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Other Distros

biff baxter
- Moderator
- 464 posts
December 19, 2010 12:01:28 PM PST

Discuss non-wattOS distros
Leenie Gilmore
- 149 posts
January 7, 2011 8:12:24 PM PST

Has anyone tried Anti-X?
Zhymm (Ye Olde Farte)
- 10 posts
January 8, 2011 7:20:24 AM PST

I used antiX for a while back when I was enamored with Openbox (v. 7.5 or thereabouts). Even used it on a few of my old computers in my classroom at school. Drifted away when later later editions had problems picking up the Broadcom wireless adapter in one of my laptops. And after I had grown tired of adding newly installed packages to the menu by hand.

Old Man Zhymm

oops ... that should have been fluxbox, not openbox

This post was edited by Zhymm (Ye Olde Farte) at January 9, 2011 7:32:25 PM PST
Leenie Gilmore
- 149 posts
January 8, 2011 7:51:40 PM PST

I used the Anti-x 8.5. Still trying to figure out why the screen resolution won't go to anything but 800 x 600 pixels. Other than that, I liked it ok. 8.5 has IceWM and Fluxbox desktops. I like the IceWM.
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 10, 2011 1:30:56 PM PST

I tried Antix a while back and I liked it until I tried to get the Nvidia graphics driver to install and I had nothing but problems with that. I've only been using Linux for a little over a year and I'm not used to old school Linux where you have to pull teeth to get a driver installed, so I got frustrated and installed something else.

Other Linux distros I use are Peppermint OS and PCLinuxOS. PCLinuxOS is very nice and used to be based off of Mandriva, but now they've gone their own direction. It doesn't have quite as robust a package base as Ubuntu and its derivatives but it's still got some good stuff. Peppermint is my favorite Linux distro, It's very similar to wattOS but it follows the LTS Ubuntu distros, not the 6-month cycle.
Leenie Gilmore
- 149 posts
January 10, 2011 3:16:36 PM PST

I have never tried Peppermint OS. I have tried PCLinuxOS, it was nice. I have also tried ZorinOS. They claim it to be the easiest to learn coming from Windows.
biff baxter
- Moderator
- 464 posts
January 10, 2011 3:51:18 PM PST

Kendall Weaver from Peppermint is a very smart man...I have asked him for advice and he knows what he is doing for sure :). He also maintains the LXDE Mint Linux edition as well. So he does not sleep obviously....ha
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 10, 2011 5:48:33 PM PST

Yeah, he was just sayin' on his forum earlier that you guys have some big plans down the road for wattOS. I'm glad I came aboard to see what those are.
As for the sleep thing, like all good coders, he catches small naps now and then but his subconscious keeps plugging away at the code while he's doing it. ;)
@Leenie Gilmore: I too have tried ZorinOS. (the Lite version with the LXDE desktop) In fact, I have it and several other .iso files on my backup HD. Every now and then, I load one up on a USB drive and take it out, sometimes I even install them, like I did earlier with wattOS.
I would have to agree and disagree about it and Peppermint being easiest to learn coming from Windows. Both are really easy to learn, that's for sure, but they also both use desktop environments that are a lot different from the Windows desktop, so there will be a learning curve, especially since both require some knowledge of Linux commands to customize them the way you want to. Of the desktop environments for Unix-type systems, I'd say KDE is the most Windows-ish, though it has a lot more customization tools than Windows and can be intimidating for people trying to switch. (it probably depends who you are) But they are both easy to learn. LXDE is pretty straight forward.
Leenie Gilmore
- 149 posts
January 11, 2011 8:33:42 PM PST

Did you check out ZorinOS 4 Lite?
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 11, 2011 9:16:09 PM PST

Yeah, I had it installed for a bit. It was a little app-happy for my taste but a very nice OS overall.

I might put it on my other computer, an Acer that's a few years old and came with Windows Vista installed (ugh.) I ditched Vista ages ago and I use it to play with Linux distros from time to time.

This post was edited by Chris Martin at January 11, 2011 9:19:41 PM PST
Leenie Gilmore
- 149 posts
January 11, 2011 9:29:33 PM PST

Hate Vista too. Did like that wine was installed on Zorin. Is Peppermint that easy (and light)?
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 11, 2011 10:44:09 PM PST

Peppermint is very light, a lot like wattOS in that area. It comes with the same basic setup, LXDE and Openbox with similar programs installed by default. Though, it does have more preinstalled software geared towards cloud computing. It's very easy to learn, IMO.
Deleted Member
January 13, 2011 5:05:22 AM PST

I had previously been running Crunchbang Linux which is yet another Ubuntu spin-off and the best distro (in my humble opinion) that i had used to date. But now wattOS R3 appears and is already pushing Crunchbang for top spot!

I'm hooked on trying out as many Linux distro's as i possibly can so after reading all the posts in this forum i think i just might have a look at Peppermint OS + Zorin OS when time allows.
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 13, 2011 9:51:53 AM PST

Crunchbang is based on Debian, not Ubuntu. I fiddled with Crunchbang Statler 64-bit for about an hour or so last night. It's very easy to use, though a bit too much command line for my taste. I think I'm going to install Linux Mint Debian instead, even though it uses Gnome (which I don't care for, but I can change that) I like it best of the Debian-based distros I've tried.
biff baxter
- Moderator
- 464 posts
January 13, 2011 12:09:55 PM PST

There is an LXDE spin of Linux Mint - Kendall Weaver helps (or leads) that if I recall correctly. I have not tried it, but I am sure its snappy :)
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 13, 2011 1:44:23 PM PST

Yes, there is an LXDE spin of Mint, and Kendall is one of the main dudes involved in its development. The current version is Linux Mint 9 LXDE. However, I already have Peppermint installed and it uses the same repositories. Plus, I also have wattOS installed and while I can do all LXDE desktops, I want to branch out a bit more (at least until I decide I hate all other desktops and go to all LXDE/Openbox. ;) )

I installed LMDE x64 a bit ago. I'm waiting for updates to install, then I'll probably install a different desktop. If I have to use Gnome, I'll only use the one in Mint because I like it the best but I have options, so I'm going to use them. Now I just have to decide which desktop...

Edit: Hmm, it looks like LMDE has only Gnome, KDE and XFCE in its repos. No Openbox, LXDE, Fluxbox, which are all available variants of Linux Mint 9. I've gotta say, I'm kinda bummed by that. I might need to find some more Debian repos.

This post was edited by Chris Martin at January 13, 2011 1:59:08 PM PST
Deleted Member
January 14, 2011 2:32:56 AM PST

There will be a Mint 10 LXDE soon as i read today
Deleted Member
January 14, 2011 6:48:37 AM PST

Have had a quick peep at the Peppermint OS and have liked what i saw and i'm now considering dual booting it with Windows XP on another computer.
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 14, 2011 8:38:02 AM PST

Eventually, they're going to release Linux Mint 10 KDE. That's my favorite Mint, but it failed its first test so they have more work to do on the .iso. I hadn't seen any word on the LXDE edition, though, so that's nice to see. I might have to get it when it's released and put it on my other computer.

This post was edited by Chris Martin at January 14, 2011 9:03:00 AM PST
Deleted Member
January 14, 2011 10:09:09 AM PST

when you go to the lxde section in the Mint Forum there is a topic "Mint 10 LXDE"
And when you scroll down to the last post from Kendall you can see that he is planning to have the first test build within the next couple of days.
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 14, 2011 10:38:09 AM PST

Yep, saw that earlier. I've been watching their forum anyway for further news on the KDE release.
Chris Martin
- 52 posts
January 14, 2011 7:52:43 PM PST

LMDE was driving me nuts (short trip) so I decided to take another look at antiX. When I tried it months ago, I knew a lot less about Debian than I know now. Armed with what I know, I was able to get my Nvidia driver installed and configured with minimal fuss, though I did have to manually configure the xorg.config file to get my resolution to stay at 1600x900, instead of reverting back to 1024x768, which looks horrible on a 16:9 monitor. But I got it figured out and I got antiX all updated and I installed Google Chrome (the version of Chromium in the Debian testing repos is too old for my taste.) Now I'm working on customizing it.
My first impression is that I like antiX, though you have to know at least somewhat how Debian works to bend it to your will. It's probably more work than LMDE but I was mentally comparing LMDE to regular Mint and I didn't like it. I'm mentally comparing antiX to Debian, which I don't like, so it's going well. I think it's a keeper, which means I now have 4 Linux distros installed on my main desktop (plus Windows XP.)
Deleted Member
January 20, 2011 12:44:05 PM PST

Just finished cleaning up a Windose PC. Was a real bad infestation and came close to giving up a couple of times lol.

Makes me feel real good knowing i've got the luxury of running a trouble free Linux distro called wattOS R3
biff baxter
- Moderator
- 464 posts
January 20, 2011 4:25:22 PM PST

Thanks for the kind words Colin. We are working hard to make things better and easier. Thanks for helping make wattOS better.
Deleted Member
January 21, 2011 2:03:05 AM PST

Don't know how i could have made wattOS any better by simply running the OS especially as i'm no geek. Still have cracked how to set up a dual boot system yet lol. But now that's i've got a little more time to spare i will be including a few words about the merits of running wattOS R3 and provide a link on my web site as soon as i've finished editing it!