Greetings & Intro

[Anonymous]

Hey All,

I’m a retired American living in Kenya for the past handful of years. I began my Linux journey back sometime between 2005-07 (not actually sure on the date) with Linux Mint. At the time I was just a normie & didn’t bother much with my operating system so long as it worked fine. Back then I didn’t even know I should have a firewall or other similar security measures, I just surfed the net. I generally would use a LTS version until it was no longer supported, then jumped to the next LTS version. Other than that, I would do all my updates. As the years went by I began figuring out how to fix things on my own by searching the problem on the net & trying what ever the article suggested.
In 2020 I became more security & privacy focused. As the end of the support neared for the LTS of Linux Mint I was using neared, I decided to look around & try some of the different distros. I then became interested in the advantages a smaller memory/digital footprint & in the advantages of a systemd free OS as pieces of my security layers. So here I am after using antiX as my daily driver for several months now.

[Moderator christophe]

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Well, welcome to the forum, Renegade Apprentice! 🙂

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member Xecure]

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Welcome.

I think the biggest security advantage of antiX Linux is that you can have everything running on an encrypted USB that should be able to run on any computer. It also works out of the box and doesn’t need to be installed and keep using in a USB storage device.
I had been running from a Live USB for over a year (not encrypted but using an encrypted file/folder to store my passwords or other private files). And if anything is compromised or some installation or update goes wrong, removing the persistence files will take you back to the previous remaster.
You can even use firejail to contain programs or even the browser on its separate X11 instance, so it cannot access any of your files, other running programs, your clipboard or anything else.

Enjoy your stay!

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Welcome to the forum, Renegade Apprentice! 🙂

I’m glad that you found the “lean and mean” antiX approach.

I’ve used Linux Mint and the other *buntu varieties. There’s nothing necessarily “wrong” with them, but they include a lot of stuff that adds to memory and disk use. On new hardware, it may not matter, but even one year when I ran Mint on a fairly new computer and compared it to Debian, MX Linux, and antiX, I found that there was nothing other than visual appearance and – at least to me – unnecessary “conveniences”, I didn’t use or need any of it.

While I deeply believe in CHOICE – even including the choice between choosing commercial, paid software versus freely available software, I personally prefer software that starts simple; I can add whatever I want to it; these days, that isn’t much, except for my own personal appearance items, which only consume a moderate amount of space. My computer is getting old; I think the hardware was created 6-7 years ago and the system itself is at least six years old. So the CPU power is no longer “impressive”; except on lean, light and fast software, it’s “slow” by today’s standard. The disk space, however, is more than enough. Because of that, I can test numerous different systems, either installing them to disk or running them from USB. The antiX variations are perfect for what I do most of the day – 95% of that is simply browsing the Web, reading, learning, and testing software. Now that I’m retired, I can turn it off any time and do something else; some days I do just that; other days I spend a few to several hours testing the latest software updates.

This weekend, I’ve been testing new versions of antiX test software for a future release.

Whatever you choose to do, antiX works well, especially when it’s old hardware that no longer functions well on “traditional” systems. Best wishes always!

--
Brian Masinick

[Anonymous]

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@ Christophe – Thank you. I’m beginning to feel welcome.

[Anonymous]

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@Xsecure

You know, I’ve know about using USBs, but always thought of using them on someone else’s computer, not on my own. So I’ve always spent time setting up my laptop, instead of setting up a usb to use on my laptop. That would solve a few things for me. I’ve also never heard of setting up a different X11 instance of each of my browsers. I use a small handful of browsers for browser isolation. Is that what I’d type (seperate X11 instance for browsers) into a search engine to find out more?

Thx Bunches

[Anonymous]

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@Brian Masinick,

Thx Bunches. I’ve been spending more time with light weight OSs purposely. Where I live few can afford computers, even fewer can afford a modern one. Most of the one’s I see using a laptop, It has an old processor, low speed, with at most a couple gigs of ram. Then I’ll find out that often they have windows 10 on it being so slow) (and wonder about it . So I try to spend my extra time learning about the different lightweight versions, in case I find someone interested in giving their old computer some life. So far I’ve had no takers, but where I’ve found some interest in Linux is not the average person, but someone who was interested in learning white hacking & pen-testing. When I tell them that there is so much free Linus courses available & that they can get a copy of Kali or Parrot for free, I’ve had a couple of takers. I know what you mean about the freedom to use our free time for other things if we want. I do occasional volunteer work where often there is no electric or cell service. So getting on the internet isn’t an option, or only if I travel several kilometres from where ever I’m doing my work (I don’t look at it as work).

Anyways, Thx for the welcome.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@renegade-apprentice:

I am in agreement!
Best wishes always
Brian

--
Brian Masinick

[Member Xecure]

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Anonymous wrote:

Is that what I’d type (seperate X11 instance for browsers) into a search engine to find out more?

The words would be something like “X11 sandboxing” for web browsers or really any other program.
More details on how to do this with firejail: https://firejail.wordpress.com/documentation-2/x11-guide/

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Hi Renegade Apprentice,

Welcome to antiX Linux and the forum.

Regardless of your experience or knowledge in the GNU Linux world, I recommend you read these excellent tutorials created by @PPC:

Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie and How-to install applications – 2020 version.

I don’t know how to write in English and I send you my texts translated by the internet translator, I hope you can understand everything.

When you start a topic or participate with a post, remember to check the option “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”.

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese)

———-
Olá Renegade Apprentice,

Seja bem-vindo ao antiX Linux e ao fórum.

Independentemente da sua experiência ou conhecimento no mundo GNU Linux, eu recomendo você ler estes excelentes tutoriais criados pelo @PPC:

Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie e How-to install applications – 2020 version.

Eu não sei escrever em inglês e te envio os meus textos traduzidos pelo tradutor da internet, eu espero que você consiga compreender tudo.

Quando você iniciar algum tópico ou participar com alguma postagem, lembre-se de marcar a opção “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”, marcando esta opção, você receberá uma mensagem na sua caixa de e-mail sempre que houver respostas do tópico em questão.

marcelocripe
(Texto original em Português do Brasil)

[Anonymous]

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@ marcelocripe

Great, Thx for the reading recommendations, they look like great reading. It appears to me that the translation came out alright, so it looks like the internet translator you used is a good one. I’ve tried one before & had been less fortunate, so am afraid to use one in reply to you.

[Anonymous]

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@Xsecure,

Awe, sandboxing & firejail (along with apparmor) I understand and use. I just hadn’t heard of or had forgotten, if I did read it before, the term “X11 instances”.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Renegade,

I’ve tried one before & had been less fortunate, so am afraid to use one in reply to you.

I already had this bad experience here on the forum, due to some typos and even wrong punctuation in my language. The translation of the internet translator did not match what I wrote or meant in pt-BR, a misunderstanding occurred (or rather, some…). Good English-speaking friends and other bilinguals were kind enough to alert me through private messages about the misunderstanding that had occurred. The important thing is that people were able to understand my apologies, as I didn’t know that the text in English was bad and that was not my intention.

Every day is a new challenge for me, even without knowing the English language, I try to understand as much as possible the translations of internet translators and adapt the texts to make sense in my language. In this way, we are communicating and overcoming language barriers.

I am very happy to be able to participate in this esteemed antiX community, every day I learn a lot from the teachers and GMs who help anyone who needs help with antiX.

Welcome!

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese)

———-

Renegade,

I’ve tried one before & had been less fortunate, so am afraid to use one in reply to you.

Eu já tive esta experiência ruim aqui no fórum, devido alguns erros de digitação e até de pontuação errada em meu idioma. A tradução do tradutor da internet não condisse com o que eu escrevi ou quis dizer em pt-BR, um mal entendido ocorreu (ou melhor, alguns …). Bons amigos falantes do idioma inglês e outros bilíngues fizeram a gentileza de me alertar através de mensagens particular sobre o mal entendido que havia ocorrido. O importante é que o pessoal conseguiu entender os meus pedidos de desculpas, pois eu não sabia que o texto em inglês havia ficado ruim e não era a minha intenção.

Todos os dias é um desafio novo para mim, mesmo sem eu saber o idioma inglês, tento compreender ao máximo as traduções do tradutores da internet e adaptar os textos para fazerem sentido em meu idioma. Desta forma, vamos nos comunicando e superando as barreiras linguísticas.

Eu sou muito feliz de poder participar desta estimável comunidade do antiX, todos os dias eu aprendo muito com os professores e mestres que ajudam qualquer pessoa que precisa de ajuda com o antiX.

Seja bem-vindo!

marcelocripe
(Texto original em Português do Brasil)

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@Marcelo: I do not remember what may have happened but I would always affirm and accept you in all respects.

It’s an honor to communicate with you, and I cherish the fact that people of different languages and cultural backgrounds are able to communicate.

You are very much welcome and appreciated here, as are your friends and colleagues.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member marcelocripe]

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Mr Brian, I thank you for your kind words and for accepting us here even when we cannot write or read in the English language. I’m glad that internet translators are getting better and that we can communicate, I’m honored and grateful to be able to communicate with people as valuable as you.

Renegade, now can you understand why my words to you? This is the environment we have in this forum, friendly and welcoming.

marcelocripe

Senhor Brian, eu agradeço por suas amáveis palavras e por nos aceitarem aqui mesmo quando não sabemos escrever ou ler em idioma inglês. Fico contente que os tradutores da internet estejam cada vez melhores e que possamos nos comunicar, eu fico honrado e agradecido por poder me comunicar com pessoas tão valorosas como o senhor.

Renegade, agora você conseguiu entender o porquê das minhas palavras para você? Este é o ambiente que temos neste fórum, amigável e acolhedor.

marcelocripe

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