Why I keep coming back to MX and Antix

[Freja]

(The following is my personal impression)
In short, MX is "Very close to correctly answer at the personal computer use". Maybe that's elegance.

MX doesn't suddenly behave chaotically.
There is functions that should be there. it makes sense.
Yet it's heartwarming.

It's a safe place and a place to enjoy computing freedom...
The design that gives you a feel of computer culture is attractive. It's not like a cold machine.

A standard when you're lost!

[NakedRider]

I can see why someone would keep returning.
I've come from a different Linux background than many. I was a Slackware user for over 15 years. While it's not that user friendly it's extremely stable and it comes with a huge variety of packages out of the box. I was certain it was the best distro out there. I was so happy and a I learned plenty about Linux since many things needed to be done "manually".

This year I finally did some distro hopping. I tried Mint, Mangaro, SuSE, OpenMandriva and others all of which had one thing or another that I couldn't live with so I kept returning to Slackware. For me, it was easy to go back since I had the installing of Slackware down pat and was able to do a complete install and all my configuring in barely over 20 minutes. A real plus for sure. I always had a way home. I was so confident in Slackware that I even finally got my wife to run it instead of Windoze. It was so much faster and way more stable.

Then I tried MX. Nice install and a great looking product. I was certain I was in for another disappointment, however. Most of the distros would not let me print to my wife's wireless printer. Some of them would let me set it up but when I went to print I would get an error saying it couldn't find the printer. In my retirement I also do some programming to keep my mind active. Some of the distros made it too hard to load some of my Perl modules. Sudden death for each of them.

Imagine my excitement when MX let me set up my wife's printer and actually use it. All the Perl modules loaded with no problems. Then I got hooked on the updates. It's so easy. MX is very stable as well. So now I'm left with a product that lets me do everything I need to do.

I can see why there would be someone returning to MX after some distro hopping. Maybe I'll be using MX for the next 15 years

[FraterLinux]

In the industry Realtek is infamous for the worst driver stack, including their Windows drivers which they put more effort into than their Linux drivers.
Personally I avoid them and will replace them if I end up with one through buying a used laptop.

I understand your point of view. But luckily this rtl8192eu is very stable after installing the drive, I still don't see any reason to buy another USB WIFI.

[Danathar]

Of the distributions that use XFCE, MX is the lightest and most stable. Few packages to update from time to time. And most importantly, Init freedom!!!
Debian has improved Runit support and now uses collection of run scripts as Gerrit Pape presents on his website.
Setting Runit as Pid1 in MX 23 has several advantages over SysV!

Not to start a heated discussion over sysV, Runit vs SystemD but.....

So, I'm 53 and used SysV init for a long time. When SystemD came out, I was VERY hesitant. The original author I was not a fan of, and I do agree that having one thing do so much is a danger and is against the "UNIX" way of doing things.

That being said, I can't ignore how stable systemD has been, I've never had a problem with it and it's been over 10 years now. There are some features which are nice like systemD timers which give easier flexibility than chron + shell scripting. I guess what I am saying is that I have to be careful not to ossify my positions to the point where ignore evidence.

As things move into the future, its probably going to get harder and harder to shim stuff that was designed to work with SystemD into working in sysV and runit. I don't really like this, but it's probably an inevitability.

[DukeComposed]

how to install runit init
https://salsa.debian.org/runit-team/run ... runit-init

Only MX-23
collection of run scripts

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt install runit-services

readme:
https://salsa.debian.org/Lorenzo.ru.g-g ... ter/README

P.S.: MX continues with dual Init (Runit & SystemD)

Thanks for the links. This looks like a fairly automatic process, which is a bad thing if one wants to document the exact changes that are made. It makes it harder to install, say, runit from source, or to replace PID 1 with a different init system like s6. I'll look into it and see if these steps can be broken down into discrete steps.

I left to distro-hop ONCE, because some of my friends were bragging about their own favorites and I needed to see what all the fuss was about (Mint Xfce and Linux Lite). But I returned pretty quickly to my rock-solid daily driver, MX (and antiX on an old beater). I value simplicity and stability above all, and for my that's where MX and antiX really shine.

There's nothing wrong with keeping a spare handy. I had a similar situation trying to set up my first dedicated Linux laptop. I gave up on an Arch-based distro after 5 weeks of twice-daily updates and settled on Linux Mint. When Mint switched to systemd, I started looking around and eventually found MX Linux. I'd say that was around the 18.2 days and I've stuck with it ever since. I run other distros in other situations and pay attention to the distro ecosystem, but MX is my go-to choice for a GUI-ready OS that's just going to work. Anything else is just for experimentation. And even though I'd be reluctant to switch my workflow to a different OS soon, whenever a new release of Mint is published I make sure to download a copy of the ISO. You never know.

[FraterLinux]

Thanks for the links. This looks like a fairly automatic process, which is a bad thing if one wants to document the exact changes that are made. It makes it harder to install, say, runit from source, or to replace PID 1 with a different init system like s6. I'll look into it and see if these steps can be broken down into discrete steps.

It is automatic because it is officially supported by Debian. After each new package installed apt runs a dpkg trigger for runit.

[FraterLinux]

As things move into the future, its probably going to get harder and harder to shim stuff that was designed to work with SystemD into working in sysV and runit. I don't really like this, but it's probably an inevitability.

For a home user who wants to follow the Unix philosophy and make the system simpler, the more simple officially supported alternative in Debian is Runit. Maybe at some point there will be two versions of MX, one with Init freedom and one with SystemD.

[Danathar]

As things move into the future, its probably going to get harder and harder to shim stuff that was designed to work with SystemD into working in sysV and runit. I don't really like this, but it's probably an inevitability.

For a home user who wants to follow the Unix philosophy and make the system simpler, the more simple officially supported alternative in Debian is Runit. Maybe at some point there will be two versions of MX, one with Init freedom and one with SystemD.

Well, they support both now. You can boot MX into SystemD if you want or with SysV (except for the live USB which does not have a systemD option).

[artytux]

I never left I just got here after some static distros that were good for a few months (the usual thing just a few months) then the system would do strange things and getting help was too much to ask for of the distros support so I would have to leave, before that I did a 5 to 8 years run of a rolling distro why because I wanted/needed to learn some of the more advanced things with distros and terminal use it was fun and lotta work with rolling distro but worth it, now it just nice to cruise along with my computer mostly out of the way and doing it's own thing while I do mine, MX Linux KDE has a bigger toolbox than I'll ever need and the backup tools are not some, the backup tools they are the best that an average Linux needs IF used properly.
There now I'll step down from the soapbox.
Thanks MXL.

[linexer2016]

Just looking at this thread moves me to say that I (a long time user of MX) have to say that out-of-the-box support for some Realtek wifi dongles is definitely a negative for me at least. I tried to set up a dual boot with W11 and MX on several occasions and inevitably my realtek dongle's device isn't easily available. That's not to say a similar occurrence isn't with other distros (cf Mint) but it seems to me that the download and compile of the correct driver from say github is much easier and more intuitive under Ubuntu based distros. I expect this post may engender some comment from other long time users but if the dongle's firmware (in my case rtl8812au) was available OOTB it surely would be easier than trying to get it working otherwise. It's problematic having to use another platform to download the driver and then compile it when if it came within the distro packaging it would be superior.

I’m VERY picky when it comes to usb wifi adapters for specifically that reason. Choosing one that the manufacturer specifically supports Linux and/or has open sourced the firmware and driver is an import requirement. Otherwise I avoid it.

Well Danathar, alerted by this thread I decided to research some "recommended" Linux (esp. Debian based) wifi dongles. One that came up in my search was the Brostrend but I was unable to ascertain if it had the "recommended" Mediatec or Atheros chipsets and not the Realtek. Now a reply from their support indicates "...The chipset is Realtek 8832BU...." So again even if this particular device - see https://www.amazon.com/BrosTrend-USB-Wi ... B0BTHQNK5S is promoting the suitability for Linux (and of course, Windows) it remains that it uses the ubiquitous? Realtek chipset. So my point is, it's easier said than done to acquire one of the "recommended" devices that don't in fact use Realtek drivers which some here have said is a negative overall. If indeed Realtek is ubiquitous then it follows that distro packagers might do well to include more OOTB support for such chipsets doesn't it?