DistroWatch user reviews

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

If anyone visits DistroWatch and reads the comments section about antiX, you will notice a common ‘critique’.
Prize for the first person to spot it is a free copy of antiX!

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=ratings&distro=antix

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

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member animusdominus]

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1. firewall
2. update notifier
3. no boot after install
4. problematic wifi

[Member PPC]

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@anticapitalista:

1.-Because there’s already a fix for the firewall problem, until its included, out of the box in antiX, it should be somewhere very VISIBLE, so new users know to fix that…
2- Now about the update notifier- yes, many people are lazy and expect to be warned when there are system updates.
Also currently non geek users don’t want to use the terminal to update their systems. Those people don’t know there’s already a semi-gui way to update antix, included out of the box: “yad-updater”. Maybe if it’s somewhere visible, and with a name like “Update antiX” or “Check for updates”, users would not complain so much?
I spent months using antiX before noticing it wasn’t updating, and I used Linux for some 10 years before starting to use antiX. This is the first Linux OS that I’ve used that does not automatically check for updates- that’s not a fault- because it’s not always running a check for new updates, it uses less resources!!! But users usually don’t read the manual (I sure didn’t). Maybe the OS has to explicitly tell them (Example: at first install, at first run, once a week, etc) that they should check for updates (using the terminal, yad-update or Synaptic).
3- no boot after install: that’s my deepest fear every time I install a OS- on distrowatch I saw one reviewer complaining (s)he had to fix something called “GRUB”. I’m a long time linux user and I almost piss my pants every time I have to touch Grub ( during a install, for example)
4- Problematic wifi- many users complain about that. Fortunatly I’ve never had a problem with connman, when using antiX 19 (only during the beta testing). But some people complain wi-fi used to work on antiX 17.X and does not in antiX 19.X…

P.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by PPC.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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3 of the last 6 reviews complain about antiX not having an auto apt upgrader/notifier.
Coincidence? I think not.

Adding one (apt-notifier) adds c.35-60 MB RAM overhead in my tests (installed to hard drive, tested using ps_mem.py).

(BTW one positive to come out of this was I discovered apt-notifier isn’t working properly on antiX).

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

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member PPC]

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@anti : I just now read the newer review, dated 2020-01-28, also about the updating system…
Boy, I’ve tried at least 3 times to post reviews on distrowatch (one for each 19 beta and one for the final version) and none got published… How was the same person able to publish so many reviews??? Distrowatch sure is strange…

BTW: I installed a version of MX notifier that Skidoo made available, a while ago (in the forum?). It seems to work and eats some 20 Mb of RAM (tested using the “free” command).
Maybe that could be included out of the box in a future version (maybe rebrand it antiX notifier, not to confuse users) with the option to automaticaly start it, warning users of the expected cost on RAM space?
My personal opinion is that yad-updater fits more into the antiX spirit (wastes no idle RAM, the user has to expressly run it). But the users do need to know it’s available… A nice icon on the default icewm would make it harder to miss (and make every advanced user complain about the bloated toolbar) ? Maybe the Control Centre is a better place for it?

P.

EDIT: I tried to post a review on DW, showing how to solve many of the things that are refered on the negative reviews ( system updates, firewall and adding quick launch icons to the toolbar). Let’s wait and see if it gets posted there… 🙁

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by PPC.

[Member kernelpanic]

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3 of the last 6 reviews complain about antiX not having an auto apt upgrader/notifier.
Coincidence? I think not.
Adding one (apt-notifier) adds c.35-60 MB RAM overhead in my tests (installed to hard drive, tested using ps_mem.py).

you will always find (especially in a “lean and mean” distro) 1000 things you could add to make it more “comfortable”.
add all those requests and you will finally end up with a fat resource-hog.
if somebody is so keen on system updates (I am Mr. lazy here) he will know how to do this, so easy via synaptic or command line.

keep antiX lean and mean, that’s the concept that made it so valuable, for the more comfort-oriented users there is MX, right?

I still remember a commercial TV-spot some decades ago …
Mr.T (angry face, angry voice) said: whatttt do you mean “more beef”? I like the whopper the way it WAS, huh !!!

that’s what I do with antiX 😉

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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anticapitalista wrote:

If anyone visits DistroWatch and reads the comments section about antiX, you will notice a common ‘critique’.
Prize for the first person to spot it is a free copy of antiX!

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=ratings&distro=antix

To me antiX does precisely what it is designed to do.

We know that MX, also an excellent and well designed distribution, is intended for a modest system and ease of use.

Keep antiX “lean and mean”, I know that you will! 😁

--
Brian Masinick

[Moderator christophe]

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masinick said

Keep antiX “lean and mean”, I know that you will! 😁

I agree wholeheartedly.

This isn’t Lubuntu. It isn’t even “MX light.”

Perhaps a special FAQ featured on the main site & forum displaying “Important first steps for new antiX users” might be enough information.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member ModdIt]

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In agreement with Keep mean and lean. For those who want far more percieved comfort MX is ready.
An update notifier would be good for newcomers to linux or from BloatiBuntu. I would delete it.
All my users have a cheat sheet, if lazy to type the easy commands they can cut and paste in to console
once a week or so. I recommend Synaptic, it puts a lot of useful information in one place but install
with apt or occasionaly dpkg.

Wifi has on occasion caused issues with every distro I have ever used. Too many to want to list.
On some hardwarefor months or years no issues then major update and ugly issue pops up again.
Have had a couple of laptops where only an external dongle worked consistently.
It has been a problem on Windoze 7, 8 and 10 too.

ppc says no boot after install: that’s my deepest fear every time I install a OS.

My most major annoyance is install system and extra software, setup everything as I like it,
pass on to users, days or weeks later updates come with boot to non repairable fail.
This has not happened (yet) on Antix. Failed to boot live and failed Grub Install experienced.
An “automatic” install worked in most cases. Stubborn ones updated kernel and remaster
got a boot.

Would still like a button for one click install latest LO and Gimp but that may be irrelevant for many.

I also tried to post review and mention issue fixes on DW several times. Wasted my time, not published.

[Moderator caprea]

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kernelpanic wrote:

keep antiX lean and mean, that’s the concept that made it so valuable, for the more comfort-oriented users there is MX, right?

+1

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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caprea wrote:

kernelpanic wrote:

keep antiX lean and mean, that’s the concept that made it so valuable, for the more comfort-oriented users there is MX, right?

+1

I agree. Both antiX and MX also have a great deal of flexibility built in, with lightweight, but very effective tools to customize each of them to suit specific interests.

A very small change to the antiX and MX home page may help:

1. Stating the purpose of the distribution
2. Pointing to the other distribution (either as a a lean, mean system (antiX) designed to conserve memory and disk space and access to aging equipment, or a flexible, easy to use system (MX)

If the description of antiX in the black background (currently below the video) could be placed immediately below the site header and above the excellent video by Dolphin Oracle, it would help.

I think we could simply point users to these pages:

1. if they want lean and mean, send them to https://antixlinux.com/.
2. If they want a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint, send them to https://mxlinux.org/.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Brian Masinick.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Brian Masinick.

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Brian Masinick

[Anonymous]

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Adding one (apt-notifier) adds c.35-60 MB RAM overhead in my tests (installed to hard drive, tested using ps_mem.py).

(BTW one positive to come out of this was I discovered apt-notifier isn’t working properly on antiX).

a version of MX notifier that skidoo made available, a while ago (in the forum?). It seems to work and eats some 20 Mb of RAM (tested using the “free” command).
Maybe that could be included out of the box in a future version (maybe rebrand it antiX notifier, not to confuse users) with the option to automatically start it, warning users of the expected cost on RAM space?

a point of clarification:
I didn’t “do a version”, just posted a bugfix in response to a reported problem: https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/apt-notifier-dont-install-upgrades/

re: 20MB overhead, 35-60MB overhead
https://pastebin.com/raw/9CL1Knqv
YMMV, depends on which version(s) of the python engine is installed & used on a given system, and whether it’s a 32bit or 64bit system (python libs)

What PPC proposes here (announcing availability of, and docs to instruct opt-in autostart of the utility) costs nothing, in terms of “keeping it lean-n-mean”.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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We actually have pretty good descriptions on both the antiX and MX sites, though the MX front page is slightly cleaner and clearly states the purpose of the distribution near the top of the page. Merely moving the antiX purpose just below the top header would bring the statement into clear view and simply referring to https://antixlinux.com/ or https://mxlinux.org/ would suffice. We’ve almost got it perfect now, minor page reorganization would increase consistency and clarity in my opinion.

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Brian Masinick

[Anonymous]

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prior art, from results of websearch “bash script notify apt updates”:

https://vsido.org/index.php?topic=1118.0

https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/linux-lite-software-development/install-updates-yad-version/

yad  --monitor
              Watch for changes in directory and automatically update content of iconbox.

yad --notification

ref: https://sourceforge.net/p/yad-dialog/wiki/NotificationIcon/

[Member seaken64]

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Brian Masinick wrote:

caprea wrote:

kernelpanic wrote:

keep antiX lean and mean, that’s the concept that made it so valuable, for the more comfort-oriented users there is MX, right?

+1

I agree. Both antiX and MX also have a great deal of flexibility built in, with lightweight, but very effective tools to customize each of them to suit specific interests.

A very small change to the antiX and MX home page may help:

1. Stating the purpose of the distribution
2. Pointing to the other distribution (either as a a lean, mean system (antiX) designed to conserve memory and disk space and access to aging equipment, or a flexible, easy to use system (MX)

If the description of antiX in the black background (currently below the video) could be placed immediately below the site header and above the excellent video by Dolphin Oracle, it would help.

I think we could simply point users to these pages:

1. if they want lean and mean, send them to https://antixlinux.com/.
2. If they want a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint, send them to https://mxlinux.org/.

I’m in full agreement. I would only add that antiX is also stable with solid performance, in addition to being lean and mean.

Seaken64

[Author]

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