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The first release of the lightweight Linux distro, antiX (pronounced "Antiques"), was in 2007. It was spun off of MEPIS. With the exception of 1 controversial release, the antiX ISO has always been able to fit on a CD.
The last release of MEPIS was in July 2013. Distrowatch calls MEPIS "Dormant". The antiX developers have picked up the torch and built a DVD-sized distro they call MX.
Softpedia reports:
The final release of antiX MX-15 [codename "Fusion"] comes after two Beta and two RC (Release Candidate) builds, during which the distribution's maintainers implemented numerous new features, updated some of the most important core components and applications, and fixed many of the bugs reported by users since the previous stable release of the OS.
antiX MX-15 is based on the latest and most advanced Debian GNU/Linux 8.2 (Jessie) operating system, which means that it inherits many of its features, including the Linux kernel 4.2 packages. The OS is currently built around the lightweight Xfce 4.12 desktop environment.
[...] Prominent features of antiX MX-15 include the automatic enabling of the Broadcom b43 and b44 drivers, support for installing the operating system on UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) machines, numerous improvements to the Advanced LiveUSB tool, as well as several under-the-hood changes.
antiX MX-15 comes with some of the best open source applications, such as Mozilla Firefox 43.0, Mozilla Thunderbird 38.4, LibreOffice 4.3.3.2, VLC Media Player 2.2.1, and Clementine 1.2.3. Additionally, the distribution improves the Settings Manager and lets users install numerous apps using one-click extras with MX Package Installer.
The antiX MX original applications are also included, and among them are Apt Notifier, Boot Repair, Broadcom Manager, Check Apt GPG, Codecs Installer, Find Shares, Flash Manager, Package Installer, Switch User, Persistence/Remaster, User Manager, Create Live USB, and Sound Card.
The News section of antix.mepis.org notes:
Just like MX-14, this release defaults to sysVinit
[...] Both [the 32- and 64-bit] ISO files weigh in at around 1GB in size.
[...] Download page (for torrents, mirror choices, and pre-loaded media purchase): http://www.mepiscommunity.org/download-links
Project home page: http://www.mxlinux.org
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 28 2015, @06:43AM
I've tried almost every Linux there is. Personally, I don't see anything to attract me to this one. It's a rehash of old rehashes.
What I'd like is a hybrid net installer. I'm already running linux, just give me an executable. I fire it up, it asks where I want it to install, what file system I want it to use, whether I want systemd, which WM and/or DE I want to use, whether I want to use free or proprietary drivers for video, which sound system I want (I prefer OSS4, but no one seems to install it by default, then it's hell changing over to OSS4) which, if any, office suite (Liberoffice is HUGE - abiword meets my needs, and it's only ~25 MB installed). Once I've answered all the necessary questions, I go about my business, and when the installer has finished building my personalized local repository, it pops up to ask if I'm ready to proceed.
I tell the installer to proceed, it reboots to the installer environment, and quickly installs everything I asked for, from local repository. Reboot, and check for updates, and find that there are no updates, since I've installed from the web.
Jessie is good, but really, no one is building a Jessie distro that I really want to drive. A hybrid installer like I've described would build my own personalized distro, with exactly the bloat that I want - no more, and no less.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday December 28 2015, @08:01AM
Seems like a lot of new distros and updated distros are coming out these days.
I've been trying out a few of them myself, mostly in virtual machines. Just trying one a week seems
to chew up a lot of time. It would be nice to have an installer like you imagine.
But I suspect it would take all the adventure and learning out of it, because one linux, once installed
is pretty much like another as far as the day to day use. The DE you choose has a lot more to do
with the experience than the distro you choose.
Someone recommended Manjaro here on SN a week ago, and I've downloaded that to test.
Also grabbed the beta of the latest Mint, and I've been playing with Salix (slackware for lazy
installers) for a while.
I'm sort of expecting my normal everyday distro, Opensuse, to implode under MicroFocus's ownership.
Just getting prepared.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @08:57AM
As I see it, this is for someone who
- is repulsed by systemd
- wants compatibility with Debian's super-large repository of pre-packaged software
- thinks antiX is nice but wants more than the ~650MB ISO of standard antiX
(perhaps has lousy bandwidth|download caps but has a meatspace friend with a fast connection and no caps)
The knuckleheads over at the antiX forum are a pretty fun and useful bunch too.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @11:20AM
So, basically... me
:-)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 28 2015, @11:27AM
LOL @ the kuckleheads at the forum. That might be reason enough to try the distro. Some forums and developers are more fun and freindly than others.
I hit an IRC channel, fairly recently, where someone wanted help with a pentesting distro. The problem wasn't even really related to pentesting, his problem was related to the underlying distro on which it was based. The established mods were less than fun or freindly. Some of our Linux brethren can be real asses sometimes.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 28 2015, @12:59PM
Most people who are knowledgeable in a niche area like computers or electronics tend to be dicks. The knowledge is what little they have in life and they guard it with zeal and deride outsiders to keep them feeling special. "OH the n00b can't figure out XYZ. LOL! RTFM stupid n00b!"
Personally, I'm more than happy to help someone.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tempest on Monday December 28 2015, @03:21PM
Most people who think they are knowledgeable about anything tend to be dicks. Particularly online.
(Score: 1) by UncleSlacky on Monday December 28 2015, @07:38PM
I use it on my ancient Asus 701 EEEPC, and it works surprisingly well running off a 32Gb SD card (faster even than MX-14 did running off the internal 4Gb SSD). I highly recommend it.
(Score: 2) by joshuajon on Monday December 28 2015, @08:44PM
I have one of those. Sounds like a good reason to dust it off and fire it up!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 28 2015, @03:10PM
build my own personalized distro, with exactly the bloat that I want - no more, and no less
In practice you've described how Puppet is used at work and home.
Install a dead simple plain no add ons "it just boots" Debian (now freebsd, but whatever) then bootstrap up puppet (a couple lines, a few minutes if that) and puppet does its magic and suddenly I've got emacs and R and sshd and libpam kerberos and ldap and xmonad (now awesome) and whatever else exactly the way I want them.
All the puppet does is class and individual hostname related package installs (using apt-get or pkgng) and stick network wide config files in certain locations. Puppet churns away in an automated manner for a couple minutes, maybe reboot the new box/image to make sure its not messed up, all done.
You don't technically "need" puppet as you're only running a script once. I'm moving away from puppet because its a PITA to set up and toward scripts in a sort of test driven development as applied to virtual machines. So provision a new image and configure it with this script and run this suite of automated tests against the new image and call it good (or bad) then keep refining the script and accepting (or not) new software versions. I don't admin the images directly by logging into them, other than for troubleshooting or fooling around. Writing tests for test driven development style systems administration is actually a PITA and I end up using a lot of "expect" which many people weirdly hate. Its kinda like docker without the accompanying "ask toolbar" level of social component / culture.