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Hello, need urgently some help:
After my athlon XP (32bit) mainboard running long time rock stable on antiX 19 died from dried out capacitors I’ve got an old Sempron board (64bit) from ModdIt (many thanks again!). Installing antiX 21 on it was quite easy, as usual, it runs like a charm, tested with an uptime of some months already.

But the aftermath is a bit tricky and I actually need some help.

Most pressing issue is: I can’t print. Main reason for this is: There is no printing driver for Linux available for this printer (Canon LBP 8 Mark IV), the existing driver for LBP8 Mark III comes up with unusable poor results (way to low resolution).

So my workaround on the old Athlon System was to start a virtualised Windows 2000 system in virtualbox and print everything needed from within this virtual environment.

After updating the system to antiX 21 I can’t any longer start the virtual machine from the virtualbox installed, it wouldn’t allow me to set the required settings and comes up with an error message:

Ungültige Einstellungen erkannt:
Seite: System: Beschleunigung
Die Hardware-Virtualisierung ist in den Systemeinstellungen aktiviert,
obwohl dies vom Host-System nicht unterstützt wird. Deshalb sollte
diese deaktiviert werden, um ein virtuelles System starten zu können

Even when on the settings page the message points to the selection for “Paravirtualisierung” is set to “keinen (none)” it wouldn’t allow me to store the settings, the error message stays active.

Searching the web for this problem it turned out this issue is possibly caused by a modification of virtualbox made starting after Ver 6.0.24:
Die VirtualBox-Versionen bis einschließlich 6.0.24 können VMs sowohl mit als auch ohne VT-x ausführen. VirtualBox 6.1.x und neuer können VMs nur noch mit VT-x ausführen. Der Code für die Ausführung von VMs ohne VT-x wurde entfernt…
They have removed the code for CPUs without hardware virtualisation after this version.
I tried to verify whether my Sempron CPU has or not has this feature, but couldn’t find out definitively. The BIOS also doesn’t tell anything about this. Here are my specs taken from antiX Control center:

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.104-antix.1-amd64-smp arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.10.104-antix.1-amd64-smp
    root=UUID=5bc6e23a-7c3d-4830-983c-4fe01bac800d ro quiet
  Desktop: IceWM v: 2.9.9 vt: 7 dm: slimski v: 1.5.0
    Distro: antiX-21_x64-full Grup Yorum 31 October 2021 base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: FOXCONN model: M61PMV v: FAB 1.1 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Phoenix
    v: P07 date: 07/28/2009
Battery:
  Message: No system battery data found. Is one present?
Memory:
  RAM: total: 1.94 GiB used: 979.9 MiB (49.4%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
PCI Slots:
  Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Sempron LE-1250 bits: 64 type: UP arch: K8 built: 2005-06 process: AMD 65nm
    family: 0xF (15) model-id: 0x7F (127) stepping: 2 microcode: N/A
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 1 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 128 KiB desc: d-1x64 KiB; i-1x64 KiB
    L2: 512 KiB desc: 1x512 KiB
  Speed (MHz): 2200 min/max: 1000/2200 scaling: driver: powernow-k8 governor: performance core:
    1: 2200 bogomips: 4420
  Flags: 3dnow 3dnowext 3dnowprefetch apic clflush cmov cpuid cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de extapic
    extd_apicid fpu fxsr fxsr_opt lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx mmxext msr mtrr nopl nx pae pat pge pni pse
    pse36 rdtscp rep_good sep sse sse2 syscall tsc vme vmmcall
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: radeon
    v: kernel arch: TeraScale 2 code: Evergreen process: TSMC 32-40nm built: 2009-15 pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: VGA-1 empty: DVI-I-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 02:00.0
    chip-ID: 1002:68f9 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.11 driver: X: loaded: radeon
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1152x864 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 304x228mm (11.97x8.98") s-diag: 380mm (14.96")
  Monitor-1: VGA-1 mapped: VGA-0 model: Belinea/Maxdata 0x1b6c serial: <filter> built: 1998
    res: 1152x864 hz: 75 dpi: 91 gamma: 1.83 chroma: red: x: 0.643 y: 0.329 green: x: 0.271 y: 0.604
    blue: x: 0.141 y: 0.063 white: x: 0.278 y: 0.310 size: 320x240mm (12.6x9.45")
    diag: 400mm (15.7") ratio: 4:3 modes: 1280x1024, 1152x864, 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480, 640x400
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD CEDAR (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.10.104-antix.1-amd64-smp LLVM 11.0.1)
    v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP61 High Definition Audio vendor: Foxconn driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:05.0 chip-ID: 10de:03f0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Cedar HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5400/6300/7300 Series] vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 02:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:aa68 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.104-antix.1-amd64-smp running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP61 Ethernet vendor: Foxconn type: network bridge driver: forcedeth v: kernel
    port: ec00 bus-ID: 00:07.0 chip-ID: 10de:03ef class-ID: 0680
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found.
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 55.94 GiB used: 12.92 GiB (23.1%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SV6004H size: 55.94 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: <unknown> type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 0-11 scheme: GPT
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: HL-DT-ST model: DVD-RAM GSA-H55L rev: 1.03
    dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
  Features: speed: 48 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram
    state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 20 GiB size: 19.52 GiB (97.59%) used: 7.38 GiB (37.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
    maj-min: 8:2 label: root uuid: 5bc6e23a-7c3d-4830-983c-4fe01bac800d
  ID-2: /boot raw-size: 500 MiB size: 474 MiB (94.79%) used: 154 MiB (32.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: boot uuid: 4e8cb7b3-d37f-4533-92c1-315d6a79cc3a
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 30 GiB size: 29.36 GiB (97.87%) used: 5.39 GiB (18.4%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 label: home uuid: f15441e2-5cbf-4b88-b63d-a91f232ebf7a
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 10 (default 60) cache-pressure: 50 (default 100)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 5.45 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda4
    maj-min: 8:4 label: swap uuid: ffd30430-ec4d-472a-8d7d-a49e515dc5f2
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 10 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 10 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 4294939.3 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 57.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 1855 lib: 846
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list
    1: deb http: //ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/antix/bullseye bullseye main nosystemd nonfree
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bullseye-backports.list
    1: deb http: //deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http: //ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http: //ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
    2: deb http: //security.debian.org/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list
Processes:
  CPU top: 5 of 138
  1: cpu: 17.6% command: firefox-esr pid: 2352 mem: 241.7 MiB (12.1%)
  2: cpu: 12.3% command: firefox-esr pid: 2219 mem: 462.6 MiB (23.3%)
  3: cpu: 11.0% command: yad pid: 12849 mem: 27.2 MiB (1.3%)
  4: cpu: 3.0% command: gtkdialog pid: 12806 mem: 27.6 MiB (1.3%)
  5: cpu: 2.5% command: xorg pid: 1546 mem: 76.9 MiB (3.8%)
  Memory top: 5 of 138
  1: mem: 462.6 MiB (23.3%) command: firefox-esr pid: 2219 cpu: 12.3%
  2: mem: 241.7 MiB (12.1%) command: firefox-esr pid: 2352 cpu: 17.6%
  3: mem: 211.0 MiB (10.6%) command: virtualbox pid: 10776 cpu: 0.8%
  4: mem: 123.5 MiB (6.2%) command: firefox-esr pid: 2439 cpu: 0.4%
  5: mem: 76.9 MiB (3.8%) command: xorg pid: 1546 cpu: 2.5%
Info:
  Processes: 138 Uptime: 1h 17m wakeups: 1 Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5
  tool: service Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.19

Anyway, I wanted to give the virtualbox version 6.0.24 a try, but it seems to be impossible to install it in antiX21, there exist only versions above 6.1, requiring the vt-x capability of the host CPU:

$ apt-cache policy virtualbox
virtualbox:
  Installiert:           6.1.22-dfsg-2~mx21+1
  Installationskandidat: 6.1.22-dfsg-2~mx21+1
  Versionstabelle:
 *** 6.1.22-dfsg-2~mx21+1 500
        500 http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/antix/bullseye bullseye/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     6.1.14-dfsg-2~mx19+1 500
        500 http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/antix/bullseye bullseye/nosystemd amd64 Packages

Also on the virtualbox download site there doesn’t seem to be a deb package available for bullseye: Virtualbox 6.0.24 download page Last one present is for buster. Moreover the packages available on this site will contain dependencies to systemd I believe. But antiX 21 is bullseye, and no systemd.

I also can’t switch to a different virtualisation program, since all my hdd images containing the complete virtualised windows are specifically from virtualbox. They were created before Microsoft had shut down their update servers for Win2000 and WinXP, and they contain all the service packs. I’ve used them on antiX 17 and antiX 19 already, they ran fine always. Now, when switching to another virtualisation program I’d need starting from scratch with the original Win install medium and the original serial and verification code, but there is no microsoft server anymore to authenticate the genuine microsoft thing the installation process asks for. Moreover this will not restore all the service packs needed for proper functioning.

So it looks I’m stuck in compatibility issues with this new antiX 21 install I can’t solve on my own.
Any help appreciated.

Robin

Attachments:

1. 

   virtualbox-compatibility-issue-01.png
   

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member iznit]

Unless someone is shopping for one of those 2 [[[2 so far]]] special issue ThinkPads models….. this topic is a nothingburger.

At CES 2022 earlier this year, AMD announced that its Ryzen 6000 Rembrandt CPUs were the first in the industry to pack Microsoft Pluton support. Alongside that, Lenovo also announced its new ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 notebooks to feature Pluton support. These new ThinkPads would be powered by a special Ryzen™ 7 PRO 6860Z CPU…..

[Member andyprough]

Wallon wrote:

Very bad news for people who want to install a Linux distribution.
You will have to buy a PC for Linux and a PC for Windows.

I haven’t installed Windows on a PC in a very long time, so I won’t be buying any computers for Windows.

What I will be doing from now on is only buying corebooted or librebooted GNU/Linux computers. They are affordable now – you can get a new corebooted laptop from System 76 for just a few more dollars than the same specs of a Windows laptop. For the extra few dollars, it’s well worth it to not have hardware that is designed for Microsoft users.

[Member manyroads]

https://www.neowin.net/news/lenovo-thinkpad-ryzen-6000-laptops-with-microsoft-pluton-refuse-to-run-linux-by-default/

https://voonze.com/a-microsoft-coprocessor-prevents-linux-from-booting-on-thinkpad-laptops/

Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - http://many-roads.com
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
dwm & i3wm ~Reg. Linux User #449130
20 Jan 2021 ~ "End of an Error"

Hello,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktHQISNl9Ic

Very bad news for people who want to install a Linux distribution.
You will have to buy a PC for Linux and a PC for Windows. I don’t have the space to put two PCs with two screens on each PC.
What do you think about this protection for Windows?

Best regards,
Wallon

• This topic was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by Wallon.

[Member olsztyn]

Peter Linu wrote:

I have the above smart phone gathering dust. No pin and a shattered glass front and Windows 8.1 inside.

Anticapitalista already replied to your question. Just adding a caution on the Lumia phone:

Lumia 1520 is an excellent phone, particularly camera top notch with Zeiss lens. However Microsoft has dropped support for Windows phones quite some time ago. They dropped it in a pretty nasty way. If you have ‘Find my Phone’ turned on (it was a default) then do not ever try to reset them to factory settings. Microsoft’s ‘Find my Phone’ unlock service no longer works, even if you remember password. Resetting will brick the phone. I have a number of Lumias with Windows 10 and not being aware of the above fact I bricked one of my top of the line Lumia 950, with similar specs as your Lumia 1520.

• This reply was modified 9 months, 4 weeks ago by olsztyn.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member andyprough]

rokytnji wrote:

Not suprised in the least. Microsoft funds systemd. Fund 19.
…
So basically no WTF from my neck of the planet.

Ahhh, I was thinking that he’s probably been getting MS money for awhile now, glad you cleared that up.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

Not suprised in the least. Microsoft funds systemd. Fund 19.

FOSS Fund #19 (April 2022):
Leaflet: Leaflet is the leading open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. .
systemd: systemd is a suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system. It provides a system and service manager that runs as PID 1 and starts the rest of the system.

from

https://github.com/microsoft/foss-fund

So basically no WTF from my neck of the planet.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Member marcelocripe]

In other words, unfortunately even in the GNU/Linux world there are people funded to destroy people’s open source philosophy and privacy.

Sooner or later we will have to have one or more free SystemD repositories. The few free GNU/Linux distributions of SystemD could get closer to each other and who knows, one day, the free SystemD repositories could grow to the point where we no longer need the repositories that have packages with SystemD.

Even the PCLinuxOS Brasil people had already commented on their social networks about this danger, one or more GNU/Linux developers officially financed by closed source companies.

The following sentence appears on the website:

Even before the days of WSL or Linux on Azure becoming widespread, for more than a decade Microsoft has been an unlikely Linux sponsor at events and more. Pictured above was Microsoft’s large presence at LinuxTag 2012 in Berlin, including the sponsoring of a beer party and coffee bar.

This seems obvious, it keeps the open source code alive and then copy and close the code. And if it wasn’t enough to close the code, it still puts the company’s copyright. As the code is closed, it is difficult to prove this.

Rest assured that antiX will never be bought off by a company.

I was very pleased to read the automatic translation of this sentence.

– – – – –

Em outras palavras, infelizmente até no mundo GNU/Linux existem pessoas financiadas para destruir a filosofia do código aberto e da privacidade das pessoas.

Cedo ou tarde, teremos que ter um ou mais repositórios livres do SystemD. As poucas distribuições GNU/Linux livres do SystemD poderiam se aproximar mais umas das outras e quem sabe um dia, os repositórios livres do SystemD poderão crescer ao ponto de não precisarmos mais dos repositórios que possuem pacotes com SystemD.

Inclusive, o pessoal do PCLinuxOS Brasil já havia comentado nas suas redes sociais sobre mais este perigo, um ou mais desenvolvedor GNU/Linux oficialmente financiado por empresas de código fechado.

Na matéria do sítio estampa a seguinte frase:

Even before the days of WSL or Linux on Azure becoming widespread, for more than a decade Microsoft has been an unlikely Linux sponsor at events and more. Pictured above was Microsoft’s large presence at LinuxTag 2012 in Berlin, including the sponsoring of a beer party and coffee bar.

Isto parace ser óbvio, mantém o código aberto vivo para depois copiar e fechar o código. E se não bastasse fechar o código, ainda coloca direitos de autor da empresa. Como o código é fechado, fica difícil provar isto.

Rest assured that antiX will never be bought off by a company.

Eu fiquei muito contente em ler a tradução automática desta frase.

Here’s the story from last night on Phoronix: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Systemd-Creator-Microsoft

I don’t pretend to know what this means for the future of his projects, but I’m glad I moved on from systemd distros when I did. He seemed very much like a guy with a Microsoft kind of mindset to me once I began studying what he was doing, so this move is not surprising.

Anyway, for those of you who didn’t trust him years before I got a clue, my hat is off to you. I was still using openSUSE in early 2019 if I recall correctly, so I was very late to come to my realization about systemd compared to many of you.

I have no idea what Microsoft plans to do with him. But I think many will see it as payment for a job he’s been doing for them all along.

Hello, I am setting my mouse to left hand side via:

Control Centre -> Hardware -> Mouse Configuration
Then Under “Button Order” : Im changing this setting to “Left Hand Layout”.

Everything is working is fine. I am having a problem when I shutdown, and reboot the mouse goes back to right hand side.
The attached image shows my mouse settings immediately boot, its says “Left hand Layout” but physically the mouse is right handed again I have to click and reapply the settings.

$ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP 
icewm

$ lsusb 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0000:3825   USB OPTICAL MOUSE
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 045e:0750 Microsoft Corp. Wired Keyboard 600
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Attachments:

1. 

   mouse_setting.jpg
   

[Member Wallon]

Dear Marcelocripe,

I can confirm that Rox is not intuitive and I always use spacefm or zzzfm.
It is very rare when I use Rox and never to copy and paste.
I also think zzzfm is easier to use.
I started with MSDos and Norton Commander to program and compile *.exe files.
I still use FreeCommander XE on Windows 10.
Norton Commander (MSDos) was very similar to FreeCommander XE (Windows) and very similar to zzzfm (Linux).
I also agree with you that zzzIceWM should be the default desktop.

Another suggestion for antiX 22.

Wouldn’t it be possible to have a package to download that would allow you to activate and deactivate the touchpad on laptops by clicking on a button?
One could always have the choice of either typing command lines, making a script or installing a package for graphical use.
People have bought many more laptops than desktops. You don’t have to do a script to put in a second monitor or a mouse or a USB stick.
But for the touchpad, there is nothing automatic.
As you can see, I don’t like working with a laptop because of the touchpad. I add an external Belgian azerty keyboard, a “Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600” and a mouse. That way, the touchpad doesn’t bother me anymore! No more scripts and command lines.
antiX recognises the external keyboard and mouse directly.

Best regards,
Wallon

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

anticapitalista wrote:

Here’s my take.

Too many people see linux distros simply as a product in the same way as Microsoft, Apple operating systems are.
Sure the big guys do eg Canonical, Red Hat, SUSE, even Debian (look at who sponsors it).
The same goes for smaller distros that are run either by companies or act as one eg Mint, PopOS, Manjaro, Zorin, Elementary to name a few.

However, linux isn’t just that. It goes beyond that narrow scope for many creators.
I would argue that for some it is similar to writing books, music, film, paintings.
Not all authors, musicians/singers, directors, artists do their thing for commercial gain.
It is an itch that people want to scratch. It is the artistic part of our existence.

Clearly, nobody knows what the future will bring in terms of linux distros.
The human spirit is by its nature inquisitive, creative so there is every chance that there may be even more distros in the future, which IMO is positive.

‘As long as I breathe, I resist conformity’

I love that take, and I appreciate your desire to continually resist conformity. I’m a different type of person too. Sometimes I do things differently simply to stir the status quo or to reduce boredom!

The past two days I’ve been writing clock scripts. Do we need YET another clock or clock script? Absolutely not. For me, I did it because a clock is a pretty simple widget that I can format with the time, the time and date, it can be on a clock with large and small hands, with or without a second hand, it can be with frequently updating digits, different colors, backgrounds, sizes and shapes.

So far I’ve written or updated clocks in bash, Yad, TCL and python3, and I’ve also used various output formats with the common xclock program.
Is this necessary? Again, no, but my dear wife keeps her mind active with various activities; recently she’s taken up playing Bridge and learning Italian. For me, I’m keeping up at least a basic skill in a few scripting languages to complement the shell skills that haven’t completely left me yet.

I also have several computers and I test several distributions, including ours. These things are part of freedom and choice; as long as we have choices I’ll be content. I don’t want to think about my reaction if my choices were taken away, but I can tell you that I’d strongly resist such a thing!

Thank you anticapitalista for vigorously maintaining freedom of choice in a lean and constructive way!

--
Brian Masinick

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

Here’s my take.

Too many people see linux distros simply as a product in the same way as Microsoft, Apple operating systems are.
Sure the big guys do eg Canonical, Red Hat, SUSE, even Debian (look at who sponsors it).
The same goes for smaller distros that are run either by companies or act as one eg Mint, PopOS, Manjaro, Zorin, Elementary to name a few.

However, linux isn’t just that. It goes beyond that narrow scope for many creators.
I would argue that for some it is similar to writing books, music, film, paintings.
Not all authors, musicians/singers, directors, artists do their thing for commercial gain.
It is an itch that people want to scratch. It is the artistic part of our existence.

Clearly, nobody knows what the future will bring in terms of linux distros.
The human spirit is by its nature inquisitive, creative so there is every chance that there may be even more distros in the future, which IMO is positive.

‘As long as I breathe, I resist conformity’

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member olsztyn]

punranger wrote:

I’m wondering: Could this new version of Chrome OS present a threat to mainstream Linux distros, or will it cater to the audience that cant or wont continue updating Windows? Or will something else happen altogether?

Interesting question and IMHO only future will tell what impact it will have on Linux landscape, if any at all… My quick take would be to consider the following factors, on which I may be wrong too:

– Some users will likely try it and perhaps use on more permanent basis, but I do not expect this to shake up Linux landscape unless Google puts lots of effort (and money) into publicity and marketing so as to attract interest. Google has deep pockets though and can impact the future of this OS, if such is their strategy.
– It appears to me it is not very efficient, considering on i5 and 4Gb it is sluggish in the video. Such specs are a typical Lenovo Thinkpad T410, on which even Windows 10 seems faster. This seems to cut off any older, less powerful machines as well. So the potential user base would likely be those reasonable specs machines, which are not eligible for Windows 11 by Microsoft’s decree. Even if they could run Windows 11 just fine, if Microsoft allowed to install it. On the other hand most users will probably continue running Windows 10 on such machines until major apps will no longer run, forcing users to upgrade. In such case though, if such major apps like MS office stops running on Windows 10 (distant future) those users are more likely to buy Windows 11 machine than convert to either Linux or Chrome OS Flex, if it still exists…
– Although Linux user base is quite fragmented into multitude of distros according to individual preferences, it seems all Linux users are rather unified in one aspect – their sense of freedom and dislike any control on them, which both Google or Microsoft like to have. So locking themselves into Google’s ecosystem based on Google account is a significant problem in itself.
These are just a few points to take into account…

• This reply was modified 11 months ago by olsztyn.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters