It was fun while it lasted, and I considered Linux Lite to be the best distro for new Linux users, especially those coming from Windows. But the last straw, one of many, is the default browser in the new Linux Lite 6 series. The new default browser is now Google Chrome.
Linux attracts many Windows users because, among other reasons they want to get away from evil big tech companies like Microsoft that spy on them and are back doors to tracking, data mining, and marketing. So they find Linux and then – Google?! No thanks.
So many reasons to ditch this once-favorite distro:
1. – It’s Ubuntu base: Ubuntu has gone off the freaking rails with it’s default software management becoming snap instead of apt!
2. – Systemd: Yes, I know, this an old debate and doesn’t matter to most users at all. But systemd becomes huge and invasive over even short periods of time. I put up with it because Linux Lite offers “Lite Tweaks” which lets you delete those crazy huge systemd logs in a couple of clicks, which I did regularly to keep my hard drive from filling up. In Debian and Ubuntu you can limit the size of those logs by editing etc/systemd/journald.config. Add a line “systemMaxUse=100M” save file, then sudo systemctl daemon- reload and reboot. Thereafter systemd logs will not get so outrageously large and fill up your disk space. But still, GEEZ man, systemd regulates every single process at every moment and records everything. It even needs it’s own password? What’s up with that? Nah, no thank you, there are still plenty of systemd-free OSes in Linuxland.
3. – Linux Lite “targets” Windows users now more than ever. But they do it by making Linux Lite as much like Windows as possible. What the heck, man? If I wanted Windows I’d just use Windows! I want my new OS to be as far from Windows-like as possible as long as it remains point-and-click simple. But for cry’n out loud, not just like the one I’m ditching. But hey, that’s just me.
4. – Supposedly made to be easy on older hardware, there is no 32-bit option available anymore.
So what is my chosen alternative?
This oughtta surprise you, it’s antiX! WHAT?!? After all that stuff you wrote about how much you hate political Linux? Robin, you’re a hypocrite!
Okay, lemme ‘splain myself here. Bear with me. The big issues with antiX were and are:
1. – Those evil, horrible, terrible bookmarks! And
2. – It’s developer is an anti capitalist.
As for the bookmarks, they all appear in a single folder in Firefox Bookmarks called “anticapitalista.” No one knocks on your door and compels you at gunpoint to click on them. Simply delete that folder and problem solved. It has been a long-standing tradition for developers to include bookmarks in their browsers anyway. Don’t like ’em? Delete ’em. As for the developer, so what? He doesn’t distribute antiX only to those who share his political views and forbid capitalists from using it. I can keep my Stars and Stripes flying and my MAGA hat on my head without causing my operating system to convert me to atheism, communism, or any other ism. Besides, think about this now: What better way to to express anti-anti-capitalism than by exploiting an anti-capitalist’s product and then using it to promote capitalism if I want to, right?
Why antiX and not MX-Linux? I thought you were an Xfce fanboy!
Simply because antiX does not contain any systemd code whatsoever. Sure I’m an Xfce fanboy and have been for a really long time. But adding Xfce to antiX, which – unlike Gnome and unlike MX-Linux – does not require systemd “as a dependency.” Why “have” systemd “as a dependency” if the OS doesn’t use systemd for anything? “It’s in there but the OS doesn’t use it” never made sense to me. I’m not sure what software MX-Linux has that needs systemd “as a dependency,” but antiX has all the coolest MX-tools without any need for space-wasting bloat that the OS doesn’t use.
Again, I know systemd doesn’t matter to most desktop Linux users one way or the other. But you gotta admit it’s a nuisance, and a huge consumer of disk space and processing power. Just like Windows, by the way, which also uses systemd. And like I said, I want an OS to be as little like Windows as possible.
The first I already mentioned – the very highly modified Xfce desktop. Xfce is ordinarily easy on processing power anyway, but by not mixing it with Compiz and other extra goodies outside of Xfce’s own designs in hopes of making it “elegant” or whatever, it retains it’s undemanding qualities. Other tweaks make it even less resource hungry than “plain vanilla” Xfce.
The second is Linux Lite’s collection of awesome tools, not least of which is the Welcome Screen (which you can bring up on demand long after your first use of the distro) which offers step-by-step links to updating and upgrading, maintaining, cleaning, adding or removing software – all with point-and-click ease. Other cool tools include Lite Sources, which lets you choose from among software repositories anywhere in the universe, for faster updates and upgrades. Choosing the one closest to where you live is generally best, of course. And Lite Tweaks lets you personalize your desktop, clean up any junk, recover wasted space, and speed things up even more!
How is a new user supposed to know that Thunar is a file manager? They don’t know Thunar, but they know Files – Home – Pictures and whatever. So other than the applications everybody probably knows, like Firefox, apps are named for what they do, not the whimsical names that don’t really offer any clue as to their function. That’s simplicity without bloat if ever there was.
Robin's Rants and Raves 