS X BSD-based operating system (and iOS, the mobile platform used in their popular consumer-based systems). Warren is taking advantage of the current trends and needs in business, and no longer appears to be interested in writing free distributions. He has, however, graciously granted the trusted members of the MEPIS Lover's Community to create and extend other systems.

AntiX was one of the first, and certainly the first one broadly endorsed and officially published through MEPIS channels. So it's not that surprising that as MEPIS itself wanes, antiX picks up and represents the community in many positive ways.

It's good to have small, medium, and large implementations to meet varying needs. AntiX does not necessarily produce versions of all sizes, but it has created the infrastructure to allow both its own internal projects and outside endeavors as well to produce whatever may be needed or in demand. MX-14 is a really nice venture in that regard, finding something that works well for systems that once were new and powerful, but are aging and no longer run as effectively with software that consumes most of hte available resources, but still work well with a well-engineered, medium light configuration.

AntiX Full works nicely for those who want an even lighter setup, but still powerful and capable enough for most every day tasks.

The other antiX efforts are aimed at creating whatever individuals need, and they provide a good collection of tools and features to customize and create the right environment, whether it's a Web server, a Mail server, a tiny USB-based mobile, removable drive, or a full featured desktop system. I often use antiX Core to build my own creations. Interestingly, the most common one I've built is almost like MX-14, except my antiX Core is based on Sid, whereas MX-14 is more like MEPIS, using the most stable Debian components.

Isn't it nice to have all of these options so that each of us can choose what works best for us?