What (and where) is Antix now, compared to Debian?

[Member madibi]

A few days ago I introduced Antix to a friend of mine, who was enthusiastic about it and asked me a lot of questions. On one I am not sure of the answer I gave.

In fact, from what I see from the evolution of the various distros, some are customizations of the “mother distributions”, which over time then become full-fledged forks (as Ubuntu is now compared to Debian).

From this perspective, what is Antix? I replied that it is 95% Debian, but in reality I don’t even know if the rationale that led me in the answer belongs to an appropriate reasoning.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Hello madibi.

The https://antixlinux.com/about/ website page may help clarify some questions.

A bit of antiX history can be found in these threads where I managed to save the URLs:

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/mepis-anti-x-mx/
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/suggestions-about-antix-linux-to-developers-and-maintainers/page/4/
https://antixlinux.com/forum-archive/history-of-antix-t2412.html
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/free-debian-of-systemd-by-using-antix-repos/

Anything else I come to write would just be my personal opinion about antiX. I think it’s much better to be able to read the words of the creator and developers of antiX about their history and how they intend to keep the operating system.

anticapitalista wrote:
What I don’t want is for antiX to be turned into something it is not meant to be.
For example, some in the past basically wanted it to be like a Debian lubuntu. If people want lxde, Xfce etc and ‘bells n whistles’ out of the box, then they really should try another distro.
We will always be systemd-free.
We will keep to IceWM/Rox default
We will ship with/promote our own (less known or even unknown) tools/apps over bigger and better known versions eg droopy, 1-1-voice etc.
We will try to keep CPU and RAM usage at idle down to a minimum. We mainly achieve this through not running unnecessary services on boot.

For me, these two texts that I highlighted in bold, from what the anticapitalist wrote on December 01, 2020, are what I always looked for in a GNU/Linux operating system and found in antiX, in particular the objective of trying to keep use the CPU and idle RAM as little as possible. In addition to having a friendly forum, even with people who cannot read and write in English (as is my case), people here are always willing to help, sharing their technical knowledge and experiences. I recommend you read the entire thread and not just the snippets I’ve highlighted here.

I hope this information can give you the necessary information base for you to continue multiplying antiX with others.

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese)

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Olá madibi.

A página do sítio https://antixlinux.com/about/ pode ajudar a esclarecer algumas perguntas.

Um pouco da história do antiX pode ser encontrada nestes tópicos que eu consegui guardar os URLs:

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/mepis-anti-x-mx/
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/suggestions-about-antix-linux-to-developers-and-maintainers/page/4/
https://antixlinux.com/forum-archive/history-of-antix-t2412.html
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/free-debian-of-systemd-by-using-antix-repos/

Qualquer outra coisa que eu venha escrever, seria apenas a minha opnião pessoal sobre o antiX. Eu acho que é muito melhor podermos ler as palavras do criador e dos desenvolvedores do antiX sobre a sua história e como pretendem manter o sistema operacional.

anticapitalista wrote:
What I don’t want is for antiX to be turned into something it is not meant to be.
For example, some in the past basically wanted it to be like a Debian lubuntu. If people want lxde, Xfce etc and ‘bells n whistles’ out of the box, then they really should try another distro.
We will always be systemd-free.
We will keep to IceWM/Rox default
We will ship with/promote our own (less known or even unknown) tools/apps over bigger and better known versions eg droopy, 1-1-voice etc.
We will try to keep CPU and RAM usage at idle down to a minimum. We mainly achieve this through not running unnecessary services on boot.

Para mim, estes dois textos que eu destaquei em negrito, do que o anticapitalista escreveu no dia 01 de dezembro de 2020, são o que eu sempre busquei em um sistema operacional GNU/Linux e encontrei no antiX, em especial o objetivo de tentar manter o uso da CPU e da memória RAM ociosa o mínimo possível. Além de ter um fórum amigável, mesmo com as pessoas que não sabem ler e escrever em idioma Inglês (como é o meu caso), as pessoas aqui estão sempre dispostas a ajudar, a compartilhar os seus conhecimentos técnicos e experiências. Eu recomendo você ler todo o tópico e não apenas os trechos que eu destaquei aqui.

Eu espero que estas informações possam te dar a base de informações necessárias para você continuar multiplicando o antiX com outras pessoas.

marcelocripe
(Texto original em idioma Português do Brasil)

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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At this point I’d say that while the origins of antiX do trace back to Debian and some of the common applications come from the same place, the intention of the two distributions is considerably different and that’s a major reason for another distribution.

When Debian decided to follow the Red Hat lead and adopt systemd as the job and process scheduler, antiX and a few other distributions went in a different way. We kept the previous sysvinit scheduler and added runit as an alternative.

We chose many small, relatively unknown applications with a small size and low overhead in order to reduce memory usage, and the list goes on. We’re really not like very many other distributions when you evaluate the objective and design goals.

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Brian Masinick

[Member PDP-8]

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For me, it has always been the focus on being the “Most Extensive Live USB on the Planet!”

https://antixlinux.com/the-most-extensive-live-usb-on-the-planet/

So while I appreciate the desire to be minimal and efficient, over the years I’ve seen Anti-X being regarded by some as just a distro for “old computers”, and many miss this extensive live-usb functionality, which was very forward looking at the time. And still is unbelievably impressive.

SMALL things mean a lot. Even just the framebuffer graphics in the virtual terminals just bring a tear to my eye. So nice.

So nice that I use AntiX primarily on MODERN machines. I’ll leave the 32-bit machines at the vintage-computer-faire right next to the commodore 64’s. But that’s me. 🙂

[Member ModdIt]

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As is case for PDP8
I have no 32 bit machines. I do see the need of 32 bit support for many who are unable to run more modern machines.

AntiX tools, all the love care and hard work in the base system as well as the FT10 Pack make this distro the most
useful and impressive of any Full daily driver distribution I have ever used. There have been many.

Live, I often think if you have USB 2 or higher why bother to install.

Testing hardware, a live antiX USB, I regard it as just as essential as my multimeter.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I’m the same: I do not have any remaining 32-bit systems, though up until just four years ago, I DID have TWO 32-bit laptop systems. Like the ones I have today, they were as solid as a rock, heavier; in fact, one of them was a 17″ monster that I referred to as a “portable desktop” rather than a “laptop”. While it is true that it was possible to hold it in your lap, after a few minutes your lap would feel the weight; moreover, you had to be extremely careful not to impede the air flow in any way or it would get quite HOT!

Despite the fact that those systems would be over a decade old today, the only thing preventing them from continual use was the declining number of systems and distributions supporting 32-bit software, so as many of us have repeatedly stated, antiX has an increasingly important role in preserving the ability to use 32-bit hardware that remains solid, reliable, and useful.

Moreover antiX works with aging 64-bit systems. You can run either 32-bit or 64-bit software: anticapitalista recently reminded us that we do indeed have both 32-bit (386) images and 64-bit (x64) images in net, core, base, and full editions.

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Brian Masinick

[Member andyprough]

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Brian Masinick wrote:

I’m the same: I do not have any remaining 32-bit systems, though up until just four years ago, I DID have TWO 32-bit laptop systems. Like the ones I have today, they were as solid as a rock, heavier; in fact, one of them was a 17″ monster that I referred to as a “portable desktop” rather than a “laptop”. While it is true that it was possible to hold it in your lap, after a few minutes your lap would feel the weight; moreover, you had to be extremely careful not to impede the air flow in any way or it would get quite HOT!

Despite the fact that those systems would be over a decade old today, the only thing preventing them from continual use was the declining number of systems and distributions supporting 32-bit software, so as many of us have repeatedly stated, antiX has an increasingly important role in preserving the ability to use 32-bit hardware that remains solid, reliable, and useful.

Moreover antiX works with aging 64-bit systems. You can run either 32-bit or 64-bit software: anticapitalista recently reminded us that we do indeed have both 32-bit (386) images and 64-bit (x64) images in net, core, base, and full editions.

Something I’ve noticed recently is that antiX 32-bit runs very well on my older 64-bit systems, and requires much less memory.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Unless I get my hands on another 32-bit computer, I will be keeping my older 64-bit systems, at least one to run antiX

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Brian Masinick

[Member blur13]

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@andyprough,

Thats interesting, how much less memory are we talking about? Any difference in “speed”?

[Member madibi]

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@blur13

blur13 wrote:
That’s interesting, how much less memory are we talking about?

Once the advise that in case of doubts one should use the 32 bit version was reported in the PeppermintOS site. They added that the system in that case will have a lesser memory usage.

When end 2020 I did the experiment with antix 19 in a desktop HP coreduo, 4 Gram, the difference was about 50-60 M, I didn’t notice differences in speed. Some modern program doesn’t work in 32 bit anymore.

m

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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While I definitely realize that none of us desires to be “wasteful” in any way, whether it is regarding our use of natural resources or the use of our computer systems, let’s suppose that some of us have systems containing between 4-8 GB of memory. If that is the case, then unless we also run numerous programs at the same time, the consideration of a slightly more conservative use of kernel memory use is of little consequence. If, on the other hand, we are among a group of people who do not even have access to a 64-bit computer system with plenty of available memory, the discussion is also of little value.

We definitely are aware of people who have systems that ARE 32-bit systems, so ALL resources are of major consideration; for those who have 64-bit systems, IF they DO NOT have more than 2 GB of memory, I have to question the designers; they could only be building these systems to be as inexpensive as possible.

My point here is that for those who DO have 64-bit processors it is unlikely that available memory is a major concern; it is those who do not have this luxury that every byte of available resource is of utmost importance.

Let me know of any 64-bit systems that come with under 4 GB of memory – maybe some super cheap “netbook”?

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Brian Masinick

[Member blur13]

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Brian,

You nailed it in your last sentence. Super cheap netbooks. I have an ASUS eee pc that came with Win 7 starter edition (32 bit), but the processor is 64-bit. It has 1 gb of memory, soldered, with no expansion slots. 250 MiB of that is used for the integrated graphics, so I have about 750 MiB of memory to play with. This netbook is the reason I discovered antiX. It was more or less unusable out of the box with Win 7, so it gathered dust in my bookshelf for several years. Now, with antiX, its good enough for every day use. Of course, with that sort of memory constraint, even 50-60 MiB makes a difference.

So why do I bother resurrecting this relic of a PC? Because the form factor is amazing. Ten inch screen and light-weight, its extremely portable. The 10-inch laptops have more or less been superseded by phablets and tablets. However, its really nice to have a keyboard and an operating system that actually lets you do stuff, hence the old eee pc has its use.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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That is indeed a very useful system when it comes with the ‘right’ software, another great use case of antiX!

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Brian Masinick

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