Distro-hoppers anonymous

Colonel Panic · 2021-03-20 08:00:10

The Conky file has a heading which says "Swift Linux (based on MX Linux)", so it's a moot point as to whether or not it merits being considered a separate distro (and I believe it's a discussion we've had before on here with a different distro).

The best I can say is, if you like the rebranding, the updates and the password manager included, go for Swift; if you don't, stick with MX.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2021-03-20 08:00:34)

deleted0 · 2021-03-20 13:59:11

Colonel Panic wrote:

The Conky file has a heading which says "Swift Linux (based on MX Linux)", so it's a moot point as to whether or not it merits being considered a separate distro (and I believe it's a discussion we've had before on here with a different distro).
The best I can say is, if you like the rebranding, the updates and the password manager included, go for Swift; if you don't, stick with MX.

Yes, just to be clear, users can run whatever they want.
I say it's a cheap knock off and yes, the "dev" has every right to embarrass himself.

From the web page 'About':

Did you invent Hannah Montana Linux?

No, that wasn’t me. However, I liked the idea. Because the 
person who invented Hannah Montana Linux abandoned the 
project, I decided to revive it.

Hanna Montana Linux was a Ubuntu spin. Slapping her picture on MX Linux is not "reviving it". That departure from reality best describes the entire project, if he's claiming some kind of uniqueness. And it looks like he is by setting up a website and a forum. It better belongs in the MX forum under the respins section.

It's a themed version of MX Linux, nothing more; certainly not deserving to be called a separate distro IMHO, however many times the concept has been discussed here.

In other words, MX Linux is the Linux Mint of lightweight 
distros. In fact, I regard MX Linux as the unofficial Linux 
Mint Debian Edition, because it offers many of the same 
merits of Linux Mint in a lighter and faster package.

I rest my case.

This is no reflection on you, Colonel Panic, or you posting your opinion of the 'distro' here. Both are welcome.

8bit

Last edited by deleted0 (2021-03-20 14:42:24)

Colonel Panic · 2021-03-20 15:42:12

Hi eight.bit, thanks for replying.

The Swift forum goes back way before MX Linux, and Swift existed in a different form before this current one did; I think it was based on Mint Debian originally.

[EDIT: I found this post on the Swift forum,

jhsu8...@gmail.com

Jan 28, 2017, 10:23:20 PM
to linux-swift-users

Version 16 of Taylor Swift Linux, Ingress Enlightened Swift Linux, and Ingress Resistance Swift Linux are now available! Swift Linux is now based on MX Linux.]

So it looks as though Mr Hsu was the lead / sole developer of a distro called Swift Linux back in 2012, retired the project and then, as you say, used the name for an MX respin from 2017 on.

I think he has the right to do that but I'm not sure if he's allowed to revive the name Hannah Montana without permission from the devs of that distro; would I be allowed to create, say, a Sparky Linux spinoff and call it Libranet just because the original Libranet was retired long ago? At least the one I do use, InterState, has an original name.

I'm happy to keep using Swift for the time being but I wonder if either MX or old Hannah Montana devs themselves would have any problem with the current project (or what Taylor Swift thinks of a respin being named in tribute to her; maybe she'd be flattered?).

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2021-03-20 17:46:59)

el_koraco · 2021-03-20 16:22:26

Colonel Panic wrote:

I wonder if either MX or old Hannah Montana devs themselves would have any problem with the current project (or what Taylor Swift thinks of a respin being named in tribute to her; maybe she'd be flattered?).

Her first response would be "What is Linux"

deleted0 · 2021-03-20 16:36:24

I promise this will be my last on this, because it's getting OT.

Everything about this project looks like taking something someone else did, changing something minor and calling it a new thing.

The website is someone else's framework with someone else's theme.
The forum is a long dead google group with one new post.
The Hanna Montana Linux is borrowed (to be generous about it).
The 'distro' is MX Linux with different wallpaper and a couple of different icons. (and an edited conky).

T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ i̶s̶ n̶o̶ w̶a̶y̶ (̶I̶'v̶e̶ f̶o̶u̶n̶d̶)̶ t̶o̶ t̶e̶l̶l̶ w̶h̶o̶ i̶s̶ b̶e̶h̶i̶n̶d̶ t̶h̶i̶s̶ e̶f̶f̶o̶r̶t̶. I̶s̶ i̶t̶ s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ w̶h̶o̶ w̶a̶s̶ r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ w̶i̶t̶h̶ S̶w̶i̶f̶t̶, o̶r̶ j̶u̶s̶t̶ s̶o̶m̶e̶ g̶u̶y̶/g̶a̶l̶ l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ f̶o̶r̶ e̶a̶s̶y̶ f̶a̶m̶e̶. I see there's more history here than is first evident.

8bit

edit: also, I see no reason to risk running this 'wild' version of MX, certainly not for a pic of Taylor Swift.

Last edited by deleted0 (2021-03-20 17:16:55)

Sector11 · 2021-03-20 17:29:22

Colonel Panic wrote:

The Conky file has a heading which says "Swift Linux (based on MX Linux)"

Can you post the conky file here.

Colonel Panic · 2021-03-20 17:52:55

el_koraco wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
I wonder if either MX or old Hannah Montana devs themselves would have any problem with the current project (or what Taylor Swift thinks of a respin being named in tribute to her; maybe she'd be flattered?).
Her first response would be "What is Linux"

I'd like to think not (I like the idea that Taylor runs a Linux distro), but I suspect you're right.

Colonel Panic · 2021-03-20 18:01:12

eight.bit.al wrote:

I promise this will be my last on this, because it's getting OT.
Everything about this project looks like taking something someone else did, changing something minor and calling it a new thing.
The website is someone else's framework with someone else's theme.
The forum is a long dead google group with one new post.
The Hanna Montana Linux is borrowed (to be generous about it).
The 'distro' is MX Linux with different wallpaper and a couple of different icons. (and an edited conky).
T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ i̶s̶ n̶o̶ w̶a̶y̶ (̶I̶'v̶e̶ f̶o̶u̶n̶d̶)̶ t̶o̶ t̶e̶l̶l̶ w̶h̶o̶ i̶s̶ b̶e̶h̶i̶n̶d̶ t̶h̶i̶s̶ e̶f̶f̶o̶r̶t̶. I̶s̶ i̶t̶ s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ w̶h̶o̶ w̶a̶s̶ r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ w̶i̶t̶h̶ S̶w̶i̶f̶t̶, o̶r̶ j̶u̶s̶t̶ s̶o̶m̶e̶ g̶u̶y̶/g̶a̶l̶ l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ f̶o̶r̶ e̶a̶s̶y̶ f̶a̶m̶e̶. I see there's more history here than is first evident.
8bit
edit: also, I see no reason to risk running this 'wild' version of MX, certainly not for a pic of Taylor Swift.

Fair enough. I installed it because I don't have a copy of MX around, did have a copy of Swift and wanted the MX functionality.

Jason Hsu (for that is his name) doesn't try to hide the fact that Swift is based on another distro though; in fact quite the reverse, he makes it very clear that this is the case. As I said above, I think it's up to MX devs to complain if they think he's taking liberties with their distro; I find it hard to believe that they aren't aware of it.

I agree that the Hanna Montana version is on dodgier ground and won't be downloading that one.

Here's what he said in 2013, after he'd retired the original version of Swift;

https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/ … 00673.html

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2021-03-20 18:04:18)

Colonel Panic · 2021-03-20 18:04:37

Sector11 wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
The Conky file has a heading which says "Swift Linux (based on MX Linux)"
Can you post the conky file here.

Will do.

jeffreyC · 2021-03-20 20:10:07

Colonel Panic wrote:

The Conky file has a heading which says "Swift Linux (based on MX Linux)", so it's a moot point as to whether or not it merits being considered a separate distro (and I believe it's a discussion we've had before on here with a different distro).
The best I can say is, if you like the rebranding, the updates and the password manager included, go for Swift; if you don't, stick with MX.

Updates are a normal thing in MX Linux.
KeePassXC is in the MX repos.

So all that leaves are wallpapers and a name change.

unklar · 2021-03-21 11:23:30

^For the first time in my Linux life I managed to display a "NOT present" U(efi) with QEMU and install it with calamares from the latest Siduction-ISO to the virtual disk.

Thanks @HoaS it was a little tricky with these lines of code of mine:

#!/bin/sh
qemu-system-x86_64      -enable-kvm \
                        -bios /usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \
                        -m 4096 \
                        -vga std \
                        -hda /home/unklarer/virtu/platte.img \
                        -cpu host \
                        -smp 2 \
                        -soundhw all \
                        -monitor stdio

which is certainly still in need of improvement.

Last edited by unklar (2021-03-21 12:30:33)

Colonel Panic · 2021-03-22 07:47:36

I'm testing Rosa 11 at the moment, a Russian distro which runs from the live disk and uses the .rpm package format (apparently it's a Mandriva fork). Like PCLinuxOS, it works out of the box without any tweaking or modification; unlike that distro, however, it has an excellent "freeze" utility designed to save any files in the partition from being overwritten if you decide to do any experimentation once you've installed it.

I think it's well worth a look. Here's a link to the site;

https://www.rosalinux.ru/en/home-2/

[Update: I discovered an irritating fault with Rosa when I installed it; the login screen blinked rapidly on and off, making it all but impossible for me to log in and actually use the system.

Interestingly, I had a similar fault when I installed Mageia 8 a bit later, except that with Mageia I was able to overcome the distraction and log in.]

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2021-03-27 13:22:09)

deleted0 · 2021-03-27 01:52:56

Latest creation. Xfce on Arch.
Icons were a lot of work to get set.

Clean.

Very simple, almost empty panel.

Menu

Pic edited to show more menu.

Thunar.

Htop and Neofetch.

This might become my daily driver.

8bit

edit: wallpaper <-- you want to see this

ratcheer · 2021-03-27 14:34:11

Those photos are beautiful.

And yes, Arch Linux is my "daily driver", too. For years I used Openbox, but since I got my new PC in August, I've been using Awesome.

hhh · 2021-03-27 23:21:31

^ Awesome WM is appropriately named, it is awesome.

cog · 2021-03-28 00:36:59

Went from Gentoo to Arch now Debian bullseye built up with no recommends from debootstrap. Bullseye is really nice. Using the xfce desktop since bullseye has the new 4.16 release.

Also this is fully encrypted lvm over luks with ext4 everywhere except for the uefi partition. I still don’t trust btrfs for single drive systems. But if your running a raid btrfs is ready for prime time.

Last edited by cog (2021-03-28 00:39:19)

sleekmason · 2021-03-28 13:26:10

eight.bit.al wrote:

Latest creation. Xfce on Arch.
Icons were a lot of work to get set.
Clean.
https://scrot.cloud/images/2021/03/26/screen5e30d96a420b07a6.th.pngVery simple, almost empty panel.
Menu
https://scrot.cloud/images/2021/03/26/screen-menu30fb3fa54fbddaab.th.pngPic edited to show more menu.
Thunar.
https://scrot.cloud/images/2021/03/26/screen-thunaracae163759838024.th.png
Htop and Neofetch.
https://scrot.cloud/images/2021/03/26/anew.th.png
This might become my daily driver.
8bit
edit: wallpaper <-- you want to see this

Very nicely done! Really dig your menu. It seems that working around the "apps" menu is the way to go if you want icons in those categories.

I'm piping the "apps" menu into my custom menu, and no icons will show up! Same for recents". I guess none supported in pipes.

deleted0 · 2021-03-28 13:40:56

^ Thanks for the kind words.

8bit

Sector11 · 2021-03-28 13:42:49

eight.bit.al wrote:

Latest creation. Xfce on Arch.
{el snipo}
<-- you want to see this

No, grabbed the cat though. Love it!

Very nice. Not an Xfce4 fan but very nice.

deleted0 · 2021-03-28 14:33:45

Sector11 wrote:

eight.bit.al wrote:
Latest creation. Xfce on Arch.
{el snipo}
<-- you want to see this
No, grabbed the cat though. Love it!
Very nice. Not an Xfce4 fan but very nice.

You did want to see it, or you wouldn't have seen the cat.
And that horse, what a magnificent animal...
Oh well, each to their own.

Thanks.

8bit

#1221 2021-03-20 08:00:10

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#1222 2021-03-20 13:59:11

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#1223 2021-03-20 15:42:12

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#1224 2021-03-20 16:22:26

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#1225 2021-03-20 16:36:24

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#1226 2021-03-20 17:29:22

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#1227 2021-03-20 17:52:55

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#1228 2021-03-20 18:01:12

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#1229 2021-03-20 18:04:37

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#1230 2021-03-20 20:10:07

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#1231 2021-03-21 11:23:30

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#1232 2021-03-22 07:47:36

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#1233 2021-03-27 01:52:56

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#1234 2021-03-27 14:34:11

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#1235 2021-03-27 23:21:31

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#1236 2021-03-28 00:36:59

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#1237 2021-03-28 13:26:10

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#1238 2021-03-28 13:40:56

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#1239 2021-03-28 13:42:49

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#1240 2021-03-28 14:33:45

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