New users new ideas

[Member ModdIt]

newmant1 wrote
Sorry that I am just a newbie, does not know about scripts nor any programming languages(of course I wished I could), my ignorant only raises questions on how a normal Desktop system should work by comparing with others.

No need to say sorry, anyone claiming to know it all from Birth is nuts.

We all were noobies at some point, brought up new wishes, brought in new ideas. In the end enriched the forum and users. A big virtue to cultivate is try and learn more each day, be patient with yourself, with helpers.
Dig in the depths of antiX, try and understand how it all fits together.

Some new users dissapear others stay on, learn and day by day become the helpers of tomorrow.
I hope you will eventualy be one of those. :-).

[Member newmant1]

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Hi Moddit,
Acknowledged your encouragement.
Thank you again.
Newmant1

[Member PPC]

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@Newmant1 – when I started using antiX, in the now long forgotten times of antiX 16 I was so newbie that I went for months without updating my system because I never thought a modern OS would not automatically check for updates… One of my very first additions to antiX was creating antiX-updater- I use it almost daily since then.

I used to think that “antix is ugly as sin, and it’s file manager is hard to use, but never mind, it runs so well it makes my old pc (much more) usable again”. Then I slowly discovered, after installing pcmanfm, that antiX already came with the much less easier to use spacefm. Then I found out that I could easily change the default apps, like file manager and web browser, and I could customize the Window Manager to something I liked more…
For a very long time now I’m using antiX on several computers (that range from a a 32 bits HP laptop to a quad core desktop), all with antiX 19.X (not 21 for now, I’m not an early adopter) all with the same interface that, for me is way better to use than any Windows version, and runs (and I do mean “runs”) in about 100mb of idle RAM (way less on the 32bits antiX).

In the last 3 years antiX has become easier to use, but I always remember how strange and barren it all felt when I got here. My main advice for newbies is: always check out the sticky posts. Learn how to search the forum and web. If you then don’t find what you need, post here in the forum… Your post asking how to “tile” a window to half the screen ended up starting what’s now a very nice and mouse driven way to rearrange windows on screen (just check out BobC’s post)

P.

[Member newmant1]

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Hi PPC,
1) Appreciate your share of your experiences. I agrees that one need to put some time, in fact more time till one forgotten how much time one fiddled with any OS from a view point of a hobbyist.

2) I saw ‘Odoo 14’ within the Synaptic Package Manager, but I have difficulty to locate a relevant manual on setup and when I googled ONLINE, it always sprung up ‘Odoo setup guide with Ubuntu or Debian’ or ‘Odoo standalone with postgresql’ only. There isn’t something like ‘Odoo setup with Antix’.
Online preference are complex, some use direct ‘Odoo itself’, others are ‘Odoo with Nginx or npm’. Scratching my heads ! I was lost in those towns but I would go bit by bit learning it.

3) Nice to hear that BobC has been working on something new.

So I am hoping Antix not only fast, mean & lean , it’s also versatile.

Thank you for sharing ideas.

Newmant1

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by newmant1.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by newmant1.

[Member PPC]

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On your second point.

The bad part: You have to always remember this: there are hundreds of Linux Distros out there. And antix is a “niche” distro, with few users, so there’s almost 0 chance of you finding on-line help for it, except on the forums.

The good part is this: despite the hundreds of distros I referred, they mostly come from the “MAIN” distros, like Debian, Red Hat, Suse and Arch (there are some distros that are not based on any of this, but they are few)
Most distros (antiX included) are based in Debian. So, if you want to find help on “how to use XXX app on antiX”, check on-line on “how to use XXX app on Debian”, and probably those instructions will work on antiX too (stay away from any instructions that talk about systemd- it’s the main difference between antiX and pure Debian, we don’t use systemd)
Do you know what else is based in Debian? One of the most used Distros on the World: Ubuntu. Searching for help on how to use an app on Ubuntu may work on antiX. Once again, stay away from systemd, or PPA’s (that usually are Ubuntu specific and my trash your antiX install). Of course, instructions about installing stuff from the Ubuntu app store only work in Ubuntu and Ubuntu based distros (we have our very own Package Installer), also Snaps don’t work on antiX, because they depend on systemd.

Any instructions about installing something using Synaptic probably work 100% of the time in antiX too (exceptions: something systemd related or very Ubuntu/whatever specific)!

P.

Edit: I searched “Odoo 14 debian” on duckduckgo
The very first result was the link below, try it and see it it works, if it does not, at leat I teached you to “fish”, you can now find out most of what you need on-line… Please note that instructions about “systemctl” – mean configuring a process under systemd, you’ll have to find out how to do it without systemd (isn’t computing challenging??? 🙂 )

https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-install-odoo-on-debian-10-linux/

Edit2: How do you manage processes without systemd? I found out a very nice page: https://unix.cafe/wp/en/2017/04/howto-manage-a-service-in-systemd-sysvinit-upstart-runit-and-openrc/

Click the “Systemd” or SysV Init” tabs to understand how to start, stop, etc, a process in any one of this process managers…

My work here is done (flies ways to perform some Christmas gifts shopping)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by PPC.

[Member ModdIt]

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PPC recommendations are good. Regard Linux as a pretty big but diverse family and the picture becomes clearer. interrelated but with sometimes
unsurmountable differences.

Arch and Void forums have helped me understand application issues many times, I see repeated posts from very competent persons who
I first encountered when I used arch based Manjaro. And added a lot of bleeding edge packages, Fun but not on the work system. .

Regarding init, Void is a good adress to learn more, more technical in depth posts than here, more questions asked and answered on runit, which is
very new for most of us here.
I like their forum setup and may soon try/experiment with the distro, ever needing new experiences, but then I am a lifetime learning techie in modern
speak. crazy old Fart for others.

What I sometimes miss here is AUR. the arch user repository and aur helpers, it can be a minefield but provides a lot of very new experimental or
niche software before we ever hear of it elswhere.

[Member PPC]

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@PPC Debian User Repo. Moved to news.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member newmant1]

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hi PPC & Moddit,
1) @PPC, firstly, appreciates your kind inputs. I did the similar searched before and computerforgeeks information was great but it need a registered domain name. I does not wish to use any Domain.
Edit2: How do you manage processes without systemd? I found out a very nice page: https://unix.cafe/wp/en/2017/04/howto-manage-a-service-in-systemd-sysvinit-upstart-runit-and-openrc/ <–this should be good information and would visit the links sometime later. Thanks for this lead.

I prefers OpenRc init than runnit, but Gentoo setup was too complex(flags setting can be confusing and break dependencies) for me and the building time crawling till I fell asleep. It would be nice if someone could advise and shows the rope on how to convert a System-D into OpenRc init with manuals but would it be a Developer’s level?

2) @ Moddit , old forum void can be found at Reddit(still available), and some says its easier to join #voidlinux on freenode. If Void has a ‘Gui’ Synaptic Packager Manager(void does not have a ‘Gui’ Tar Archive Manager too), otherwise, it would be Great. And if Antix has a ‘Gui’ Trash Can, it would be also Great ! I means these are just my opinion only.

Thanks all for your leads, Wishes all Merry Christmas Soon !

[Member marcelocripe]

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And if Antix has a ‘Gui’ Trash Can, it would be also Great ! I means these are just my opinion only.

Hello newmant1.

PPC has already created ways for antiX to have a Recycle Bin associated with SpaceFM or zzzFM.

Add “Recycle” or “Recycle Bin” to antiX

The topic is in Portuguese language and therefore you will need to translate the texts to your language with the help of an internet translator.

If you want to use a shortcut icon in the menu, you can download the following options:

ZzzFM File Manager

SpaceFM File Manager

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.

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese)

– – – – –

Olá newmant1.

O PPC já criou meios de o antiX possuir uma Lixeira associada ao SpaceFM ou zzzFM.

Adicionar “Reciclagem” ou “Lixeira” ao antiX

O tópico está em idioma Português e por isso você precisará traduzir os textos para o seu idioma com a ajuda de um tradutor da internet.

Se você quiser utilizar um ícone de atalho no menu, você pode baixar as seguintes opções:

Gerenciador de Arquivos zzzFM

Gerenciador de Arquivos SpaceFM

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

marcelocripe
(Texto original em Português do Brasil)

[Member newmant1]

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Hi marcelocripe,
1)Appreciates your kind tinkles. But I’m afraid I am trying to stay with IceWM which is my preferred WM (more lightweight compare to Xfce which was/is also my favorite.)
As for ZzzFileManager, I thought this one can be selected during the startup slimki login? I had bypass this slimki login because I have had selected default IceWm setup in startup.

Thanks you.

Good Day

[Member PPC]

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Good morning, newmant1

Hum… you are mixing up different concepts.
One thing is the window manager – antiX comes with IceWM (on by default), JWM and Fluxbox – These control how windows are treated, how they look, etc- i.e- “manage” the windows
Other thing is the default File manager- the default file manager is “rox-filer”. antiX came with another alternative File Manager, more user friendly- “spacefm”, that was forked into “zzzfm”- zzzfm replaced spacefm in antiX 21.

antiX provides users with combinations of window manager + file managers that are used to manage desktop icons (rox-icewm, space-icewm, etc) – if you have icons on your desktop, imagine this: they are being shown in a transparent window of a file manager…

You can have desktop icons managed by rox (this means using the default rox-icewm “desktop”) AND select, in the control centre, another file manager as default, by clicking in the “Star” icon and selecting the .desktop file of the File Manager you want to use as default when you want to access your files (a bit confusing I know).
Spacefm and zzzfm can be configured to use a “trash can / recycle bin”, as per my previous posts (there’s one about that in English, if you are interested, search for it)—

P.

[Member newmant1]

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Hi PPC,
1)One thing is the window manager, the other is the File manager . Thanks you for clarify the diff.

2) Oh no!? a bit confusing … ! I think it can be a lot confusing, but if your cares to clarify, what transparent window file manager?, I somewhat in a lost town with this one.

3) Click “Star” icon ? Did you mean one forsake the default rox-icewm to take onto another wm. Meaning only one wm exist at one time?
Perhaps if this process be put in a sequence list of steps, it would be easier for me to cope with the sequence and fill my notes for exploring later. It would accessible if this be made into a handbook, easier for anyone by clicking the menu that comes with the Distro, but this may involves with a lot of work that need to be done.

4) Would other new user get confused while initially using Antix ? Because it comes with a spectrum of choice of Window Managers and File Managers? Any visible explanation notes to be click by the convenience mouse with contents marking?

Sorry that my questionnaire may add weight to your already busy priorities, but only assist when you are free. Hope this information not only benefit me, it may also benefit other new users, at the same as a recap exercises for experienced users. Apology, again my silly opinion.

GoodDay

[Member Robin]

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So let me try to answer some of your questions.

newmant1 wrote:

but if your cares to clarify, what transparent window file manager?

This describes the technical concept behind it. Think of it like this: If you want to have Icons present on your desktop, they need to be managed by the file manager, exactly like every icon in a framed file manager window also you are used to. The single difference between a normal file manager window and the layer handling the icons on your desktop is: You can’t see its borders since it has none, and it is transparent, instead of having a (mostly white) background. That is what PPC tried to express when writing about “they are shown in a transparent window…”. Think of it as an additional transparent layer or film covering your complete screen, to which the desktop-icons adhere, and this layer is managed by the file manager. And it is allways present in case you haven’t deactivated this feature. Without this layer you won’t have any desktop icons, just the plain wallpaper on your screen.

newmant1 wrote:

only one wm exist at one time?

Yes, one WM at one time only. There can’t run more of them at the same time. In antiX Live you may switch between them on the fly to find out which one suits best for your needs.

newmant1 wrote:

lost in a town while initially using Antix because of the spectrum of available choice of Window Manager & File Manager?

Maybe I’m mistaken about the intention of this specific feature, but I believe these are meant and provided to allow new users to have a choice and enable people to experiment and check out which combination they like best on an antiX live system first. So when installing antiX later they should probably know already what to click.

And there are never to much questions, you won’t get ever familiar with antiX when not pestering us with questions. So just ask. We’ll try to answer as much and as good we can. And to anticipate further excuses: there don’t exist stupid questions. Feel free to ask whatever you need to know, after having struggled on your own already without coming to a useful result before.

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

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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1) Window Manager:
IceWM, JWM, Fluxbox

These are three of the available window managers. They are used to display the screens and the applications on the screens. Web browser applications, such as Firefox and Chrome, and file managers are applications.

2) File Manager:
Rox, SpaceFM, zzzFM, PCmanFM
are file manager applications. They are used to display file directories and their contents, the files and programs found in directories.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member ahoppin]

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Customization and flexibility are a huge part of what makes Linux great. With most operating systems, you can change the appearance to some extent, but basically you get what the designers and coders give you. With Linux, though, if you want a different desktop or file manager, you just go to the repository.

For example, with Antix you can install XFCE, and then it becomes another option in the window manager menu. If you decide you still like Icewm better, but prefer Thunar to zzzfm, you can have that combination. Or use Rox/Icewm to get the Rox pinboard, so it’s easy to create custom desktop icons, and then make one of those icons Thunar. The choice is yours to make.

Go for it! Make your computer your own.

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