#3001 2026-07-25 12:56:09

Colonel Panic

Member

Registered: 2018-11-13

Posts: 1,779

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

Thanks for the info. I think I'd have be convinced though that FreeBSD was better than what I'm already using (especially when I have an old and gradually failing computer that I'm trying to keep going).

I don't know how much this is true for everyone else here but I've got a lot of "sunk cost" in terms of the knowledge I've built up over the years that I've been using Linux, even down to things like the batch files I use that rely on Linux partition naming conventions (the BSDs are different in this regard), so I feel I'd need a good reason to change over.

At the moment I'm posting from MX 23 (Melodie's Bento respin).

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2026-07-25 14:29:11)

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 536

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

I could try refurbishing my previous laptop and putting FreeBSD on that.   Just need to get some more tools

Döbbie03

Resident Metalhead

From: New Zealand

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 4,292

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

For anyone wanting to try Void, this might be worth a looksee

https://odysseylinux.org/

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"All we are is dust in the wind, dude"
                                       - Theodore "Ted" Logan
"Led Zeppelin didn't write tunes that everybody liked, they left that to the Bee Gees."
                                       - Wayne Campbell

Colonel Panic

Member

Registered: 2018-11-13

Posts: 1,779

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

Looks good Dobbie!

unklar

Back to the roots 1.9

From: #! BL

Registered: 2015-10-31

Posts: 3,041

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

For anyone wanting to try Void, this might be worth a looksee

https://odysseylinux.org/

Thanks!
Unfortunately, there's too much of a discrepancy between the *grand* announcement and the *download*...   

Colonel Panic

Member

Registered: 2018-11-13

Posts: 1,779

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

I've had another go at installing MX Fluxbox 25.2, and this time it worked. I'm posting from it now.

I took PackRat's and greenjeans's advice and disabled the screensaver first (I wasn't able to do the same for power management, but in the event it didn't matter). And of course I didn't have Firefox open this time.

So far it's working very well and is light in system resources (for a 2026 distro). I'm not overly keen on the appearance, which it has in common with all the other MX 25.2 series, but that's easily changed.

One thing it really needs though is a better menuing system that groups programs by function from the start button in Tint2. I've installed JG Menu for this purpose. It also doesn't have an office suite or an image viewer-come-organiser like Geeqie (but you can easily install those too).

[EDIT: the sound went down for some reason so I've gone back to MX 23 (based on Debian 12). Don't know what's wrong with Trixie but I find I like Bookworm better - hope they keep issuing updates for it.]

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2026-07-31 07:33:35)

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 3,000

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

New one from Spain based on Debian Testing.

Soplos Linux - https://soplos.org/

Live session of Xfce4 version is pretty smooth. Plasma and Gnome version also available for download.

Looks to be a minimal Xfce4 install. Ghostty added as the default terminal; xfce4-terminal also available if ghostty doesn't run on your system. Uses zRAM by default for swap so do not create a swap file during the install. The Calmeres installer still offers creation of swap with the full disk or manual partition options.

May install to metal if I have some time. Calameres installer.

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You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

marens

Member

From: World without M$

Registered: 2023-02-02

Posts: 1,281

Re: Distro-hoppers anonymous

^ Whisker Menu is one of my favorites.
I remember spending hours writing CSS for a custom gtk theme.

Unfortunately, I haven't used XFCE for a long time.

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If people would know how little brain is ruling the world, they would die of fear.