This is a group of questions related to a new installation of Antix.

A few years ago, I tried to install Antix to an external usb hard drive. Due to my lack of knowledge of Linux installation prototols, my intent to use an external drive, and my lack of understanding of grub, naming conventions, and many other shortcomings, and despite the well-intentioned efforts of anticapitalista, rokytnji, and others to assist me, my efforts were not successful. After 12 tries, I stopped.

But now… I have a secondary internal hard drive installed in my old beater XP box, just begging for me to install Antix and dual boot the machine.

So, a few questions.

I see that antiX-15-RC1.1 is available. Should I consider installing this release candidate or should I wait for the actual release? (This is a “how hard is it to update the RC1.1 release to completed release” question.) (apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade, or something like that?)

I had a devil of a time in the past with multiple partitions for root, swap, home, etc, so I am inclined to tell the installer to use the entire partition. A few Antix and MX14 installation videos suggested I do a custom install with the multiple partitions. Any preferences or comments?

Finally, after reading about the difference between ext3 and ext4, I am not sure which I would prefer to use. The partition is presently formatted as the ext3 filesystem, but it is empty and easily changeable to ext4. I am starting to lean towards ext4. Any preferences or comments?

I took a look at MX14 and liked it, but I was concerned that my old 2003 xp box with a P4 single core and 512mb ram was at the minimum specs for installation.

Thanks again to anticapitalista and associates for developing this OS, and thanks for your comments.

Not a lot of comments or concerns from me.
I just downloaded 15-rc1.1 and next I am getting ready to md5sum check it.
Next.

I will break out my IBM T23 which is a P3 laptop with one gig of ram and pull the beta 3 hard drive out and insert the beta 2 hard drive install.
I will backup what I want to keep from beta 2 drive before running the installer.
My / partition will be 8 to 9 gig or so, ext4 file system.
My /swap partition will be 2 gig or so .
The rest will be /home , ext 4 file system.

Just something I am comfortably doing as this has been a routine of mine as a tester for years.

Edit: as far as advice on whether you should wait or just go with testing release candidates. I can't really say.
I roll as I wish and leave others to roll as they wish.

Good luck with it and happy trailz, Rok

My / partition will be 10 to 20 gigs or so, ext4 file system.
My /swap partition will be about 2 gig

15-rc1.1 I like.

2003 xp box with a P4 single core and 512mb

Should be more than plenty.
But your choice to try it or not to.

RC1 worked OK on a 1GB ram 1.6GHz Atom netbook.
Likely just upgrade in place; I normally give / 3Gb, no swap, the rest to /home.
(Just a 'normal' user, internet, music, movies, photos, etc.)

EDIT: With your low ram, I suggest you have a 1GB swap partition.

Update:

It installed on the first try!

Before installation, I found some very informative videos by dolphin_oracle. In particular, I recommend"AntiX 13 Stable - gParted - Partition a Multi-boot system". I watched it 4 times, paying very close attention, stopping and replaying it while I was working on the partitioning and installation.

Filesystem note - the installer offered to reformat the partition to ext4 and I let it.

I was very surprised when Antix first booted from the hard drive. I was even more surprised when I rebooted and Grub let me boot XP with no trouble.

So, OK for now. More challenges to come, but this install was a success.

Congrats! You are on the road to freedom. Enjoy!