antiX-forum

Hi antiX users and devs!

I'm happy to have discovered antiX as its Mepis/Debian base + fluxbox/rox desktop + wicd + media codecs is indeed the killer combo I desired, but there are still a number of antix aspects that need to be improved before I'm really satisfied with the default setup. I'm hoping anti will review my suggestions for improvement and seriously consider adding these to the next release.

LOGIN

* I've never seen the point of live distros that you have to login to. Surely logins are all about security but when its a live CD you're booting into AND it actually tells you the login details on the screen (slight saving grace here) what is the point? It is just a total waste of time!

* How do I enable auto-login? I've searched the config-user and config-system menus but failed to see any auto-login option. Of course this would only be of use after install but its something I always enable on all my linux installs.

FLUXBOX RIGHT-CLICK MENU

* Rename 'Files' to 'Home Folder' or 'Home Directory' because you also need to

* Add a menu option 'Disks' (or Drives/ External Drives or something like that) which really just executes 'rox /media'. This will go someway to making things a damn sight easier and less scary for any Linux newbs when they start to fret when nothing pops up on their desktop when plugging in their USB drive or CD/DVD disc. Only experienced Linux users would know to look under /media for removable discs.

GRAPHICS (feh)

* Change the default rox run action for all picture files to 'feh --scale-down' as this ensures that any image opened will fit on the screen in a suitably sized window instead of having your large pictures take over the whole desktop which looks 'buggy'

* Set the 'feh --scale-down' rox run action for all common image formats. M7.2 is missing a file association for .bmp files - I haven't tested any .gif or .tif images yet but ensure these are set too. jpg and png worked, thankfully.

VIDEOS

* I would like to see gmplayer used as the rox default for playing all video files- mainly because I couldn't work out how to get xmms to play any videos full screen. Additionally, gmplayer is of course a dedicated video player instead of xmms which was designed mainly as a music player (being a winamp clone)

ESSENTIAL APPS THAT WILL MAKE ME CRY IF NOT IN NEXT RELEASE

* gimp - I really can't believe this was missing- its almost like not including xorg! Most everybody needs gimp I'm sure- who doesn't manipulate photos these days- even its its just cropping and resizing? There's plenty of room left on the CD and if gimp is left off because of 'bloat' accusations then you'd have to remove iceweasel too. mtpaint doesn't cut it, if just for its lack of jpg export alone.

* unrar - xarchive is already there and I don't need to tell you just how common rar files are. rar and unace would be cool too but not in the same 'must-have' league as unrar.

COOL MULTIMEDIA APPS WHICH WOULD MAKE ME VERY HAPPY BUT I'M NOT REALLY EXPECTING TO BE ADDED

* libdvdcss2 (protected dvd playback)

* winff (batch video converter)

* DeVeDe (DVD authoring)

* dvd95 (DVD shinking app)

* kino (DV capture and basic video editor)

* Audacity (sound editor)

* blender (3D graphics and animation)

* Inkscape (vector graphics app)

* Replace gxine with vlc

I could go on but I'll be surprised if anyone got this far anyway!

Keep up the great work on antiX- I'm looking forward to your responses and the next release!

Thanks!

dan

Hello. You have made some very good points. I don't want to address them all, but a few did catch my eye:

1. I think the auto-login thing has been discussed in the forums. Please try searching for it.
2. I think that it would be a good idea to have a link to a user's home folder as well as to the media folder.
3. I think mtpaint is included instead of gimp because mtpaint performs better on older boxes, which is the goal of this distro (at least as I understand it).
4. Unrar should be available on the 7.2 release, although some people have reported problems using it.
5. I have also suggested including vlc; however, in anti's tests it was a bit heavy for the older boxes.

Glad you like the distro enough to give some honest opinions.

john

Just to add to what OU812 said, auto login has been covered for slim. I think it's in the tip'n'tricks. The problem with it is Slim does not provide a way to auto login(which is the purpose) so you have to work around it completely. I don't think it would be something for the newcomer to linux, although educational.

As far a video, Gxine comes with 7.2 and works well so the choice is yours.

For graphics, I have installed Gthumb. I prefer it over feh for displaying images and it's also good for quick edits and scaling.

A lot of the apps you mention are great and must haves for "some" people, however to keep the iso small and keep the OS usable on older boxes a lot of the apps are left out. Any application is just an apt-get away.

Even without adding new apps the iso is growing just from newer versions of existing apps. The GIMP is a great application and will do more than most people require but it also takes up a huge amount of resources to run so things like this are left out and up to the user to install.

You have to keep in mind that Antix is targeting low resource boxes but if you got the horse power install away.

Are you planning to install or just use the live-cd?

You could use the AntiX-Base install and add the apps you like.
I think if you install GDM--you can auto-login?
It's alot faster than a minimal debian install.

Give it a try--

Hi!

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far- I'm still waiting to hear what antcapitalista has to say about my suggestions of course.

I've just installed M7.2 and its highlighted another couple of things that need to be fixed for the next version- both the installer and the MEPIS config tools are missing a en_GB keymap. There is an en_GB locale, yes, but if you set that with a US keymap you still just get a US keymap. You can also get British keyboard working temporarily through right-click menu > Settings > Keyboard > British but this setting is lost as soon as you reboot. Yes, I know you could just edit xorg.conf and get it working but I always try to review distros from the perspective of a non-linux user, which is how usability testing should be done IMO.

I installed it on a laptop with a Acer WarpLink in-built wifi chipset and wicd / antix didn't detect it but I've had it working under 'buntu.

I looked at the slim auto-login 'fix' but its definitely a kludge, nasty ol' hack and I'd much rather Antix dropped it for gdm. Auto-login is one of the main reasons I was put off elive and attracted to crunchbang, but crunchbang lacks wicd which is absolutely vital so...

unrar IS included in 7.2, as you say, but I thought otherwise because Xarchive failed to open my rar files. When I went to the terminal I discovered why - its because unrar is called 'unrar-nonfree' under antix but xarchive is looking for unrar.

Yes, gthumb would make a good alternative to feh. feh is certainly the most light-weight but as you say gthumb offers a bunch of extra functionality inc. such cool stuff as batch resizing of images. I'm sure gthumb would still run just fine in 64MB RAM and it is no colossus either.

I am very aware that antix is targeting older hardware but I know for a fact that GIMP runs in 64MB RAM as I've run it on a Sharp Zaurus and an xbox. Of course, you can't expect to smoothly edit 10Mp images in 64MB of RAM but the fact of the matter is that GIMP is best-of-breed software with no real lightweight alternative, exactly the same goes for iceweasel but there are at least light-weight firefox forks in development like fennec. Yes, there is also krita in the FOSS image manipulation arena but thats a KDE app and printing didn't work for me under krita last time I tried it, whilst GIMP was fine.

I could easily download both gdm and gimp from apt as you say but here lies one of the major problems with many Linux distros in that the creators just presume that everybody has an internet connection. If you don't have a connection or the apt-servers are down/ unavailable then you are limited to whatever apps are on the CD, so you restrict the usefulness of the distro. There is still a couple of hundred meg left on the antix install CD, enough room for plenty of great apps. If the CD was totally filled to the brim, then after install it could only take up 2-3GB hard drive space max, and how many machines (even old PIIs) have less than 5GB HD? I like my distros to come pre-configured with all the best apps for all the common computing tasks, hence making everyones life as easy as possible which I think is the whole point of a good distro- otherwise we might as well do a gentoo stage 1 or an LFS install.

If antipitalista wants to keep the size of the iso down thats his prerogative as its his distro but he's come very close here to my ideal distro. Anyone know of an existing distro that might meet my requirements (basically antix but with gdm and all those multimedia apps ++)? Otherwise I might consider forking antix one day, adding a load of cool apps. crunchbang with wicd would come very close too...

As for version were up to 7.5 (test)
As your suggestions is why he made AntiX-Base--
Its for people who like it thier way-- like me.

GDM is alot bigger than slim--so i really don't think that will happen.
even fluxbuntu uses slim.

I know its hard to find a distro that is perfect to each person's taste but keep looking.
I really like crunchbang too but they have stuff i don't like too.

I use gimp too but like Mirage over gthumb.

ADD:
i'm looking into APTonCD for my next install -- you might want to look at that too?
http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/
Mint linux--I think has this app by default?

danboid wrote:Hi antiX users and devs!

FLUXBOX RIGHT-CLICK MENU

* Add a menu option 'Disks' (or Drives/ External Drives or something like that) which really just executes 'rox /media'. This will go someway to making things a damn sight easier and less scary for any Linux newbs when they start to fret when nothing pops up on their desktop when plugging in their USB drive or CD/DVD disc. Only experienced Linux users would know to look under /media for removable discs.

Hi danboid, welcome to the antiX forums.

That's a good suggestion, and one that i think is worth at least considering. It can be very confusing indeed for Linux newcomers.

GRAPHICS (feh)

* Change the default rox run action for all picture files to 'feh --scale-down' as this ensures that any image opened will fit on the screen in a suitably sized window instead of having your large pictures take over the whole desktop which looks 'buggy'

Another good point, although personally i don't mind the screen being filled by the picture, mainly because it gives me a much better idea of how the wallpaper (As that's mostly what i use feh for) will look when it's selected.

[quote[
ESSENTIAL APPS THAT WILL MAKE ME CRY IF NOT IN NEXT RELEASE

* gimp - I really can't believe this was missing- its almost like not including xorg! Most everybody needs gimp I'm sure- who doesn't manipulate photos these days- even its its just cropping and resizing? There's plenty of room left on the CD and if gimp is left off because of 'bloat' accusations then you'd have to remove iceweasel too. mtpaint doesn't cut it, if just for its lack of jpg export alone.
[/quote]

I have to disagree here. Whilst the gimp may be a fine program, there are other programs out there for photo manipulation (Depending upon the amount of manipulation needed of course) Personally, i ALWAYS remove gimp from any distro that i install, and i find it really annoying when a given distro defaults to using gimp as the de-facto image viewer. It's also so easily installable using either Synaptic or apt-get, for those that would like to use it.

* libdvdcss2 (protected dvd playback)

Yep, totally would like to see this one added.

* blender (3D graphics and animation)

Again, i see this the same as gimp. If you want it, install it.

* Inkscape (vector graphics app)

Same as Blender & gimp.

* Replace gxine with vlc

Yep, i think that would be a good choice. I don't mind gxine, but i always install VLC. It's just great as an all round media player, and fast as well.

I could go on but I'll be surprised if anyone got this far anyway!

LOL!! I did. Go for it...... add some more. It's always good to have ideas & suggestions.

I'm still waiting to hear what antcapitalista has to say about my suggestions of course.

antcapitalista Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008

I'll be away on holiday for about 10 days.
'See' you all when I get back.

Otherwise I might consider forking antix one day, adding a load of cool apps. crunchbang with wicd would come very close too...

If you need a tester--I'm game

Otherwise I might consider forking antix one day

The scripts are on the disc, give it a go.

danboid wrote:There is still a couple of hundred meg left on the antix install CD, enough room for plenty of great apps.

I think there might be room for a compromise, here. Continue to have the light weight install, but include optional packages on the disk image. I'm just not sure if there is a nice way to do this. (I switched to antiX from a RPM based distro, so Istill have a lot to learn about getting the most out of apt-get/Synaptic)

1. I added an entry in the icewm menu - "media". This well execute

rox /media

as suggested.



2. I toyed with the idea of adding a feh entry to the graphics menu, but it's not working correctly. Probably needs a script to run correctly.

3. True, antix does have quite a bit of room left; however, anti is already frustrated with the current iso size, so I doubt he will want to pack on even more apps.

4. As for feh being the default viewer in rox, we'll have to wait until anti gets back from hols.

5. If there are mimetype issues, these definitely should be fixed regardless of the default image viewer.

Thanks for your help.

john

For those without internet connection:
I don't have the debian apt cd's but they should work with Antix?
They have like 13-14 cd's--I would like to burn them but that would take forever.

If we up the ISO size--dail-up download would take way longer.
Hard call --

Hi,

Just to add my 2cents:
I prefer that antiX continue to be a light OS for older machines with only light applications, regardless of how much space is left on the cd.

I don't have much hard drive space on the laptop I use with antiX. I want to have all the features it currently has with light apps; I love that I can rip a cd, play music, etc. right out of the box even though the apps are those I don't normally use in my mepis install.

I can add in the heavy apps that I need myself. (And gimp and inkscape are 2 of them, but I add them at the expense of other heavy apps.)

Thanks!

That's about how I see it too.

mariel77

Add my endorsement to your post also. I like it the way it is, and apt-get/synaptic is so simple it's easy to customise the distro to your own needs.

Better not to have too much bloat to start with than to have to remove it afterwards.