- This topic has 19 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated Feb 1-5:22 pm by lubod.
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lubod
Hello, my name is Lubo. (my forum username is my first name and the initial letter of my last name).
Discovered AntiX about 2 years ago, while looking for OSes optimized for older/slower computers.
Used other similar distributions, but found them too heavy, despite the optimizations, or too lacking in features or user friendliness.
Installed AntiX 17.4 32 bit base on my laptop I’m using now, a Nokia Booklet 3G upgraded with an SSD. If anyone has the same laptop, the SSD improves it a lot! I can describe how I did it in another post.
Have been using this setup quite happily. I do have some minor problems, also for a separate post, but the OS and included programs, as well as those from the default Debian and AntiX repos work perfectly.
I actually posted in the forum Software first, and only then noticed the Welcome to AntiX forum, and posted here second. đ Better late than never as they say.
- This topic was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by lubod.
Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4Gbolsztyn
Discovered AntiX about 2 years ago, while looking for OSes optimized for older/slower computers.
Hi Lubo…
It was also close to 2 years when I came across AntiX having tried many other distros… I was not looking though for support of very old hardware but rather for a fast, efficient, small and highly capable system that is user friendly and easily customized that I can use on my laptops. From such perspective there in none coming close to antiX.
I recommend antiX 19, which is a significant step up from 17. On my laptops I using it mostly as Live and Frugal instances with Space-Fluxbox desktop, configured with needed software…
antiX’ leadership and developers clearly know what it means to create the best system…Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameterslubod
@olsztyn:
Yes, they do know how to make it efficient, flexible, extensible. Besides the older 32 bit computers I often install 17.4 on, I am also in the process of making a 64 bit 19.1 Live USB, both for my newer computer and for friends/relatives. Must get them off the now unsupported Windows 7 ASAP (as soon as possible), don’t want their computer full of viruses and their data stolen/encrypted! Besides, I am convinced that any computer that can run Windows 7 reasonably well will FLY with AntiX! đ And they will like that, who wouldn’t? I’ll set up DOSbox, Wine for Windows only closed source, but everything used online, like browsers will be Linux native.
Discovered AntiX about 2 years ago, while looking for OSes optimized for older/slower computers.
Hi LuboâŚ
It was also close to 2 years when I came across AntiX having tried many other distros⌠I was not looking though for support of very old hardware but rather for a fast, efficient, small and highly capable system that is user friendly and easily customized that I can use on my laptops. From such perspective there in none coming close to antiX.
I recommend antiX 19, which is a significant step up from 17. On my laptops I using it mostly as Live and Frugal instances with Space-Fluxbox desktop, configured with needed softwareâŚ
antiXâ leadership and developers clearly know what it means to create the best systemâŚRestore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4Gbseaken64
Welcome to the forum lubod!
I also have several old computers that have come back to life using antiX. My main “Old PC” is a Pentium-III 1.0Ghz w/ 512MB. It was my main workstation in my office for a few years and now it is my project computer.
Does that Cyrix 333 w/64MB run with a GUI? I have installed antiX on a Pentium 150 w/ 48MB but only in TUI. antiX has a nice CLI system also.
Seaken64
Brian Masinick
lubod
@Seaken64
The Cyrix is a work-in-progress. I will try the smaller core or net installs (text only) now that you mention it. Had been trying other, even smaller OSes, like TinyCore, HelenOS, Kolibri, without success. Not only is the CPU older, and the RAM limited, but it has no built in USB except headers on the motherboard, and while it has a CD-ROM, which appears to work, I got it to boot only from a hard drive, or IDE to CF or IDE to SD adapter which connects to IDE and mimics a hard drive. I have one IDE-SD adapter and two IDE-CF adapters for desktops, and a way to write the SD via USB, but my USB CF adapter is not working, so I have to write the CF on another desktop. Nothing else has booted consistently, so far, not even Plop on CD! And while there are options for boot devices in BIOS, they aren’t very useful. Network (PXE), removable drive (it has an IDE Zip, but I have no disk to test), no USB option.
Yes, I plan to add hardware to make more useable, but how much investment is too much for this beastie?
My list of want, but hesitate to buy unless unavoidable:1) More RAM (it has 2 x 32Mb, can take 2 x 64MB PC100 officially, and some users in other forums have managed 2 x 128, but it was never supported by the manufacturer, so its risky, may not work at all) Have tried 256Mb SIMMs, instead of reading the capacity wrong, it won’t even boot.
2) USB. Either a card to connect to the headers, but that would be USB1 so slooow, or a PCI USB2 card. More likely the PCI card.
3) ?
Welcome to the forum lubod!
I also have several old computers that have come back to life using antiX. My main âOld PCâ is a Pentium-III 1.0Ghz w/ 512MB. It was my main workstation in my office for a few years and now it is my project computer.
Does that Cyrix 333 w/64MB run with a GUI? I have installed antiX on a Pentium 150 w/ 48MB but only in TUI. antiX has a nice CLI system also.
Seaken64
Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4Gblubod
@masinick
Thanks! Your brief bio is interesting. I thought I was doing good that I used proprietary Unix since 1991, and Linux since 1998, but you bested me on both counts. Impressive, given how older releases are less user friendly, compared to recent ones! I first saw SunOS in the late 1980s, and Linux was started in 1991, so you’ve used both almost since they existed! Quite something.
I also have the most experience with Debian based distributions as far as Linux is concerned.
Welcome to antiX and the forum Lubo!
- This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by lubod.
Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4GbBrian Masinick
@lubod: Yeah, my background goes back pretty far. In fact, if we REALLY want to go back in time, we had a PDP/11 in the computer lab at Michigan Tech in the 1970s along with a PDP-8 in the Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering lab class, and I got a peek at an early 70s version of UNIX then.
I also joined a small team to investigate what today would probably be called “3 Tier Computing”, Client-Service, Front End, Back End, with an office server or some variant of one of those terms. It was only 1982, but we had a big, heavily used data center running on mainframe computers. Fortunately there were production servers that did not have interactive workloads, but the every day development systems were badly overloaded, so we were investigating the use of dozens of mini computer, department level servers and hundreds of personal computers to offload the mainframe servers and communicate with them. It wasn’t until much later that this kind of thing became commonplace, but we were looking into it before it had any common or popular names. The minicomputers ran UNIX; the desktop personal computers ran MS/DOS and Linux was still nine years after that when Linus Torvalds first developed his first “build” that he created, bootstrapping from an educational project called MINIX, a project created by Andrew Tanenbaum.
I did not use Linux until 1995, when I purchased my first personal computer for myself, but I read about it often in the 1992-1993 timeframe. When I joined the Digital UNIX Engineering Team in 1995, a few of my fellow graduates from Michigan Tech happened to be in the same team, and one afternoon they were chatting about Linux. Another friend of mine, who I had actually spoken to many times, going as far back as 1985, a guy named Jon ‘maddog’ Hall, knew Linus Torvalds personally, wrote a book about Linux, and had scads of CDs containing copies of it, which he was passing out. I used that to try it out, but picked up my own copies, along with a few books, to read and learn. For me, I loaded Slackware onto a Micron P100 in the Fall of 1995.
A guy named Ralph Glanz got me hooked on Debian later in 2001, and also got me a copy of Libranet, which became my favorite for a while, until I built up my own library of CDs, DVDs, internet downloads (and these days USBs). By 2003 I had a good library and that’s when I found MEPIS, a few months before the V1 release; I got a test version, I think it was in May 2003. AntiX was a couple of years after that; the first version of antiX came with Fluxbox as the window manager. I was one of the people suggesting that the “hard core” people could use Fluxbox, but IceWM was easier for people getting started, unless we wanted to get into desktop managers. KDE and GNOME were already available, along with XFCE; they came out around 1996, believe it or not.
Much more in this history, since my own Linux history goes back at least 25 years.
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Brian Masinick
anticapitalista
Welcome to antiX!
Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
lubod
@masinick
I find this kind of stuff fascinating, (yes, I am quoting Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from Star Trek). More than happy to discuss further, but since it relates to AntiX distantly, it may be slightly off topic here. I suggest a private message, or we can exchange email, if you like.
@lubod: Yeah, my background goes back pretty far. In fact, if we REALLY want to go back in time, we had a PDP/11 in the computer lab at Michigan Tech in the 1970s along with a PDP-8 in the Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering lab class, and I got a peek at an early 70s version of UNIX then.
I also joined a small team to investigate what today would probably be called â3 Tier Computingâ, Client-Service, Front End, Back End, with an office server or some variant of one of those terms. It was only 1982, but we had a big, heavily used data center running on mainframe computers. Fortunately there were production servers that did not have interactive workloads, but the every day development systems were badly overloaded, so we were investigating the use of dozens of mini computer, department level servers and hundreds of personal computers to offload the mainframe servers and communicate with them. It wasnât until much later that this kind of thing became commonplace, but we were looking into it before it had any common or popular names. The minicomputers ran UNIX; the desktop personal computers ran MS/DOS and Linux was still nine years after that when Linus Torvalds first developed his first âbuildâ that he created, bootstrapping from an educational project called MINIX, a project created by Andrew Tanenbaum.
I did not use Linux until 1995, when I purchased my first personal computer for myself, but I read about it often in the 1992-1993 timeframe. When I joined the Digital UNIX Engineering Team in 1995, a few of my fellow graduates from Michigan Tech happened to be in the same team, and one afternoon they were chatting about Linux. Another friend of mine, who I had actually spoken to many times, going as far back as 1985, a guy named Jon âmaddogâ Hall, knew Linus Torvalds personally, wrote a book about Linux, and had scads of CDs containing copies of it, which he was passing out. I used that to try it out, but picked up my own copies, along with a few books, to read and learn. For me, I loaded Slackware onto a Micron P100 in the Fall of 1995.
A guy named Ralph Glanz got me hooked on Debian later in 2001, and also got me a copy of Libranet, which became my favorite for a while, until I built up my own library of CDs, DVDs, internet downloads (and these days USBs). By 2003 I had a good library and thatâs when I found MEPIS, a few months before the V1 release; I got a test version, I think it was in May 2003. AntiX was a couple of years after that; the first version of antiX came with Fluxbox as the window manager. I was one of the people suggesting that the âhard coreâ people could use Fluxbox, but IceWM was easier for people getting started, unless we wanted to get into desktop managers. KDE and GNOME were already available, along with XFCE; they came out around 1996, believe it or not.
Much more in this history, since my own Linux history goes back at least 25 years.
Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4Gb
fatmac
Welcome aboard – it’s good to see people still able to be using old equipment. đ
Linux (& BSD) since 1999
lubod
Thanks. I know some people feel using old equipment is wasteful, simply because it uses more electricity, and so on. Mostly true, with exceptions. Many Pentium 3 systems are more efficient than Pentium 4. But if the choice is no computer (for example because a newer one broke or you can’t buy it new) or an older one, I would take older anytime. đ I’m guessing like @PPC, your nickname is derived from the Macintosh? My mom’s first computer, and therefore mine as well, was a Plus, but several friends had the 512Ke or regular 512K, and one even had the original 128K! Never saw a Lisa in action, they retailed for $9999 back then!
As an aside, I don’t want to make this thread infinitely long, so new posters, please try what I suggested to @masinick above:
Perhaps send me a private message, and we can chat that way, or exchange email. đWelcome aboard â itâs good to see people still able to be using old equipment./>
- This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by lubod.
Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4GbWell, speaking for myself, I would prefer if you keep these conversations in the public forum. It’s part of our history. And yes, fascinating!
I saw the Lisa in a store front on the streets of Seattle somewhere around 1983? Maybe 84? I didn’t have a computer yet but I was looking at buying a VIC20. Quite a bit of difference between the two prices! Never did get the Commodore, but I once had a roommate who had a C64. And never had an Apple product until I found some at the dump one day.
The first time I actually got to have “my own” computer it was an old NorthStar Advantage from my father-in-laws attic. I used that for years, in CP/M and N* DOS, ZDOS, etc. Then that led to IBM DOS, MS-DOS, Windows and then to Linux.
Seaken64
- This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by seaken64.
lubod
@seaken64
Yes, I like to post things like this for all to read also. Just trying to consider that the forum admins and other members may not think it is on topic, or at least not entirely. But my personal opinion, yes do share. It is said at least one prototype of the first Mac, or maybe the Lisa, which was not sold or mass produced, had 5.25 inch floppies. Also, there was a release of Xenix 68K for the Lisa. Yes that Xenix, Microsoft’s earliest foray into Unixland, years before Windows and about the same time as early MS-DOS. How trippy is that? A Mac (or Lisa its direct predecessor) with 5.25 floppy and a Microsoft Unix. If one still exists it must be worth more than the original list price, because it’s so rare.
Well, speaking for myself, I would prefer if you keep these conversations in the public forum. Itâs part of our history. And yes, fascinating!
I saw the Lisa in a store front on the streets of Seattle somewhere around 1983? Maybe 84? I didnât have a computer yet but I was looking at buying a VIC20. Quite a bit of difference between the two prices! Never did get the Commodore, but I once had a roommate who had a C64. And never had an Apple product until I found some at the dump one day.
The first time I actually got to have âmy ownâ computer it was an old NorthStar Advantage from my father-in-laws attic. I used that for years, in CP/M and N* DOS, ZDOS, etc. Then that led to IBM DOS, MS-DOS, Windows and then to Linux.
Seaken64
Restore older computers to working order.
Computers everyone else insists are obsolete and useless.Current recordholder:
Generic Pentium III 600 Mhz with 512Mb RAM and 10Gb HD
Working on Cyrix M2 333 Mhz with 64Mb RAM and OS on IDE to SD card 4GbBrian Masinick
Sometime between 1982 and 1983 I was working in a group that was assessing new technology. I got my hands on many different brands of personal computer systems, small tower shaped servers, etc.
I can’t remember if I actually used a Lisa or not, but I did use at least one Mac portable and I distinctly remember that the model I used at the time didn’t get a hard drive so I would start it up using removable media.
Later I used an Apple Mac server and I ran an early version of what is now MacOS. If I remember correctly this system used a derivative of Steven Job’s “Next” computer software, one of the earliest and best graphical user interfaces available at that time.
Unfortunately the systems I was using were not very powerful so the GUI really slowed down the system and there really were not enough tools and applications yet to justify the system. Still, this stuff was cutting edge and in only a few years everyone was imitating it.
Without a doubt the IBM systems, whether the PC models or the servers, were clearly better built than the other small systems, but early IBM systems were not very fast. IBM was a bit late getting into the small systems space and even purchased both the initial hardware (Intel) and the initial software (Microsoft) before later building their own.
Same with their servers. The small ones were not particularly quick but they were the very first to bring improved security. I remember the original UNIX creators commenting that they didn’t build good security into their first design. IBM played an important role in the improvement of software security and actually helped bring Enterprise system security to the Linux kernel as well.
I’m much more appreciative of the contribution from IBM and other large system builders than I was early in my career. I used to consider their systems old and slow. A more mature comment is that the overhead their systems contain is a result of mature, well designed, developed and tested hardware and software. Such things may not be essential for all hobbyists, but they are crucial for any business that wants to protect it’s assets.
As for the Apple Lisa, it was a n excellent prototype. I believe it comes from Xerox technology that Apple licensed from Xerox.
Even though Xerox was never successful in marketing computer systems themselves, they invented a lot of the technology used in most modern systems today. AT&T, IBM, Xerox, General Electric, and Honeywell were the large companies that used to invent and patent a lot of ideas. Today the big companies buy the patent rights and license them to others but create a very small fraction of the patent inventions in their own labs, a major change in the way things happen, and perhaps a good thing. Individual ideas and inventions are always a good idea, even if it’s the big companies taking ownership. Individual people who want to keep their ideas still have the choice to do so.
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Brian Masinick
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