antiX M8.2 Test 1 now available and looking GREAT!

Here with antiX M8.2 Test 1, running live. Let me tell you why I like antiX so much as a Live CD.

1. Loads, even to RAM, in under two minutes, faster than that to run straight from CD.

2. Recognizes, even on CD, just about any wireless network card you can throw at it.

3. Has a good selection of software, and given that you can run it live, from USB, or install it to disk from the CD, it is easy to install or just use as is (as I am doing right now.

4. It's fast, and I think it is a blend of being easy enough, yet fast enough. You can get smaller Live CDs, but they take more tinkering and they don't have as many good apps. You can get larger live CDs, but they don't boot or run as fast as antiX.

I consider this the #1 top Live CD overall and one of the best systems around. You can run it either as a stable system or you can also customize and build your own system from it. What other system can do all of these things well? Some can do certain tasks better, perhaps, but on the balance this is the best live CD you can get!

The appearance of this version is better than ever - the nicest boot splash screen I've seen yet, thanks to the great artists in the antiX community!

Comparing KDE 3.5.10 and KDE 4.2.2 memory usage

Recently I have been checking out the memory usage of various window managers and desktop environments, concluding with a study of KDE. That led me to wonder how well KDE would work on my oldest working system, the Dell Dimension 4100 desktop. I often used KDE 3.5 on that system, and I had a KDE 3.5.9 and 3.5.10 system already installed, so last night I updated my PCLinuxOS partition on the 4100 to bring it up to date, used it for a while, then upgraded my sidux partition on the same system, bringing it up to KDE 4.2.2.

I found that both versions of KDE did swap, to a certain extent, on both PCLinuxOS (KDE 3.5.10) and sidux (KDE 4.2.2), but the memory management was excellent on each system, not too aggressive, nor too inactive, allowing swap where needed, keeping at least a modest amount of free memory at all times, and trimming swap usage when memory requirements were relieved. The result was acceptable performance, even on a system that is nearly a decade old, and contains a Pentium 3 processor with about a 1 GHz CPU and 256 MB of memory.

KDE remains a viable desktop environment in both the older legacy form and the newer Plasma based technology. Though a lightweight window manager definitely reduces the amount of swap space used, KDE still gets the job done, and surprisingly well with both systems. There was always at least 4 KB of available memory at all times, and when that level was reached, the scheduler reallocated memory and grew the active swap space, and when the memory usage declined, the swap space was cleanly released. That speaks very well for the Linux kernels on both PCLinuxOS and sidux systems, and it also demonstrates that KDE remains a viable desktop alternative, even for hardware that is nearly a decade old.

Revisiting antiX and SimplyMEPIS

Revisiting antiX and SimplyMEPIS

The sidux, SimplyMEPIS, and antiX distributions are the trilogy of systems that I prefer to use the most, though I have, test, and use many more systems. Recently I have updated the most current software updates across each of my systems, but other than that, I have not been using much beside sidux. With sidux, I've spent several days using different desktop and window managers, including the relatively recent KDE 4.2.2, fvwm-crystal, and XFCE.

Yesterday I made it a point to spend some time with both antiX and SimplyMEPIS. There were no package updates in SimplyMEPIS at all; it is rock stable. There were only a few package updates to antiX, which is based on Debian Testing. Both of them ran very smoothly and cleanly. No wonder I keep them among my trilogy of systems!

What I enjoy about all three of my favorite systems is that they work so well; that is what is common about the three of them, along with the fact that each of them is based upon Debian packaging: sidux is based on Debian Sid, antiX is based on Debian Testing, and SimplyMEPIS is based on Debian Stable. By using all three of them, I can get a pretty good idea about what is going on in each of these Debian repositories. I also have an installed copy of Debian Lenny, which, like SimplyMEPIS, is quite solid and stable; I have it implemented with XFCE and it is also fast.

In addition to being able to track what is going on with Debian by using these distributions, I also get three very good systems that have three very different, distinctive attributes that I appreciate, attributes that are difficult to obtain in a single system. sidux is a cutting edge system, antiX is a light, fast, and flexible system, and SimplyMEPIS is a simple, stable system. All three of them are among the best, if not THE best, with those particular attributes, and I consider each of them to be at the top of their class for the kind of niche they fill. In addition to that, I happen to like each distribution, and the communities that represent them are very helpful.

Revisiting antiX and SimplyMEPIS

Revisiting antiX and SimplyMEPIS

The sidux, SimplyMEPIS, and antiX distributions are the trilogy of systems that I prefer to use the most, though I have, test, and use many more systems. Recently I have updated the most current software updates across each of my systems, but other than that, I have not been using much beside sidux. With sidux, I've spent several days using different desktop and window managers, including the relatively recent KDE 4.2.2, fvwm-crystal, and XFCE.

Yesterday I made it a point to spend some time with both antiX and SimplyMEPIS. There were no package updates in SimplyMEPIS at all; it is rock stable. There were only a few package updates to antiX, which is based on Debian Testing. Both of them ran very smoothly and cleanly. No wonder I keep them among my trilogy of systems!

What I enjoy about all three of my favorite systems is that they work so well; that is what is common about the three of them, along with the fact that each of them is based upon Debian packaging: sidux is based on Debian Sid, antiX is based on Debian Testing, and SimplyMEPIS is based on Debian Stable. By using all three of them, I can get a pretty good idea about what is going on in each of these Debian repositories. I also have an installed copy of Debian Lenny, which, like SimplyMEPIS, is quite solid and stable; I have it implemented with XFCE and it is also fast.

In addition to being able to track what is going on with Debian by using these distributions, I also get three very good systems that have three very different, distinctive attributes that I appreciate, attributes that are difficult to obtain in a single system. sidux is a cutting edge system, antiX is a light, fast, and flexible system, and SimplyMEPIS is a simple, stable system. All three of them are among the best, if not THE best, with those particular attributes, and I consider each of them to be at the top of their class for the kind of niche they fill. In addition to that, I happen to like each distribution, and the communities that represent them are very helpful.

Updating systems

I did a lot of software updating this past week, updating most of the distributions on three distinct systems I have at home, a Compaq/HP D530 desktop and two laptops, first a Lenovo 3000 Y410, then what I call a portable, a Gateway PA6A 17" system, which is what I typically use as my desktop.

All updates went well, and we seem to be going through a time of relative quiet, at least for the stable distributions. The Mandriva Cooker, on the other hand, had 715 initial updates, then when I removed some old packages with old file dependencies, I added well over 400 new packages when I added the complete KDE4 metapackage (which I may disassemble at some point in the future). The Mandriva Cooker did well, particularly since it is really at an early Alpha stage for the Mandriva 2010.0 Fall release.

Ubuntu also released Alpha 1 this week; I have not gotten into that - I may wait until Alpha 2 or 3 to get involved in it.

Updating software on Linux systems

I spent a few hours today updating software packages on several of my Linux systems, including sidux, xubuntu, kubuntu, Debian Lenny, and gOS. All of the updates went well. The other day I also updated my SimplyMEPIS and PCLinuxOS systems, and those updates also went well.

I am going to double check antiX and make sure I update anti to the latest and greatest, too.

KDE 4.2.2 still has a few problems

I went through the first week or so without encountering any major issues with KDE 4.2.2 at all, but once I started using more than just Email and a Web browser, I started running into issues. I used Dolphin, the new file manager, to locate a Word 2007 document that someone had sent me and I opened it. Open Office 3.0.1 got about halfway through initialization, then froze the entire desktop. At first, I could not tell what was responsible for the issue, so I tried it again. I should note that when I say froze the entire desktop, in the past, I could issue a Ctrl-Alt-F1 ... F4 and start a non graphical interface. I was locked from doing that; no key sequences at all responded; holding the power button for five seconds is the only thing that worked.

Did it again, was able to open a few files, but coming back to the same file on the third or fourth try blew me right out of the desktop - but that's better, at least I did not have to reboot. Once I saw that, I blame Plasma for the issue, but also Open Office for erratic behavior. However, running with fvwm-crystal, I saw no symptoms of an issue with Open Office, despite opening several files repeatedly, therefore I believe this to actually be a KDE 4.2.2 and more specifically a Plasma issue. Have to follow up to verify this, then issue a bug report so that this can get fixed.