Distro-hoppers anonymous

DeepDayze · 2023-01-24 21:12:45

Sector11 wrote:

And PackRat has 7,294 USB sticks with every distro (version) he as ever tried.
Hence the name.
PackRat's Signature wrote:
You must unlearn what you have learned.
-- yoda
My first boss in the Military, 1968, must have been related to yoda.
True story might be a slight misquote:
Boss: "So you're finished your trades course and now you're a plumber."
Me: "Yes, sir."
Boss: "Good, forget everything they taught you. Now we teach you how things are done in the real world."
Me: "Yes, sir."
That's when my forgetter started getting better.

Hahaha good anecdote and bet your nick tells that you are a Star Trek fan

PackRat also has VM's of all his favorite distros and desktops too

Last edited by DeepDayze (2023-01-24 21:13:39)

PackRat · 2023-01-25 00:06:14

Sector11 wrote:

And PackRat has 7,294 USB sticks with every distro (version) he as ever tried.

When all else fails, Slackware 9 to the rescue.

Colonel Panic · 2023-02-01 21:28:30

I recently installed John Biles's spin on AntiX, LegacyOS, which is designed to be used on older computers and also incorporates some ideas from other distros; its Conky theme and configuration strongly resembles MX's and it even borrows some IceWM themes from Bunsen. John dispensed with all the other window managers in AntiX and just concentrated on IceWM.

It's working fairly well although I don't particularly like the office suite included, Only Office; it's easy enough to install LibreOffice instead though.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-02-01 21:34:33)

lowrider · 2023-02-01 22:57:15

Colonel Panic wrote:

I recently installed John Biles's spin on AntiX, LegacyOS, which is designed to be used on older computers and also incorporates some ideas from other distros; its Conky theme and configuration strongly resembles MX's and it even borrows some IceWM themes from Bunsen. John dispensed with all the other window managers in AntiX and just concentrated on IceWM.
It's working fairly well although I don't particularly like the office suite included, Only Office; it's easy enough to install LibreOffice instead though.

Designed for 64Bit only. For older Hardware i just stay with AntiX 32Bit.

Last edited by lowrider (2023-02-01 22:57:45)

Colonel Panic · 2023-02-01 23:03:33

lowrider wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
I recently installed John Biles's spin on AntiX, LegacyOS, which is designed to be used on older computers and also incorporates some ideas from other distros; its Conky theme and configuration strongly resembles MX's and it even borrows some IceWM themes from Bunsen. John dispensed with all the other window managers in AntiX and just concentrated on IceWM.
It's working fairly well although I don't particularly like the office suite included, Only Office; it's easy enough to install LibreOffice instead though.
Designed for 64Bit only. For older Hardware i just stay with AntiX 32Bit.

Ah I didn't know that, thanks. I don't think there are many distros still being produced for 32 bit computers, but it's good that AntiX is one of them.

[Edit: here's a note from John Biles himself;

"It is planned for there to be a 32 bit release of LegacyOS 2023. Hopefully this will be released in the coming months."

file:///usr/share/legacyos-help/legacyos.html]

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-02-02 19:58:50)

Colonel Panic · 2023-02-17 07:45:05

For anyone who still uses OpenSUSE or one of its spinoffs (like Gecko, the one I have at the moment); there's a very useful tool which I've just discovered and that enables you to install software from unofficial repos that aren't normally accessible to SUSE's installation tools, by building sets of custom repos for them (just as yay or paru do for Arch). It's called opi (short for Open Build Service Package Installer);

sudo zypper in opi
opi <package>

I've installed librewolf, New Moon (SUSE's equivalent of Pale Moon), qalculate and strawberry this way.

https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comme … umbleweed/

https://cubiclenate.com/2022/11/10/opi- … installer/

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-03-03 15:00:29)

Colonel Panic · 2023-02-27 10:18:49

I've recently downloaded the latest version of WattOS, R12, which is now based on Debian Stable instead of on Ubuntu as it used to be.

Firstly, full marks for design - it's quite dramatic-looking with some striking warm colours and accents set against the now ubiquitous dark backgrounds of the menu and titlebar. What Watt offers though, is rather sparse - no office suite as standard, no e-mail program, no games (not even puzzle games such as Aisle Riot card games, Freecell etc.), and also no calculator or media player apart from VLC so you have to download those if you want them. Still, it all works and maybe it's best seen as a "minimal iso" Debian live disk with some good aesthetics.

[To be fair to Watt, they actually say on their front page that this sparseness is part of the design. I think they could make it easier for their users to decide upon and download the extra software they want though, unless they're targeting more advanced users who are likely to know what they want for themselves.]

https://www.planetwatt.com/

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-03-05 08:49:38)

Martin · 2023-03-09 21:11:15

I am thinking about doing some thing different to my secondary computer, my Lenovo X230. By "different" I mean installing a distro not based on Debian. I find both Void and Salix very tempting. I am a bit intimidated by the work needed to set up full disk encryption.

Any thoughts on this? Salix vs Void... Full disk encryption...

/Martin

Last edited by Martin (2023-03-16 19:49:52)

PackRat · 2023-03-10 00:10:23

Martin wrote:

I am thinking about doing some thing different to my secondary computer, my Lenovo EX230. By "different" I mean installing a distro not based on Debian. I find both Void and Salix very tempting. I am a bit intimidated by the work needed to set up full disk encryption.
Any thoughts on this? Salix vs Void... Full disk encryption...
/Martin

Both solid distros.

Void has documentation for full disk encryption installs - https://docs.voidlinux.org/installation/guides/fde.html

You can probably find something similar on the Slackware forum page at LinuxQuestions.org, or the Salix forum. If not, the Salix forum users are good people; they'll help you out.

DeepDayze · 2023-03-10 00:11:21

Martin wrote:

I am thinking about doing some thing different to my secondary computer, my Lenovo EX230. By "different" I mean installing a distro not based on Debian. I find both Void and Salix very tempting. I am a bit intimidated by the work needed to set up full disk encryption.
Any thoughts on this? Salix vs Void... Full disk encryption...
/Martin

Would be nice to see options for setting up FDE right from the installer itself and ensuring that all the pieces are properly in place for a trouble free OOTB experience on first boot.

Think PackRat can chime in on Void as he uses that a lot.

Martin · 2023-03-10 06:09:08

PackRat wrote:

Martin wrote:
I am thinking about doing some thing different to my secondary computer, my Lenovo EX230. By "different" I mean installing a distro not based on Debian. I find both Void and Salix very tempting. I am a bit intimidated by the work needed to set up full disk encryption.
Any thoughts on this? Salix vs Void... Full disk encryption...
/Martin
Both solid distros.
Void has documentation for full disk encryption installs - https://docs.voidlinux.org/installation/guides/fde.html
You can probably find something similar on the Slackware forum page at LinuxQuestions.org, or the Salix forum. If not, the Salix forum users are good people; they'll help you out.

I have the documentation for both Slackware and Void. Print outs would be several pages long...

/Martin

PackRat · 2023-03-10 11:10:53

DeepDayze wrote:

Would be nice to see options for setting up FDE right from the installer itself and ensuring that all the pieces are properly in place for a trouble free OOTB experience on first boot.
Think PackRat can chime in on Void as he uses that a lot.

The Void documentation covers full disk encryption. I think it has to be done from a chroot installation ( https://docs.voidlinux.org/installation … hroot.html ). I don't think it's part of their installer. The chroot installation isn't too hard (I did it once just to do it).

@martin - how are you planning on using the computer? The only real difference is that Void is rolling release and will see regular updates. Salix is Slackware so much fewer updates. If you were to go with Slackware-current, it would be more like Void.

Martin · 2023-03-11 19:16:14

Rolling or non-rolling distro doesn't matter. I have been very happy with non-rolling Debian for many years.

I just picked up on my radar that FreeBSD and possibly OpenBSD installers do full disk encryption. Maybe too adventurous though. But then we are talking about my secondary computer. It contains nothing I can't loose if things go pear-shaped and I assume I can always reconsider and install something within my abilities.

The Void full disk encryption installation instruction I found is this one:
https://docs.voidlinux.org/installation/guides/fde.html

/Martin

Colonel Panic · 2023-03-16 11:46:47

Ubuntu has it (full disk encryption) too. I don't know about Debian 11.

Martin · 2023-03-16 19:48:53

Colonel Panic wrote:

Ubuntu has it (full disk encryption) too. I don't know about Debian 11.

I assume it does. My current OS is Debian based (no points for guessing it is BL) and encryption was a matter of ticking the right box during install.

Job computer runs Ubuntu. Disk encrypted of course.

/Martin

Colonel Panic · 2023-03-23 22:18:19

I've just installed the latest beta of Fedora (38), and it's working well so far with no obvious problems.

Spoke too soon ... the Fedora devs have decided for some reason that the distro's users want the Windows trait of the automatic installation of updates whilst the distro is still booting up (we don't all, in fact for some of us this is one of the things we most dislike about Windows).

Edit: I'm also getting very fed up with Gnome (the window manager), although I like some of the software that comes with it. I find it clunky and awkward to use, it takes over the boot manager and obscures other window managers I've got installed; and it also seems to thrash my hard drive on occasions and slow down whatever I'm trying to do. I might stick with Exton's spin on Fedora Cinnamon in future, which works very well on my system even if I had to install some programs myself, such as LibreOffice and Thunderbird, that should really have been provided.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-04-23 10:32:49)

taberacci · 2023-03-29 03:35:44

Warning, this is a distro-hopper who could go rambling for quite a bit. I couldn't do this in 2021 or earlier so there.

Beryllium, nice system but a bit bloated. Have to get used to dot-file land. Tried Slackel also which was a mess to be honest and not good for slow Internet connections. Also have Archbang which has been small and awesome so far. I have like much, much more but it will be a story for another day.

(BTW why isn't there a "general" topic to introduce new people? Why start a new topic for "every" person? I hate starting topics but I might have to create one anyway, that's why I asked.)

Colonel Panic · 2023-03-29 07:26:40

taberacci wrote:

Warning, this is a distro-hopper who could go rambling for quite a bit. I couldn't do this in 2021 or earlier so there.
Beryllium, nice system but a bit bloated. Have to get used to dot-file land. Tried Slackel also which was a mess to be honest and not good for slow Internet connections. Also have Archbang which has been small and awesome so far. I have like much, much more but it will be a story for another day.
(BTW why isn't there a "general" topic to introduce new people? Why start a new topic for "every" person? I hate starting topics but I might have to create one anyway, that's why I asked.)

There's this one;

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewforum.php?id=7

Welcome anyway.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-03-29 07:27:08)

Martin · 2023-03-29 21:19:30

Earlier I lamented the lack of installer support for creating encrypted hard drives in Void and Salix. Yes, there are instructions for both for how to do it manually but... Then I found out that Slint, which is a Slackware based distro built on Salix technology, has an installer that does disk encryption for you.

Hence, I am currently trying out Slint in a virtual machine.

Slint has no Live ISO. You have to install it before you take it for a spin. Installing, including encryption, went swimmingly once I had duped it into believing I have a 50 GB drive for it to use. It occupies 9 GB after installation.

During the installation process I can choose between several DE/WM options but Mate is sort of recommended so I went for that and expected a stream-lined Mate experience as Salix Live ISO offers a very snappy, no-nonsense XFCE experience. But instead Slint UX is a mix of Mate (GTK) and Qt programs with several duplications, tripplications...: At least four text editors, three file managers etc. When I check installed packages I find every window manager I ever heard of. Why?

The package manager in question, Gslapt, works fairly well. It is a little primitive compared to Synaptic. When removing packages I have to carefully double-check what else will be removed. Also, when installing, it is not always successful in pulling in dependencies.

Slint is not Salix with a HD encryption capable installer. Nevertheless, I will play some more with it to learn more.

/Martin

Colonel Panic · 2023-03-30 19:24:07

Hi Martin,

I tried an earlier version of Slint (14.2.1.4) a while back and liked it but couldn't get a later one (15.0.1) to finish installing - maybe it was a bad disk burn or something. It used to have tools for the partially sighted (such as the orca screen reader) though; I assume that it still has.

https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stabl … on.html.en

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2023-03-30 19:26:52)

#1881 2023-01-24 21:12:45

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#1882 2023-01-25 00:06:14

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

#1883 2023-02-01 21:28:30

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#1884 2023-02-01 22:57:15

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#1885 2023-02-01 23:03:33

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#1886 2023-02-17 07:45:05

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#1887 2023-02-27 10:18:49

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#1888 2023-03-09 21:11:15

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#1889 2023-03-10 00:10:23

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#1890 2023-03-10 00:11:21

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#1891 2023-03-10 06:09:08

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#1892 2023-03-10 11:10:53

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#1893 2023-03-11 19:16:14

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#1894 2023-03-16 11:46:47

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#1895 2023-03-16 19:48:53

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#1896 2023-03-23 22:18:19

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#1897 2023-03-29 03:35:44

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#1898 2023-03-29 07:26:40

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#1899 2023-03-29 21:19:30

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#1900 2023-03-30 19:24:07

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