Let me start this lengthy post with stating that I like antiX very much. Having said that, you will note (in this post) there are things I find less than useful in the distro. A corollary might be:
“There are no perfect distros”.
As you may have guessed (if you have read my posts and materials here), I’m a bit of a geek and also like to explore places I should probably stay away from…
Anyway, here are the aspects of antiX I find magnificent:
- cli-aptiX (installer, updater, etc.)
- antiX repos
- Debian without systemd and without Devuan… (Sorry, Devuan guys.)
- antiX snapshot tools
- the ability to using Debian Testing repos (I don’t like being far from the edge.) My thinking is that:
“Stability is an illusion; change is the norm.”
bspwm dependencies added to base antiX19beta were:
- xcb libxcb-util0-dev libxcb-ewmh-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libasound2-dev libxcb-xtest0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev
- Note: some of the above may have been there already before I cut & paste the command stream into my terminal… who can say??? Not me.
antiX standard items I removed from my base antiX19beta for use in my bspwm install include:
- gnome-ppp (I don’t use it…)
- midnight commander (not my style)
- Firefox ESP (too big)
- jwm (I can get this on a antiX vanilla setup. I removed it to eliminate some slim related issues; no train wrecks yet.)
- icewm (I can get this on a vanilla antiX setup. I removed it to eliminate some slim related issues; no train wrecks yet.)
- fluxbox (I can get this on a vanilla antiX setup. I removed it to eliminate some slim related issues; no train wrecks yet.)
- herbstluftwm (I can get this on a vanilla antiX setup. I removed it to eliminate some slim related issues; no train wrecks yet.)
- rox-filer (I settled on the use of spaceFM and did not have a need for three file manager tools.)
- claws mail (I did not need email. FWIW if I did, I use Thunderbird.)
- asunder CD (There’s no CD Burner on my machine.)
- xfburn (There’s no CD Burner on my machine.)
- hexchat (I don’t use it…)
- Mirage (Was replaced with Viewnior which I like better, editorial prerogative.)
- rxvt terminal (This was replaced with xfce4-terminal due to Rxvt’s lacking a cut & paste function/ feature; which I absolutely need.)
- vim (Just because I don’t like it and don’t use it.)
antiX functions which remain but are not used, or are otherwise disabled, include:
- SLIM (Can not be safely removed due to forced dependencies. I find it too cumbersome to use on the login page, just my opinion. Note: I actually think that having a dependency in a distro on a Display Manager is a bug. But that’s just me.)
- conky (polybar is more frugal and multi-purpose for my bspwm needs.)
- lxterminal (Is both heavier and uglier than xfce4-terminal, in my opinion.)
New functions added to my setup include:
- bspwm
- sxhkd
- LightDM (I find it much easier for window manager- desktop- selection than SLIM. Personally I dislike having to F1 my way through 6 or more options on the Login screen, too cumbersome. I, also, tend to miss my (wm) stop and get to take the F1 trip multiple times. Fun though that is… I’d rather something like LightDM.
- tint2 (task tracker, iconified task launcher, day/date/time, Logout button)
- polybar (primarily as an active workspace tracker, jgmenu ‘host’, conky replacement)
- jgmenu (utilizing Greeneye theme providing essentially whiskermenu-style functionality)
- Numix icons (eye candy)
- arc-dark windows theme (eye candy)
- Roboto fonts (eye candy)
- kupfer semanatic application launcher
- xfce4-terminal is slightly more resource efficient than lxterminal and supports screen transparency, cut & paste
- Falkon browser (Is lighter than Firefox, but then what isn’t??? Sorry mozilla guys…)
- viewnior (light and pretty useful)
- xcompmgr as compositor (eye candy, lighter than compton- it seems)
- feh as wallpaper changer/ manager (eye candy)
I will provide images, scripts, and perhaps even build a respin of my work, once I get a bit further down the road. I am thinking of doing this for antiX and perhaps Artix (arch-based & systemd-free)