Last time I wrote about systemd-free Debian, but not Devuan, for reasons which appear in the comments of that post, “Why Not Devuan?” Mostly it has to do with trust of their repositories.
But I messed up my first installation of antiX by installing my beloved Xfce desktop from Synaptic instead of using antiX’s own package installer. I don’t know how that makes any difference, but it matters!
In my zeal to rid my OS of any unneeded and unwanted antiX stuff (for the sake of my need to purge socialist-communist-statist-leftist elements as much as possible), I removed some essential elements that disabled control over sound, printing, scanning, and other features I really need. It was plain stupid to proceed in a hurry like that.
Doing it right this time, I have exactly what I need, with a few extra things I don’t want and will never use but cannot safely purge without breaking my system again. No big deal. I had thought, for about 0.68 seconds (nearly a lifetime for an android, according to Commander Data), to just return to MX-Linux because it’s Xfce anyway. But then, there’s that hideous systemd “there but unused” factor. I think I’d rather have a few antiX things there but unused than to have any systemd or PulseAudio crap contaminating my hard drive. The latter is just a matter of political preference, but the former is a dangerous back door to my OS, in my opinion.
So a word of advice to any other creatures of conscience looking to avoid systemd and pulseaudio and untrustworthy Devuan repositories, but eager to purge socialist-communist-statist-leftist antiX stuff, do it right. Read the manual, proceed carefully and deliberately, and slowly.
Robin's Rants and Raves 
Yes, this is kinda hypocritical of me, I admit. And it bothers me. So I’ll have another look at SalixOS, the systemd-free Slackware-based derivative I’ve written about before. It’s got a Release Candidate now that is getting the last few bugs worked out.
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Hi Robin,
Nice writeup!
I’ve been thinking about installing antix for awhile now, but I’ve got a very similar approach as yourself when it comes to the socialist-communist infected mentality and that’s been keeping me away for a few months…
I want to have a systemd free rolling OS installed on a ZFS root partition, and for that I’ve tried Devuan with the “testing” repo minus the ZFS part, but it broke after a few updates, then I’ve been wanting to test antix like so, but the leftist ideology crap keeps me away…
So, for now I’m sticking to void linux.
Any thoughts?
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Yup! I kinda tripped over antiX right after installing it in a few little ways. I love me some Xfce, so I used apt to install Xfce. Oops! It was bent and clunky somehow. I should have used the antiX utility to install it instead of what I’ve been used to doing all along in Debian and my Ubuntu-based favorites. That fixed it and it runs great! I couldn’t delete the extra window managers without messing things up either, so they just sit there wasting disk space.
Another old favorite, Slackware-based SalixOS, is also systemd-free mostly, but it uses Elogind to “compensate” for missing bits. AntiX does not use Elogind. It’s “purely” systemd-free, as is PCLinuxOS.
BUT….
Both antiX andPCLinuxOS are run by leftists who promote lefty bovine excrement, anti-Israel stuff, and anti-Gospel ideas.
Does that mean I shouldn’t use their really great products? Well, I suppose in good conscience I couldn’t support them financially, and my merely using them doesn’t profit them anything. And, I can use their great OSes as my vehicle to promote all the values I love and they hate! It’s like hijacking one of the Empire’s transmitters and using it in support of the Rebel Alliance. Okay with me!
Taking the lefty BS out of antiX is as easy as deleting the offending bookmarks in Firefox (or replacing Mozilla’s abomination with a better browser). For PCLOS it’s just the forum that get stupidly political, and only account holders logged in could see it. So just search their forums as a guest for answers to questions and issues, but don’t create and account. I don’t know if ZFS is available on PCLOS or antiX, or even on Salix, but finding that out is easy enough.
Use the Empire’s transmitter without guilt, my friend. Just don’t support them in any way. Fair enough?
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Thanks for the input Robin!
Yes, ZFS is available everywhere as long as you take the time for the tricky install which I am still working on a script for a systemd free Debian derived distro and it’s gonna take some time I suppose.
I’ll eventually find the time and disposition to try it and see how it goes…
Be blessed mate!
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