How antiX is progressing, and some suggestions for the future

[Member PPC]

One of the biggest problems antiX had was that, despite being the slimiest all porpoise Linux distribution available out there, with the best tools for being used straight from an USB pen-drive, is that it was considered ugly by most people (me included) and with a hard to use and bloat looking menu. Looks and usability do matter!

The current state of afairs:
–The default menu and toolbar (in IceWM) got, recently a small makeover – the way to search for applications was moved to the top of the menu (where most people expect a “search” option to be) and the “Help” sub-menu, that 99% of users never clicked, got hidden away. The toolbar now includes icons that allow users to update the system using a GUI and also add/remove icons to the toolbar it self – most people are lazy- if they find no easy way to do something, they do not look any further – hey, that happened to me, for a very long time, when I started using antiX, it still does something. I, like most people, think that things should be in their logical place- for example- if a menu or a toolbar can be edited, it stands to reason that the way to do so should be on the menu or toolbar itself, right?
That default toolbar and menu setup is included in the current antiX 23 alpha1, up for testing
–“Dark theme” by default – some people hate dark themes and dark modes, most people do not. Since we spend a lot of time a day looking at screens, having a dark background and good contrast is great for our eyes health, trust me on that, I have terrible eye sight. And antiX 23 seems that it will implement a dark theme by default!
–Nice wallpaper – over the years, antiX has included some of the most beautiful wallpapers I ever saw on any OS. It’s a shame, that, by default is does not have an obvious way (by this I mean, on the Package Installer) to install all previous wallpapers, so people can have the Tenerife auditorium, the train station, or even the simple Crosses, back as available backgrounds. The current antiX 23a1 wallpaper is simply gorgeous.

To list the changes so far: reworked configs for toolbar and menu, change in default theme, change in default wallpaper – extra cost on resources- zero. End result? A simpler, easier to use (for newbies, I mean, but also for most users), and I trust, better looking interface.
Sure, you may say- I think xyz should be the first entry! I do not like dark themes, need light! I hate that wallpaper! I want the help menu back! I think there’s too much stuff on the toolbar! – But I trust that most people will like the changes.

–Making some system tools run faster – antiX is fast and uses very little system resources, but some tools are slowwww on low powered computers. The main examples of this are IceWm’s Toolbar Icon Manager and app-select – they take a few seconds to load, on extremely slow computers and that, this day and age, where we expect everything to be instant, does seem like an eternity. That’s why IceWm’s TIM was partly rewritten to be faster (it loads on about 2 seconds on the slowest computer I have) and Dave is working hard at rewriting app-select, so it loads in about half the time (a new test version is available as I write this, with a small kink)- yes, when we are at the menu, trying to launch some app, waiting for 6 seconds to be able to search for it does make the OS look like a potato. It’s way better waiting just 3 seconds. Not ideal, but way better. Do you want something faster, even on a Flintstones’s computer? Install rofi and replace app-select’s menu entry for a rofi configuration you like (there’s a relatively recent thread about that).
I also adapted IceWM’s TIM and rewrote IceWM’s Fast Personal Menu editor – do you want to add apps to your sub-menu, so you do not have to keep searching for them on the different categories? Now you can do it almost instantly. Would you rather pin those Personal menu entries to the top of the menu, for even faster access (and one of the few good things the most used OS on the world allow users to do easily?- There’s a recent forum entry by me on how to do that. Two tiny edits on a config file, that anyone can do, without a computer degree will get you that.
So… slow at looking for apps on the menu? Slow at adding/removing icons to the toolbar? A nice way to add/remove applications to your Personal favorites list? On the fast track to being solved. This means faster access to any application and faster ways to pin that application to the menu or toolbar- nice. Cost on system resources? Zero. I guess there is no down side on this changes

–A hard to use default file manager? It seems that antiX 23 will ship with zzzfm as default File Manager, making antiX much usable by none tech savyy persons, out of the box. Some people love the currently default File Manager- rox-filer. I can’t, for my dear life, copy a file with it- and I’ve been using computers almost since I got out of diapers, in the XVIII century (or at least it sometimes feels I’m that old).
If the kinks are worked out of it, zzzfm will ship with the defaul localized bookmarks (like Documents, Downloads, etc), a way to access Recent Files and even (if it works on the latest antiX) a Trash Can/ Recycle Bin (it works great in antiXs 19-22).

–Easy GUIs to access some features? antiX still lacks a few graphical ways to perform some (more or less advanced) tasks:
–Managing virtual workspaces – let’s face it. Most people do not even know what a virtual Workspace is. Many users change from one workspace to another without realizing and think antiX crashed and closed all open windows (that happened to me, before I realized what workspaces are). But people that do learn how to use workspaces swear by them. So having a nice tool to increase or decrease the number of available workspaces and rename them is nice – Robin, that tireless forum member that does not need a Batman to be a fully fledged super-hero- created a tiny GUI script that does just that…- Quick, put the final version of that script (when it’s ready) in antiX, better yet, bake it straight into IceWM!
–Enabling/Disabling the Firewall – like anticapitalista said “the masses have spoken” and a tiny GUI script was create to perform just that basic task.
–Are you too confused by antiX Updater asking you lots of questions? Should I change this version of a file? And that version? WHY DOES THE COMPUTER ASK SO MANY STRANGE QUESTIONS, I JUST WANT TO UPDATE IT!!!!- Well, you can do so, even more easily now- the new proposed antiX-Updater (up for localization on Transifex) asks you just one question (after, of course, you enter your password, if you need to, and there are updates available): Do you want the computer to take care of the updates automatically or do you want to answer manually every question about the update process??? Now you have even less excuses to find that updating antiX is “too hard”.
–No GUI way to install off-line Debian packages? Hey, it seems MX’s deb-installer will make it’s way to antiX23, in the future, solving that problem (that also can be solved by making a small change to zzzfm, so it handles installing .deb files for you- yes, there’s a thread about that, by me, here: https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/how-to-use-zzzfm-as-gui-to-install-deb-packages/#post-98909 – it may look too complex for people that just want to click icons, and not have to do anything more complex than that. Is so, sorry, wait for deb-installer to be available and install it instead 🙂

I’m sure there are lots of way some people (me included) think antiX should be changed, so it’s the “perfect” OS. But anticapitalista can’t please everyone…

Now… What do I think antiX still lacks? Not much:
–include every single localization the voluntary localization team did– this means fully localized .desktop files for antiX only apps, and also for some apps that come from the Debian repository (but are too old and, so, unlikely to ever be updated again). There’s even localization files for Searchmonkey (the old, lighter version
that antiX uses) so you get it in pt or pt-br! Also the “User language” script should be, of course, localized – it makes no sense for it to be only in English- because most people that need to change the language of the Office Suite, the browser, etc… need to do so because… they do not speak english, right?
Ideally, this application should pop up after installing antiX, or be included in the antiX installer, if the system language is not English!
–fix the entry to refresh the menu, so if needed, it asks for elevated privileges. Also- recently some bugs were found on that script, that result on some applications not showing up in the menu (but they can be launched just fine from app-select or rofi).
–a way to toggle on/off the touchpad, for all you laptop users that type a lot- hey- there are GUI scripts, here in the forum that do just that. Also Dave is baking that feature into mouse options. I think it makes sense to have a dedicated script that does just that- so it can run from a keyboard shortcut or (for folks too lazy to remember that), an entry that can be placed in the Personal menu entries, so it can be easily access using the keyboard (hum… because you turned off you touchpad, remember?)

Now 3 personal pet suggestions, that not everyone likes:
– Have a GUI way to preview all running windows – you can install skippy-xd – it runs even on a potato computer, and you can easily add it to the Icewm toolbar (yes, I wrote several forum posts on how to do that). For a more resource hungry but far more powerful GUI, that allows also to drag windows to a different Workspace, and also doubles as an application launcher (just begin typing and any apps matching that text will be selectable to be launched) and also as on-demand horizontal dock…- it’s called xfdashboard, and it’s on the repository, it runs great on antiX 22, I’m running it right now… It’s almost like having a Gnome interface, but, you know, without costing an harm and a leg, on system resources…
– Use the MX Package Installer adapted, by (the long missed) Skidoo, to also show a tab that allows to install any package from the Repository. As as plus, it shoes no terminal when installing something, it’s all done in a GUI way… That way, you have access to every single .deb package, curated or not, on the same “Store”. Synaptic is more powerful, and is always available, right?
– Include more stuff in Package Installer: OnlyOffice; the old wallpaper packages, from previous antiX editions; FT10; Lutris and Heroic Game Launcher, for gamers, would complement Steam, and make sure almost every commercial game available out there can be played in antiX (as long as it runs in Linux/Wine/Proton and you have system resources for it).

Edit: all these comments and suggestions are not related to the “under the hood” changes – I know very little about kernels, mesa stacks, drivers, etc. I’m just talking about the User Interface, and User Experience.
There are also some tiny extra suggestions – that I made before, like tiny changes to allow flatpaks to appear on antiX’s menu, the need for a GUI to change some basic IceWM settings (like the clock settings, selecting what system monitor “squares” should be displayed, auto hide the panel, put the panel on the top, double height panel, show/hide work space indicator, show/hide window names on the taskbar, group/ungroup windows). Also an option to display items on the Personal menu straight in the first layer of the menu (instead of on a sub-menu), could be managed (more meaningful menu changes, can be dangerous and should be left for folks that know how to edit the “menu” config file- not everything should be easily changeable). I’ll try to create a small GUI for those settings, when I can.

P.

• This topic was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by PPC.

[Member PPC]

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After (I hope) finishing work on some antiX related scripts, I think that antiX, in the very near future, will remain as light as it’s been and easer to use, even by computer novices, than ever. Almost every single anyone may want to change in the default looks will have a GUI- and that matters. We can have one of the best and lightest Window Managers around, but if users have to wrestle with config files simply to make the clock stop showing the seconds tick by, then most people will think “antiX is hard”. Now it’s not hard, just different from what most people are used to, but they still have a “button” to click, to make the changes they want, no need to edit config files.

That said, I think antiX 23 will be the best version yet, the best looking, the easiest to use and the most feature rich… For now, I’ll try to cut down the time I spend writing scripts and do what antiX is meant to do – use it for work!

P.

[Member Lead Farmer]

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What is the ETA of antiX 23

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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The freeze for bookworm will happen according to the following timeline:

    2023-01-12 - Milestone 1 - Transition and Toolchain Freeze
    2023-02-12 - Milestone 2 - Soft Freeze
    2023-03-12 - Milestone 3 - Hard Freeze - for key packages and packages without autopkgtests
    TBA - Milestone 4 - Full Freeze

See https://release.debian.org/bookworm/freeze_policy.html for the Debian timeline; antiX 23 is affected by the date of this activity, but our release, other than Debian dependencies, should be right with it.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member marcelocripe]

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Also Dave is baking that feature into mouse options.

Could Dave include one more of his programs in “mouse-ds”?

It would be the “IceWM Double Click speed GUI selector” (another of his masterpieces, super light and extremely useful).

antiX does not have a GUI to control the double-click speed, i.e. the time interval between the first click and the second click.

Note: I and all people who get antiX through me use zzzFM (or SpaceFM) with double click to open folders or files.

– – – – –

Also Dave is baking that feature into mouse options.

Será que o Dave poderia incluir mais um dos seus programas no “mouse-ds”?

Seria o “IceWM Double Click speed GUI selector” (mais uma das suas obras-primas, super leve e extremamente útil).

O antiX não possui uma GUI para controlar a velocidade do clique duplo, ou seja, o intervalo de tempo entre o primeiro clique e o segundo clique.

Observação: Eu e todas as pessoas que recebem o antiX através de mim, utilizam o zzzFM (ou o SpaceFM) com o clique duplo para abrir as pastas ou os arquivos.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Here. Take this donation

https://i.postimg.cc/SsrTqRcR/red-anti-X.jpg

I have another but it is considered risque by some past members so I hesitate to upload it. I saved a lot of Sakasa’s past work but KDE.org only supplied small images so one needs to scale the wallpaper to screen. Those wallpapers are gone now. Pling content is also sparse.

I’ve noticed minor ram jumpage on idle lately on antiX. 225MB from 180MB and I turn off cups on my netbooks usually.
So minimum specs are climbing slowly. Not that I suffer from this.

last edit. Just letting members know. Any flatpak questions. Go over my head. I don’t use em.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by rokytnji.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by rokytnji.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by rokytnji.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
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Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Member fladd]

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PPC wrote:

–“Dark theme” by default – some people hate dark themes and dark modes, most people do not. Since we spend a lot of time a day looking at screens, having a dark background and good contrast is great for our eyes health, trust me on that, I have terrible eye sight. And antiX 23 seems that it will implement a dark theme by default!

I rather trust actual research on this topic: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/dark-mode/. Visual performance is significantly better with light-mode for people with normal or corrected-to-normal vision. This is especially true for reading short texts (e.g. parts of a user interface, desktop theme). Dark-mode might be preferable for people with impaired vision and when reading longer texts (e.g. books). It is hence recommended to be offered as an alternative option, but not as the default.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Now… What do I think antiX still lacks? Not much:
–include every single localization the voluntary localization team did– this means fully localized .desktop files for antiX only apps, and also for some apps that come from the Debian repository (but are too old and, so, unlikely to ever be updated again). There’s even localization files for Searchmonkey (the old, lighter version
that antiX uses) so you get it in pt or pt-br! Also the “User language” script should be, of course, localized – it makes no sense for it to be only in English- because most people that need to change the language of the Office Suite, the browser, etc… need to do so because… they do not speak english, right?
Ideally, this application should pop up after installing antiX, or be included in the antiX installer, if the system language is not English!

Several translations for various native antiX programs have been available on Official Transifex, Transifex Contribs and GitLab Contribs for over a year, if admins just want to use them. The volunteer work of many people is available to be used, it only remains to be seen if administrators will use them or when they will use them.

The “desktop-menu” program that was worked on intensively by Robin will solve the problems of the lack of translations of several programs where the “upstream” does not want or is not interested in using our translations made by this community for the . desktop that generate the menu texts.

If antiX administrators are not interested in our translations, just tell us that they will not use any of our translations and we will do something else and we will no longer waste our time and work translating various programs for antiX and we never see the translations arrive in antiX via the updates or via the official ISOs.

If someone here tells me that the reason they don’t use the translations is because “the team of developers is small”, I will answer that “it remains small because the administrators want it to remain small and that way they will always have this excuse”. If there is no interest in integrating more people into the administration team, then the next antiX will certainly come with the same flaws with regard to the translation of programs and menus (.desktop files) purely and simply because they do not use the work of volunteer translators .

Please understand ladies and gentlemen that I am not criticizing as I know that everyone here is a volunteer and we don’t get paid to work on antiX. For example, I’m just trying to understand why translations of the “locale-antixpot” program that have been available for over six months have not yet been used?

If they’re not going to use the translations, then we’ve wasted our time translating this program and all the others that aren’t translated in antiX yet.

– – – – –

Now… What do I think antiX still lacks? Not much:
–include every single localization the voluntary localization team did– this means fully localized .desktop files for antiX only apps, and also for some apps that come from the Debian repository (but are too old and, so, unlikely to ever be updated again). There’s even localization files for Searchmonkey (the old, lighter version
that antiX uses) so you get it in pt or pt-br! Also the “User language” script should be, of course, localized – it makes no sense for it to be only in English- because most people that need to change the language of the Office Suite, the browser, etc… need to do so because… they do not speak english, right?
Ideally, this application should pop up after installing antiX, or be included in the antiX installer, if the system language is not English!

Diversas traduções para vários programas nativos do antiX estão disponíveis no Transifex Oficial, no Transifex Contribs e no GitLab Contribs há mais de um ano, basta os administradores quererem utilizá-las. O trabalho voluntário de várias pessoas estão disponíveis para serem utilizados, só resta saber se os administradores irão utilizá-las ou quando irão utilizá-las.

O programa “desktop-menu” que foi trabalhado de forma intensa pelo Robin resolverá os problemas das faltas das traduções de vários programas onde o “upstream” não quer ou não tem o interesse em utilizar as nossas traduções feitas por esta comunidade para os arquivos .desktop que geram os textos dos menus.

Caso não haja o interesse dos administradores do antiX nas nossas traduções, basta nos dizer que não irão utilizar nada das nossas traduções que iremos fazer outra coisa e não perderemos mais o nosso tempo e trabalho traduzindo vários programas para o antiX e nunca vemos as traduções chegarem no antiX via as atualizações ou via as ISOs oficiais.

Se alguém aqui vier me dizer que o motivo de não utilizarem as traduções é porque “a equipe de desenvolvedores é pequena”, eu vou responder que “continua pequena porque os administradores querem que continue pequena e assim sempre terão esta desculpa”. Se não há interesse em integrar mais pessoas na equipe de administradores, então o próximo antiX certamente virá com as mesmas falhas no que diz respeito as traduções do programas e dos menus (arquivos .desktop) pura e simplesmente por não utilizarem os trabalhos dos tradutores voluntários.

Compreenda senhoras e senhoros que eu não estou fazendo críticas, pois eu sei que todos aqui somos voluntários e não recebemos dinheiro para trabalhar no antiX. Por exemplo, eu só estou tentando compreender porque que as traduções do programa “locale-antixpot” que estão disponíveis há mais de seis meses ainda não foram utilizadas?

Se não irão utilizar as traduções, então perdemos o nosso tempo traduzindo este programa e todos os outros que ainda não estão traduzidos no antiX.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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@marcelocripe – I would like you to be admin/coordinator for all antiX translations across transifex official, transifex community, gitlab and any where else.

Do you want to do it?
It would save me thousands of hours of dev work because translating is not automated but done manually by both translators and packagers (me).

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

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member marcelocripe]

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@marcelocripe – I would like you to be admin/coordinator for all antiX translations across transifex official, transifex community, gitlab and any where else.

Do you want to do it?

Obviously yes.

I would be very happy to be able to help more with the little knowledge I have and give back in this GNU/Linux community.

It would save me thousands of hours of dev work because translating is not automated but done manually by both translators and packagers (me).

The idea is exactly that, to reduce your workload and share with the community everything that can be done by other people.

After you give me the necessary permissions in Transifex and GitLab, you will need to explain to me how you want to receive the files obtained in Transifex in GitLab. Please, don’t mince words, the more detailed your text in your language, the better the automatic translation into my language will be and the easier it will be for me to understand your objectives. My email address you already have and it’s the same one that is scattered all over the antiX translation files.

I’m sure other good people who are much more knowledgeable than I am will be able to help as well. I’m sure these people also want to help more, you just have to invite them. This team will certainly be able to grow sustainably.

Giving back to antiX is a small way of saying thank you to you for all your work and effort on antiX.

Thank you very much!

– – – – –

@marcelocripe – I would like you to be admin/coordinator for all antiX translations across transifex official, transifex community, gitlab and any where else.

Do you want to do it?

É óbvio que sim.

Eu ficarei muito contente em poder ajudar mais com o pouco conhecimento que eu possuo e retribuir nesta comunidade GNU/Linux.

It would save me thousands of hours of dev work because translating is not automated but done manually by both translators and packagers (me).

A ideia é exatamente essa, diminuir a sua carga de trabalho e dividir com a comunidade tudo que pode ser feito por outras pessoas.

Após você me dar as permissões necessárias no Transifex e no GitLab, você precisará me explicar como você quer receber no GitLab os arquivos obtidos no Transifex. Por favor, não poupe as palavras, quanto mais detalhado o seu texto em seu idioma, melhor será a tradução automática para o meu idioma e assim será mais fácil a minha compreensão dos seus objetivos. O meu endereço de e-mail você tem já tem e é o mesmo que está espalhado por todos os arquivos de tradução do antiX.

Eu tenho certeza de que outras boas pessoas que possuem muito mais conhecimentos do que eu também poderão ajudar. Eu tenho certeza de que estas pessoas também querem ajudar mais, basta você convidá-las. Certamente esta equipe poderá crescer de forma sustentável.

Retribuir para o antiX é uma forma pequena de gratidão a você por todo o seu trabalho e empenho no antiX.

Muito obrigado!

[Forum Admin Dave]

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marcelocripe wrote:

Also Dave is baking that feature into mouse options.

Could Dave include one more of his programs in “mouse-ds”?

It would be the “IceWM Double Click speed GUI selector” (another of his masterpieces, super light and extremely useful).

antiX does not have a GUI to control the double-click speed, i.e. the time interval between the first click and the second click.

Note: I and all people who get antiX through me use zzzFM (or SpaceFM) with double click to open folders or files.

I had started this a while ago as shown in the thread you linked to.
Finished both options now. (Multiclick time, and touchpad lockout while typing)
Also added the option to completely disable the touchpad as well as enable / disable reverse (Natural) scrolling.

These are also scriptable via sed (to edit ~/.desktop-session/mouse.conf) and ds-mouse; see ds-mouse -h.

Note: ~/.desktop-session/mouse.conf will need to be edited manually first to match the updated mouse.conf otherwise it will error out due to missing options.
https://gitlab.com/antiX-Dave/ds-mouse-antix

Edit: The multiclick / doubleclick speed is set based on the window manager running; but the gui does not directly reflect this. Should it be set as per window manager based on the currently running one or should it update all of them regardless if running or not?

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by Dave.

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[Member PPC]

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fladd wrote:

I rather trust actual research on this topic

So do I: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357251.3357584 . The relevant part:
Our results show that dark mode graphics on OST-HMDs have significant benefits for visual acuity, fatigue, and usability
The research is for Head Mounted Displays, but I see no reason why it would not apply to regular screens… For a less technical report (that includes the link I posted above: https://wppool.dev/is-dark-mode-better-for-your-eyes/

As with everything, what works for you depends of your particular circumstances (not to mention, particular tastes) – if you are in a very bright environment, trying to see something on a screen with a dark background and white letters would be hard because of the bright reflections on the screen. Under “normal circumstances” (i.e. not trying to use your computer screen with very bright sun light/lamps reflecting over it), dark mode usually implies less eye strain. The problem with dark mode is, because it tends to tire eyes less, we abuse it, and spend more time reading from screens, tiring the eyes more (looking at screen for longer periods of time). Info on dark modes implying less blue light don’t matter much- scientists are still not 100% sure if that’s really important- unless you are looking at screens right before you go to sleep…

Edit: And, from the report you linked to:

long-term reading in light mode may be associated with myopia.

Since most people tend to spend some hours per day staring at screens… draw your own conclusions about that’s better for your eye’s health…

P.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by PPC.

[Member PPC]

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rokytnji wrote:

Here. Take this donation

Great background image – I do not tend to swap wallpapers much, but I’m taking this one for a spin on my work desktop- I’m not much into red- it tends to hurt my eyes, but I do love the repeating pattern, and better yet, the elegant logo- It reminds me of MX’s logo, and it would be perfect if anticapitalista ever thought about changig antiX’s official logo- than one is simple and modern, like antix itself… Can you send a 2d rendering of that logo my way?

P.

[Member PPC]

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On antiX’s usability:

I like considering User eXperience – because it’s something that many times gets overlooked, when devs worry only about technical details and not enough how the end user will be able to use the finished product.

– One can’t make software that treats users as babies. The most used desktop OS in the world has been dumbing down some features in such a way that, for example, it’s hard to do something as simple as adding a new printer (because most desktop users do not have printers at home, an in corporate offices, a tech handles that, so the end user does not have to be able to add a printer). That is bad, in my opinion- fortunately antiX is trying to make life simpler for the less tech minded people, while not removing any option to the more tech savvy users- it’s great having a GUI to, say, see a 24h clock instead of a 12h clock. click a button and that problem is solved. But if you want to fine tune what exactly the clock shows ( full date; week day; week day and day of month; etc), then editing the config file is the way to go. antiX will allow both – making both ordinary, non geeky users happy and also keep us geeks happy editing our config files to “perfection”.

– Even if antiX provides GUI’s for the most relevant tasks, they are only good, for the 90% of users that can only do basic stuff, if they are easy to find – trust me- 90%+ of desktop users, mobile device users, etc, do not inspect and try out every single option. They are simply too afraid to break something. That’s why moving app-select to the top of the menu was a great UX move- people expect a “search field” either on the top or the bottom of the menu. If it’s not there, they assume it does not exist. They do not really read half a dozen lines of the menu and say- “Strange- there’s the ‘search’ option!”. The same applies to adding stuff to the toolbar- the toolbar has no obvious way to add or remove quick launch icons? Then, they just assume it can’t be done, or that you have to be a “hacker” to do it. Yes, most people assume that all Linux Desktop users are hackers. Tell someone you just met that you use Linux, odds are that you’ll get asked something like “can you hack into my girlfriend’s social network? I think she’s cheating on me…”. True case: someone asked me if I could “hack a bank”. I just said: “Yeah, man, I know how to do it. I’m just to honest to do it”… LOL

– I’m aware that some of my work to try to make antiX easier to use is wasted. If users have a “IceWM manager” that allows them to, say, place app’s icons on the desktop (hurgh!!!), they will complain that they can’t drag the icon from the menu to the desktop. “Why do I have to use a program for that? Why can’t I just drag the icon o where I want it? Also, what the hell is IceWM, and why does it need to get managed? Isn’t this thing called antiX Linux? And by the way, why does the menu have ‘Control Center’ and also ‘settings’… and inside the menu there’s also ‘preferences’? Why is Linux so hard? Why is not everything on the same place? And now you are telling me I have to ‘Manage IceWM’?”
This is what I’m expecting newbies trying out a (very near) future antiX version for the first time. Do you know why? Because I thought exactly the same years ago, and I was an advanced Windows user for years, and a mid level Linux Mint user for years after that…

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@PPC: As long as you have enjoyed writing the scripts and documentation it’s been a good thing. We’ve also had some worthwhile conversations.

If we have 1-5 people who try the scripts that would be great. If hundreds or thousands try it that would be nirvana!

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Brian Masinick

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