What other distro(s) do you use apart from antiX and why?

I'll begin.
I only have 1 computer, but a lot of partitions.

antiX-Spartacus
sidux-chaos
debian-sid netinstall
Mepis 3.4.3 (used to be my number 1)
Flepis (ask acidburned __{{emoticon}}__ )

Now, I rarely boot into any of them. antiX-Lysistrata does it for me.

anticapitalista wrote:What other distro(s) do you use apart from antiX and why?

I should start by explaining that everyone in the household (except for the two cats) has his/her own computer. They are of course all networked (hard-wired except for the laptops).

Me: PCLinux2007 -- very easy to set up and maintain HTTP and FTP servers using GUI scripts that install automatically. Mepis falls down a little on this count. And of course, the Toshiba laptop running antiX.

Wife: Mepis 6.5 (waiting for 7.0 to go final before upgrading her).

Daughter: WinXP on desktop and WinXP on the university-provided laptop.

"Play" system: Depends on my mood, but 99% of the time it is running the latest version Slackware. This one tends to have hard drives plugged in and then unplugged as I test stuff out.

Three boxes (two desktop, one laptop), each dual booting WindowsXP/Mepis (6.5, antiX Spartacus, antiX Lysistrata). On one spare hard drive I have Zenwalk (xfce4) just for play.

I keep the Windows because there are some apps I still can't use on Linux. Actually, it's pretty much one function that I need Windows for: running big unabridged dictionaries that I use in my work. I can't quite get them to run reliably through Wine.

But firing up Windows is getting more and more rare. In fact, it's a pain to try to get online with Windows now because my virus software gets *so* out of date that it takes forever to get updates. So usage is now up to 97% Mepis, 3% Windows.

I currently have four computers in my computer room. Two run Lysistrata, one laptop runs Spartacus, and one runs Win XP.

I use the antiX computers about 90% of the time. One is used mainly for testing, the other the bulk of the day to day, and the laptop keeps my financial stuff and other data I want to keep. I also keep this data on a USB disk that makes the rounds.

I have so many computers because I have a reputation of being a computer geek among my circle of friends and family. There's a surprise. Because of this reputation, I get donations of older computer systems that have died, or have been eclipsed by the new technology. I salvage the good parts, create a usable computer, and give it to someone needy.

antiX fits this niche perfectly and the next few computers I give away will have antiX. A few caveats will apply, as well as some antix"basic training". Building the computer has always been the easiest part. I spent way more time with education and support . I actually think this time will shrink with antiX because of its stability.

I use Win XP for the following tasks/applications:

--Terrain Navigator Pro...an excellent topographic map software. I use this for my profession as well as personal. I work as a patrol sergeant for a sheriff's office in a county covering about 8,500 square miles (5.5 million acres). Most of the county is backcountry/wilderness with three large designated wilderness areas. I need an accurate map database for searching for lost persons, responding to emergencies, etc. I also spend considerable time in the backcountry on my personal time with my pack llamas (hence my avatar __{{emoticon}}__ ). I love to photograph wildlife, fish, and relax miles away from other humans. You may see some of those photographs in the future as wallpaper.

--GPS software...this goes hand in hand with the above. I also am an instructor teaching new deputies and emergency medical personnel fundamental gps technology and use.

--Picasa...for my photographs. I have used Picasa under wine in Mepis 6.5 with reasonable results. I love Picasa because I can do anything I need to do from it. Print photos, upload to web album, email, etc.

--Quicken...although I am transitioning to Moneydance which I have running on my Spartacus laptop.

--Photoshop...although again making the transition to Gimp. Most of my work is done in Gimp at this point but still find some tasks easier in Photoshop.

I plan on experimenting with Picasa and Terrain Navigator Pro under wine in antiX in the near future. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions that might help in that regard. Sorry this got so long...hope it helps.

dieselbenz wrote:
Wife: Mepis 6.5 (waiting for 7.0 to go final before upgrading her).

I hope you mean the distro __{{emoticon}}__

anticapitalista wrote:

dieselbenz wrote:
Wife: Mepis 6.5 (waiting for 7.0 to go final before upgrading her).

I hope you mean the distro __{{emoticon}}__

Current wife (#2 / #last) was already an upgrade. __{{emoticon}}__

Desktop1: Triple boot Mepis 6.5, Mepis 7 beta, and Win XP because I have to use an MS Office program that I couldn't install in Crossover Office because I only had an upgrade install.

Destop2: Dual boot Mepis 6.5 and Win98 for old games, but the Win98 has no internet connection. It will be converted to Mepis 7 soon after it is final.

Old Laptop: antiX M7 rc1 which will be upgraded soon, I hope.

My husband runs XP only because of work, but every so often, he thinks about dual booting, so it's only a matter of time. __{{emoticon}}__

Mepis 6.5.02 so I can learn the use of Linux tools with gui.
AntiX so I can learn actual Linux
Windows XP so I can play Tiger Woods golf

Antix on the laptop (only 3 GB HD). The only choice on this setup.

Kubuntu (mostly WindowMaker gui) on the desktop because:
--it is far better internationalized (I need Norwegian)
--the Mepis kernel prints some garbage about ata2 error, this
slows down boot considerably. Error disappears if I install a Debian kernel.
--it is THE distro if you want it all to just work (not counting pay-for stuff).

flepis was awsome.of course i have all of them you have made anti. __{{emoticon}}__ triple booting one disk is antix Lysistrata,pclinux2007 and tinyme2007.one 6gb hardrive has antix m7beta.my test puter has antix spartacus and pclinux midi flux and tinyflux.one drive with fedora8.antix is always my main system cause of the stability.i do test other distros out so thats why __{{emoticon}}__

3 computers
The kids-- antix (simple and runs smoothly)
DH---- mandriva powerpack (games)
Me --- 1st hd vector (my fav. os and workstation) gentoo (like to torture myself, plus trying to learn)
2nd drive antix (simplicity) and desktopbsd (I love ports thinking of replacing vector but no good flash support)

I have antiX on an old laptop, tinyflux on my old desktop, and mint cassandra on my slightly more powerful, but still old, second desktop. I will start by saying that I am truly an xfce fan so transitioning to fluxbox has not been entirely easy. My goal is to find a distro (or two) that I can install on all of my computers. So here's my brief story:

Tried dreamlinux because it is based on debian and sports the xfce desktop. Good set of apps, great tools, and nice desktop. Not a lot of expertise in the forums though.

Tried tinyme to see if lxde could bridge the gap between xfce and fluxbox. Not even close. I don't need a session manager and pcmanfm was a bit disappointing. So I kept lxpanel and use xfe.

Tried tinyflux to see how other distros had fluxbox set up. They have some good ideas about the menu layout, but not much else. Definately not a replacement as I like debian better (but still envy their use of the mandriva tool box).

Tried vector linux and wolvix recently since they use xfce and fluxbox. They have both done some great things with both desktops, system tools, apps, etc. The only downside is being slack-based some of my preferred apps aren't available as slack packages.

So I will keep antix (having some issues recently, but am willing to work them out). I will probably keep dreamlinux also and either vector or wolvix. Wolvix is exciting but vector is more established. Tough call. Both are terrific.

The only other option would sidux. It uses kde and fluxbox. From experience difficult to get codecs, plugins, etc. But it could give me inspiration to use sid repos with antix.

You can tell that my preferences are for debian and slackware distros. Slackware distros were the distros I cut my teeth on 3 years ago (zenwalk and vector) and debian has been a recent interest.

Thanks for reading.

john

OU812 wrote: My goal is to find a distro (or two) that I can install on all of my computers.

You're raising a philosophical problem of mine, one that just won't go away. It's the question of variety vs. unity, having multiple OS's running (for discovering interesting different ways of doing things) vs. having one solid distro on all machines (for knowing deeply how that OS works in all its minute detail).

I keep veering between the two poles. Someone needs to come up with a word for this kind of problem, or for the two kinds of users, or for the user always oscillating between the two.

At the moment, Mepis (in whatever version) has become the one ring to rule them all...

malanrich wrote: I keep veering between the two poles. Someone needs to come up with a word for this kind of problem,

In my line of work, we refer to that as bi-polar.