MX Linux

In the middle of December, frustrated by the umpteenth system crash that day, I wiped Xubuntu from my laptop. At the beginning of 2016, I used Linux Mint, dropping it, when I got tired of multiple system crashes per day.

Given the error messages I've seen from both Xubuntu, and Mint, my conclusion was that SystemD was responsible for the crashes.

Thus, my requirements are:

* Does not use SystemD;
* XFCE Desktop;


Going to DistroWatch, I noticed that MX-Linux 16 had been released a few days earlier, and that it met my primary requirements.  I installed it, then started using my laptop.  With increasing trepidation, I used my computer as I normally did.  Individual programs (^1) crashed, but when they did so, they didn't take the OS down with them.  I kept waiting for the OS to crash.  It finally crashed, when I opened an extremely resource hungry program so many times, that neither Swap Memory nor RAM was available.


Other than not crashing, the biggest difference between MX-Linux and Xubuntu is that a right mouse click on the desktop has several options that require root. LibreOffice 5.3 stores palettes in /opt/LibreOffice/share/palettes, making the ability to open Thunar as root, from the desktop, extremely useful.

Something else I've noticed, is that Thunderbird isn't playing games, claiming that folders are not available, and requiring me to click on the error message, to deliver the email to the inbox, and then clicking on ">Tools >Run Message Filters." With half a dozen emails per day, that is barely tolerable.  With three to five emails per minute, that is completely unacceptable.




For more information about MX-Linux, go to https://mxlinux.org/.



In all, I'm much happier with MX-Linux, than I was either either Linux Mint, or Xubuntu, a month after installing them.


^1: I tend to use beta versions, rather than stable versions of software.  As such, program crashes are not unexpected.

Devuan

There is a new startup Linux distro in town:
Devuan.

https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng

The theory is that it is Debian, but without SytemD.

The people behind it are still working on what infrastructure is needed, before development can start.

So what is the topic that has the greatest discussion?
Release Names.

A few people are trying to determine what hardware is needed, and where to locate it.
A few more are trying to decide what should be included.

In retrospect, what they greybeards should have done, and perhaps are doing, is create a public list that they all but ignore, and a private list for discussing infrastructure, and what the distro will include.

Then, when the beta release is ready, announce it, and go fully public.

A Media Centre

I setup a Linux Box to use as a media centre.
Then bought a big screen TV for it.

Problem: The TV does not have a VGA port for the computer.

Solution # 1: Buy an Android tablet with an HDMI out. Use VLC to stream content from the Linux Box media centre. Watch content on the big screen TV.

Solution # 2: Buy an Android tablet and NSA. Connect the two together. Watch content on the big screen TV.

The real irony is that Android Gingerbread is a better server than Microsoft's Home Media Server 2011 is. (Fewer bugs, and more out of the box functionality.)

Coming soon to a tablet near you: AAMP.

AAMP := Android + Apache + MySQL + Python/PERL/PHP.

Windows 7 RC

I have three programs written for Windows, to review.

Since Vista won't run on my hardware, I thought I'd give Win7 RC a test.
(My hardware is to new for Vista to support.)

First issue with getting a legit copy of Win 7 RC was signing up with hotmail.
That solved, I could go to the download page.

After clicking through six or so pages, I get the screen to download it.

Then I get an error message: "Your operating system is not supported".

Which means that I'll continue to use OpenSolaris, and Linux.