Hello. I finally decided to roll my own version of antix. My basic vision is

1. Only gtk2 apps
2. One app per task
3. Based on debian stable
4. Include an "lxde light" option
5. More robust apps (such as gimp instead of mtpaint)

So far I have

1. Installed m8 base and pointed apt-get to the stable repos
2. Installed icewm and "lxde light"
3. Installed some multimedia apps: vlc (while it's still gtk2), gnomebaker, aumix, and asunder (used testing repos)
4. Installed geany, gtkdialog, and searchmonkey (lighter and less depends than catfish)

I am currently focusing on "lxde light". I wanted to do a full lxde install, but it pulled in too many depends for my tastes. So I decided to create a light version. Here's my vision of lxde light:

1. openbox + lpanel
2. obconf, lxappearance, pcmanfm

I toyed with the idea of using pcmanfm to manage the wallpaper and icons, but I scrapped the idea until I can figure out how to edit the right-click menu (the one you get once this option is enabled). I would also like to give an "antix" heading to the regular right-click menu, but I'm not sure how.

I'll probably work in the lxde light environment for a while. I'll probably build the control center next and install the apps I want to use. And I'll install some office, network, etc. apps when I get bored with antixcc. I'll also probably remove some apps such as links and rox as they don't fit in my vision of a distro with a more robust base of apps than antix offers. If you have ideas that you'd like to share, please post them here. Thanks.

john

Well, "lxde light" provided some eyecandy over icewm, but icewm has a lot more "bang for your buck." And if I want eye candy, fluxbox has plenty of it to offer.

As for vlc, it turned out to be a bust. I much prefer browsing streams in streamtuner. Additionally, vlc keeps dropping connections. I also don't like the idea of setting up the equalizer and streamtuner browser at each login. So I decided to go with streamtuner + alsaplayer and gmusicbrowser. For video, I wanted to go with mplayer since so many dvd apps need it, but it doesn't access disc menus which makes archiving more difficult. So I went with gxine and mplayer-nogui.

I also am not going too heavy with the apps. For example, I think it's worth it to install gimp over mtpaint, but I don't think it's worth all of the additional depends to install gthumb over gqview. I am also getting used to searchmonkey so I'll install that over catfish. So for quite a few apps I am going to maintain the antix philosophy of keep it light.

john

Hello. I made some decisions.

1. For now only fluxbox is installed. Set up what I think is a nice theme.
2. Multimedia
vlc, mplayer-nogui, gnomebaker, aumix, easytag
3. Graphics
gimp, gqview
4. Office
geany, osmo
5. System
unrar, pcmanfm, urxvt, gtkdialog, lxappearance, synaptic, xarchive, searchmonkey

john

Hi OU812, i've been following your thread with interest, because eventhough i have always done a 'minimal' install in Debian, i have never done the multimedia bit. I did not have speakers till a month ago in my coffe pot/computer. When it comes to multimedia, i'm the proverbial ignoramus

One of the reasons i use antiX is that besides being Debian, it comes with the multimedia part already configured

QUESTIONS:
1.To what groups do you have to add the user? (besides, video and audio, antiX comes with a bunch of them).
2.Is vlc, mplayer-nogui, aumix, flash, enough to watch 'youtube'?
I know the multimedia repo has to be added.
3.what about sound? mp3, music cds, etc?

thanks,

1. afaik, you don't need to add the user to any groups - new users should be automatically added to the most common groups (when installing antix and using the mepis utility).
2. asfaik, the appropriate codecs are installed on both the full and base m8 versions. the apps i installed are:
aumix - gui or text mixer settings
vlc - all in one app - movies with menu navigation, shoutcast browser, music manager, cd player, equalizer, etc.
flash - preinstalled in base and full m8
3. if you start with base, you need to install a music player. the music player you install should already install depends for cd, etc.
4. afaik, the only codecs you might need to install are win32 and lame (if you want to rip to mp3).
5. i use stable repos only - so i edited sources.list to include stable repos only - including multimedia. the only time i enable testing is when i install asunder for cd ripping (grip seems dead and is still considered beta).

if you have a machine with low resources, then xmms or alsaplayer (gtk2) would be good audio player choices. for video, gxine or mplayer should be ok. vlc may be too heavy. (i don't really use mplayer for watching files/dvds - i only use with my dvd backup software since it's a depends, which is why i chose to install the nogui version.

hth.

john

macondo,

Just to add that youtube and mp3s should play out of the box with antiX-base.

Thank you OU812 and anticapitalista, i appreciate it.

John, you mentioned using gqview and gimp so as to not have all the dependencies of gthumb. I don't know about gqview but gthumbs has quite a few editing tools. Most users would probably find this sufficient for their photos and such.

Stand alone gthumb would be much lighter than gqview and gimp together and still have a lot of funcionality. Gqview may have some editing tools, I don't know, but the gimp is overkill for most users.

So gthumb + mtpaint ? I'll look into it.

john

I second that Notion! Everytime i use gqview i wish i was using gthumb. It may be heavier, but it has a lot of features that i personally require which gqview doesn't have.

Great thread John. I've been having another play with the latest lxde, and while there's still a lot of work to be done in many areas, the basic ideas are sound & work well, plus using Openbox just makes the whole thing so fast. Having said that, Openbox on a GNOME system (replacing METACITY) makes GNOME fly also.

Have you got any screenshots of the lastest version of your "Home Rolled System"?

Oh, and i've just installed antiX 8, upgraded, and all is working fine. The work that you have done with IceWM is amazing, even though i still prefer the overall feel & look of Flux/Openbox. Who would have thought that IceWM could look so good eh?

Kudos........

DJiNN

Changelog:

1. Added openbox + config tools + lxpanel (again). I am beginning to like this setup a lot. It will take some work to customize it though.

2. Replaced gqview with gthumb. Very nice app.

3. Replaced gimp with mtpaint. (Thanks for the suggestions on gthumb + mtpaint.)

4. Using mtpaint as my screenshot app - got the idea from slitaz. I also used erie's original zenity scripts to set a delay before mtpaint launches. If you're interested, the command is

mtpaint -s

john

That's cool! I was unaware that mtpaint could do that. I wish gthumb could take a screen shot, then it would be complete.

Mtpaint could be used to take the shot and then edit and save as whatever format you wish. Great stuff.

sometimes it pays to be a distro ho'.

john

I just emailed the author of gthumb a feature request I requested that he/she include a screenshot function in future builds. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Side note:
Did you know that gthumb will set a selected pic as your wall paper. You might be able to eliminate another app if you were considering nitrogen.

I was thinking of just using pcmanfm to manage the wallpaper - as long as I can still use conky. Good idea with gthumb setting the wall; it would be easy enough to set it up in a menu or control center, but it may not be intuitive after that.

john