Other Distros

[6502coder]

Good news for fans of LXLE, the midweight respin of Lubuntu. Despite Lubuntu's abandonment of both LXDE and the "friendly to old hardware" philosophy, LXLE is forging on and LXLE 18.04.3 Beta has just been released. This is the first version of LXLE to be based on Bionic Beaver.

I've been running LXLE on my old P4 desktop for years. Currently I'm on the Xenial-based 16.04.3 version, so it's good to know I'll have a Bionic successor to turn to when Xenial goes EOL.

[nubc]

Anyone done a review of MX Linux? Would be interesting to see it compared to Puppy.

[belham2]

Anyone done a review of MX Linux? Would be interesting to see it compared to Puppy.

Hi NUBC,

If it helps any, I did a review of Anti-X here in "Other Distros" awhile back:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 626#979626

I since graduated to MX-Linux, since a lot of MX is built off of Anti-X.

MX-Linux, for me, is wonderful on both my old and new machines (they have 32 and 64 bit versions, I run both).

Personally, MX-Linux Tools in the OS is unmatched anywhere (except for Fred's DDogs stuff comes really close) that I have seen in Puppy or otherwise. Specifically: remastering.

In MX-Linux, the ability to quickly remaster and have the remaster save EVERY single Personal Setting (and, imagine this, you can click by simple check-mark in simple boxes what out of Home Directory you don't or what you do want saved) is sublime.

MX's remastering is incredible, fast and efficient. Then, at the end, it asks you (with another simple choice click) if you want to install this created remastered-ISO to a USB stick/drive or if you want to DD it. Again, one click.

As I argued here--http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 633#987633 ....and ended up having to fight the well-known Luddite troglodyte of our Puppy Forum, Puppy's Remastering abilities, while fair and they do work but with limitations (unless you grab Nic007's scripts, but still, even then, things are a bit of a pain and NIC007 should never have had to do this in the first place but he wanted to try to improve the remaster process in puppy) are old, stale and out-of-date. Puppy, with regards to remastering, has been left in the dark ages compared to what MX-Linux has done.

....and the MX- team has not looked back as refinements (all around) keep coming at a good, steady clip. MX-Linux/Anti-X is all about the user.


Give MX-Linux's latest ISO a spin, think you will be more than pleasantly surprised. Just upon seeing the boot menu and the simple layout of having innumerable boot choices/options all simply explained will make your puppy heart warm.

MX won't replace all of our love for Pups/DDogs, but the two have become sort of inseparable to me now. Even though we all know of Distrowatch's crazied & flawed ranking system of Linux OSes on its home age, there is a fundamental "focus-on-the-user" reason MX-Linux has shot to the top of the Distros ranking several months ago, above all other distros (large and small alike).

[mtzlplex]

Just an average user here, nothing techy about this reply. Wife loves it. I put it on her machine back when mx-15 first came out. Full install to the hd, and have since progressed to the latest version mx-18+. We use it on an old e-machine, 32 bit dual core 4gb ram nothing special. This machine is at least 8, or 9 years old, and it loves mx. Everything works as it should on this machine, and when I dropped a little 16 gb transcend ssd in , I got a very good speed increase out of it. It`s a keeper as far as we`re concerned.

[Colonel Panic]

After some bad experiences with recent editions of Sparky, I'm happy to say that the latest one, Sparky 2019.08, installed first time on my machine and is working well.

It doesn't come with its excellent configuration of Conky any more though, which is a shame because that was one of its best features IMO.

[nubc]

Although I would prefer that the boot disc be a CD rather than a DVD, I like MX Linux quite a lot. Right now I am happily using tahrpup 605 (community), a frugal install using the CD as the boot device (slow as that is). Tahrpup 606 fails to boot because of kernel panic, so I guess this computer is too old. I would like to add a frugal install of MX Linux 18.3 using the DVD as boot device. Can someone briefly describe how to set that up on my current tahrpup box? I have a dedicated 30 GB ext3 partition on one of my two 4TB hard drives to run operating systems. Right now 21 GB are free on the 30-GB OS partition. The serious problem I had with LXLE was that it only auto-installed, erasing the entire disc. Hopefully, there are more options with MX Linux.Question: How big a footprint does a frugall install of MX Linux make? Can I uninstall unwanted programs like Libre Office?

[Colonel Panic]

Second time lucky with CrunchBang++ 10.1; it not only booted first time but installed on my hard drive without a hitch and is working well.

CrunchBang was always one of my favourite distros and it's great to see that someone's taken on the legacy and is working to improve on it (the same goes for Bunsen, which is quite similar but with a few innovations such as pipe menus).

[s243a]

Anyone done a review of MX Linux? Would be interesting to see it compared to Puppy.

Hi NUBC,

If it helps any, I did a review of Anti-X here in "Other Distros" awhile back:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 626#979626

I since graduated to MX-Linux, since a lot of MX is built off of Anti-X.

MX-Linux, for me, is wonderful on both my old and new machines (they have 32 and 64 bit versions, I run both).

Personally, MX-Linux Tools in the OS is unmatched anywhere (except for Fred's DDogs stuff comes really close) that I have seen in Puppy or otherwise. Specifically: remastering.

In MX-Linux, the ability to quickly remaster and have the remaster save EVERY single Personal Setting (and, imagine this, you can click by simple check-mark in simple boxes what out of Home Directory you don't or what you do want saved) is sublime.

MX's remastering is incredible, fast and efficient. Then, at the end, it asks you (with another simple choice click) if you want to install this created remastered-ISO to a USB stick/drive or if you want to DD it. Again, one click.

As I argued here--http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 633#987633 ....and ended up having to fight the well-known Luddite troglodyte of our Puppy Forum, Puppy's Remastering abilities, while fair and they do work but with limitations (unless you grab Nic007's scripts, but still, even then, things are a bit of a pain and NIC007 should never have had to do this in the first place but he wanted to try to improve the remaster process in puppy) are old, stale and out-of-date. Puppy, with regards to remastering, has been left in the dark ages compared to what MX-Linux has done.

....and the MX- team has not looked back as refinements (all around) keep coming at a good, steady clip. MX-Linux/Anti-X is all about the user.


Give MX-Linux's latest ISO a spin, think you will be more than pleasantly surprised. Just upon seeing the boot menu and the simple layout of having innumerable boot choices/options all simply explained will make your puppy heart warm.

MX won't replace all of our love for Pups/DDogs, but the two have become sort of inseparable to me now. Even though we all know of Distrowatch's crazied & flawed ranking system of Linux OSes on its home age, there is a fundamental "focus-on-the-user" reason MX-Linux has shot to the top of the Distros ranking several months ago, above all other distros (large and small alike).

My understanding is MX linux is like a lightweight version of Linux Mint, so lighter than mint but more heavyweight than antiX, puppylinux and doglinux. Regarding the remaster scripts I agree that they could certainly use an update. A lot of things are not saved on the remastered copy of puppy and while I understand this is in part to protect private information there is much more that could be saved without compromising private information.

[nitehawk]

Second time lucky with CrunchBang++ 10.1; it not only booted first time but installed on my hard drive without a hitch and is working well.

CrunchBang was always one of my favourite distros and it's great to see that someone's taken on the legacy and is working to improve on it (the same goes for Bunsen, which is quite similar but with a few innovations such as pipe menus).

I've been using BunsenLabs on one of my older computers,..but recently switched to Antix. MX is on my second-biggest computer, and it runs like a charm!
Started using "SimplyMepis" back when I first discovered Puppy 3.01.

MX is still like SimplyMepis, in that it is easy to use (with more "bells and whistles" now).

I think I will look into CrunchBang again,..now that you mention it,...
would be good for an older laptop that is running Antix (but won't recognize my wifi). And speaking of CrunchBang's "legacy",...I have been trying out
John Biles' "Legacy" Puppy on my oldest laptop. No wifi (rats!) Love the
distro,..but tired of struggling to get my wifi working. Must try CrunchBang on there.
EDIT: CrunchBang says it won't work on that old laptop,..but Antix says it will. I'm good with that...if I can get the wifi working. My wifi problem is most likely because I am using a dongle from 2008 on there (will look for a more current one).

[Colonel Panic]

Second time lucky with CrunchBang++ 10.1; it not only booted first time but installed on my hard drive without a hitch and is working well.

CrunchBang was always one of my favourite distros and it's great to see that someone's taken on the legacy and is working to improve on it (the same goes for Bunsen, which is quite similar but with a few innovations such as pipe menus).

I've been using BunsenLabs on one of my older computers,..but recently switched to Antix. MX is on my second-biggest computer, and it runs like a charm!
Started using "SimplyMepis" back when I first discovered Puppy 3.01.

MX is still like SimplyMepis, in that it is easy to use (with more "bells and whistles" now).

I think I will look into CrunchBang again,..now that you mention it,...
would be good for an older laptop that is running Antix (but won't recognize my wifi). And speaking of CrunchBang's "legacy",...I have been trying out
John Biles' "Legacy" Puppy on my oldest laptop. No wifi (rats!) Love the
distro,..but tired of struggling to get my wifi working. Must try CrunchBang on there.
EDIT: CrunchBang says it won't work on that old laptop,..but Antix says it will. I'm good with that...if I can get the wifi working. My wifi problem is most likely because I am using a dongle from 2008 on there (will look for a more current one).

Hi again nitie, good to see you here again! I tried out a few distros on my Mum's laptop a couple of Christmasses ago until I found one that worked to set up wi-fi for her - X-Slacko 4.4 (I forget what the utility was that did it).

Having just praised CrunchBang, I had a problem with (or in?) it in that abiword took up nearly all my RAM (over 3 GB) until I shut it down and restarted it and it was fine then. It may have been a problem with abiword rather than CrunchBang though.

I've had trouble booting MX on my computer in the past but AntiX has always been fine, so I generally prefer that instead (your experience may be different). I was disappointed that they changed the AntiX default theme though as I really liked that rainy train station wallpaper on AntiX 18.

I like Legacy too but I think John admitted that he struggled to get wi-fi working consistently on it.

[nitehawk]

Hi again nitie, good to see you here again! I tried out a few distros on my Mum's laptop a couple of Christmasses ago until I found one that worked to set up wi-fi for her - X-Slacko 4.4 (I forget what the utility was that did it).

Having just praised CrunchBang, I had a problem with (or in?) it in that abiword took up nearly all my RAM (over 3 GB) until I shut it down and restarted it and it was fine then. It may have been a problem with abiword rather than CrunchBang though.

I've had trouble booting MX on my computer in the past but AntiX has always been fine, so I generally prefer that instead (your experience may be different). I was disappointed that they changed the AntiX default theme though as I really liked that rainy train station wallpaper on AntiX 18.

I like Legacy too but I think John admitted that he struggled to get wi-fi working consistently on it.

Yes,..you can never know how a distro will act on your particular hardware. I just discovered that not much will work on my two old laptops. That includes Antix even. Something weird happens to the graphics. Anyhow,..I'm now on to try a Slackware (like Salix or such). We'll see how that goes.
I DO have Racy 550 working well on the oldest (an HP Ze4300 with that little square screen and all). Going to see if I can get a portable Palemoon working on it.

[darry19662018]

Hello Nite,

Have you tried anything Devuan lately should run on your HP Pavillion runs on all my Hp and Compaq stuff.

[nitehawk]

Hello Nite,

Have you tried anything Devuan lately should run on your HP Pavillion runs on all my Hp and Compaq stuff.

Eh, no,.actually I haven't tried Devuan lately. Very tempting thought. This particular laptop is from 2005,..has 1gb ram with 60gb hd.

I just put Precise 5.7.1 Retro on it,...and so far seems to be running super fast!
It already has Opera 12 on it,..but I will try to see if maybe I can get a newer "portable" browser to run in it. Not bad so far. Seemed to have problems
with newer Puppies,...but likes this Precise Retro.
I'll check out Devuan for my other computers (I had several,..and inherited a a few more).

[zagreb999]

slitaz variant of puppy
tazpup

it is great
only 58 mb of sfs
very fast, stable...

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=113255

[Colonel Panic]

Hello Nite,

Have you tried anything Devuan lately should run on your HP Pavillion runs on all my Hp and Compaq stuff.

Eh, no,.actually I haven't tried Devuan lately. Very tempting thought. This particular laptop is from 2005,..has 1gb ram with 60gb hd.

I just put Precise 5.7.1 Retro on it,...and so far seems to be running super fast!
It already has Opera 12 on it,..but I will try to see if maybe I can get a newer "portable" browser to run in it. Not bad so far. Seemed to have problems
with newer Puppies,...but likes this Precise Retro.
I'll check out Devuan for my other computers (I had several,..and inherited a a few more).

Hi again nitie,

You may not know there's been a thread recently about Precise 5.7.1, which made the point that it's still very much a viable option and also made suggestions for software to run on it (I still use Precise 5.7.1 Large);

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=114165

EDIT: Still in CrunchBang++, and I've now added the latest versions of Pale Moon, Vivaldi and SoftMaker Free Office which are all working just fine on this thirteen year old machine. The one downside is that the wallpaper and all the decorations, conky etc. are in various shades of grey and to me look rather drab, so sometime when I've got a spare half hour or so I'm hoping to make it look a bit brighter and more cheerful.

[nitehawk]

You may not know there's been a thread recently about Precise 5.7.1, which made the point that it's still very much a viable option and also made suggestions for software to run on it (I still use Precise 5.7.1 Large);

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=114165

Thanks for that link! Yes, Precise Retro is doing really well on that particular old (2005) laptop. Works good with both the graphics and the wifi. It's a keeper on there. I managed to get a later version of Firefox on it (thanks to a forum member that I need to go look up again to give proper credit).

[Colonel Panic]

You may not know there's been a thread recently about Precise 5.7.1, which made the point that it's still very much a viable option and also made suggestions for software to run on it (I still use Precise 5.7.1 Large);

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=114165

Thanks for that link! Yes, Precise Retro is doing really well on that particular old (2005) laptop. Works good with both the graphics and the wifi. It's a keeper on there. I managed to get a later version of Firefox on it (thanks to a forum member that I need to go look up again to give proper credit).

You're welcome nitie, and there's also a pet somewhere that enables you to update the glibc libraries so that you can use modern browsers in the distro. I'll see if I can find it.

[EDIT: here's the link;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QjtL6j ... 6lyhj/view

It's intended for Pale Moon 28.3.0 but I'm now posting from SeaMonkey 2.49.4 (in Precise 5.7.1. Large) and it's working fine.]

[Colonel Panic]

I've just installed the latest version of Debian Stable, 10.1, and it's working well now although there were a few hiccups mainly due to its inability to recognise my network card (maybe due to the fact that my computer dates from 2006).

With Firefox, Osmo, Thunderbird andTextmaker 2018 all loaded the system monitor (LXTask) shows exactly 1000 MB of RAM being used, which I think is pretty decent in 2019.

[belham2]

Been using Anti-X & MX-Linux for a few years now, and they just went thru some months of testing & their final versions are out for both AntiX-19 and MX-Linux 19.

Here's latest MX-19 freshly installed to a 120GB NVMe, with 1st pic the latest Anti-X-19 running in VirtualBox inside it, and then just MX-Linux itself.

These two distros just keep getting more sublime.


(Well, I don't know WTH is wrong, I cant upload more than 1 pic into the same message....)

[belham2]

(attempting to add here in this post the antiX-19 pic I mentioned in the previous/above msg...and it's still failing in this msg....maybe it's the pic itself?.....trying a new pic...nope, still doesn't work....hmmm.....


Ok, found something weird that I honestly don't quite understand, will explain it here:

1) doesn't matter what Linux OS I use (MXLinux, Manjaro, Puppy, Debian), but I have VirtualBox loaded on them all (different machines: laptops & PCs)

2) I boot one of the machines, then open VirtualBox in that Linux desktop as it opens whatever OS I am testing/using in VirtualBox, and then open any screenshot app included in that Linux desktop to take a screenshot of it all (in the Linux desktop, not inside the Vbox).

3) No matter if I choose "select a region", or "active window" or choose the "whole screen", it dutifully takes the screenshot, saves it, etc, but when I upload it overall to Murga-Linux, whether it is a 70kb png or 70kb jpg, the picture will not appear on Murga and instead appears as a download for people to click in order to see it.

Really strange indeed....I am not sure if this behaviour happens on all forums, or if it is just Murga-linux forum.