enigma9o7
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 15, 2020 3:53:52 GMT
I love Bodhi but lately I also find it interesting to play with other distros in virtual machine and see what they do differently, etc. One of those things is seeing if there's anything lighter than Bodhi that is actually anywhere near as good.
Slitaz is the best I've found, and I actually do dual boot it with bodhi on my real pentium 4 with 512mb. It's tiny. 60MB ISO and very little memory usage. However, it has plenty of limitations - the biggest one being, its not ubuntu (or arch or fedora) based, its its own thing, and only has limited packages already available, many of which are quite old. With Bodhi, there's up to date software in ubuntu repos and if not there are plenty of ppas and deb packages, and the times I've wanted to build from source, devel libraries easily available. Slitaz, nope. Their repos dont have much, dont have recent versions of everything, dont have all the libraries I need to build things myself easily either, not new enough glibc to run many generic linux binaries or app images. But, if I just want to run the latest firefox (which they do keep up to date) or an older libreoffice, it UI is noticeably faster, and uses less overhead than Bodhi, giving me more of that limited 512mb to play with. One thing I think is dumb about it, in order to make it a seem like a lot of apps are included, they fill the menu up with stupid web based applications. It's not that I don't saee the benefit of this - if you run this live or install it and are not already a skilled/technie type, its got everything in the menu already. But if you're using it as your real OS, it just takes time to go delete all that crap if you don't want it in your menus, and I think anyone using Slitaz probably is like me and knows how to use a browser already so doesn't need a bunch of web bookmarks in the apps menu - but it is a good reminder that there are lots of web based apps out there for many many many things.
Slax is cool too. Debian stretch based. ~300MB live ISO. But no installer included, apparently to install it you're supposed to copy the iso to your drive or something manually I haven't figured out yet. But it's live boot includes chromium browser and if you mount a partition manually you can use it... Looks pretty and modern and huge UI reminds me of gnome or something but dunno if thats what it really is, been a while since I booted it and when I do I usually just go straight to terminal to test whatever I wanted to test with debian 
I just tried today debian 10.7 i386 in a VM. I used the 695BM install ISO CD, not one of the live DVDs. Took FOREVER to install, like hours it seemed, I dunno. xfce. Around 200mb memory usage in vm after boot. Firefox and LibreOffice. Looks ok.
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Post by ylee on Dec 15, 2020 15:23:37 GMT
I haven't looked at Slitaz in a few years but I liked it in the past. May have to take another look at it  Thanks !! |
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Post by Hippytaff on Dec 15, 2020 15:30:09 GMT
I enjoyed Slitaz last time I gave it a spin. But as you mentioned the repos are lacking, but it’s a great distro to play with.
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Post by majpooper on Dec 15, 2020 16:17:48 GMT
Interesting - somehow I missed Slitaz . . . never even heard of it to tell the truth - might be fun to play with. Although not being Ubuntu based or even Debian based is a non-starter for me.
Counting myself and a few others I provide PC support for - Windows refugees all - I need something with a solid base. Mind you, none of these users are gamers or need some sort of CAD software etc. About half have pretty weak systems either a few years old or they just could not afford more powerful systems. So for me I have to start with something that is either Debian or Ubuntu (which is based on Debian) based. I need a trusted repository to build from. I started with the "usual suspects" lubuntu, xubuntu, Puppy, Sparky straight Debian and many many more to find something "light" to run on typically Dual Core 2Gib RAM systems decently. Bodhi Standard is the best I have found simply because it is not bloated with lots of extra stuff - you add only what you need. For example in my case no one I have installed linux for needs Libre Office Database or Math - Abiword and Gnumeric will do just fine without all the Libre Office overhead and libraries - and the list goes on. Actually I wish BL6 would stay with Epiphany as the default browser rather than Firefox which if you really want you can get from the repository.
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Post by mdiemer on Dec 15, 2020 17:27:20 GMT
Another interesting one is Watt OS. They were in the process of morphing into VIA OS, but the pandemic has slowed things down to the point where I gave up watching for an official release. I did run an earlier version for awhile, and it was very fast yet full-featured. If they ever do release it, I will probably give it a look. It seems very promising for older systems. Edit: I would share the link for their new website but I can't find it at the moment. You won't get anywhere if you search for "Watt OS." I tried just now to find their new forum but a quick search didn't turn up anything. Edit: I found the link, but it doesn't seem to work. forums.viaos.io/ Not sure if the project is still going, on hold or they just gave up. |
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Post by ylee on Dec 15, 2020 18:58:49 GMT
I enjoyed Slitaz last time I gave it a spin. But as you mentioned the repos are lacking, but it’s a great distro to play with. If one assumes the Everett thesis is true, there is a branch of the multiverse where I became a Slitaz developer instead of a Bodhi one. Originally what drew me to Bodhi was someone gave me an Acer netbook and I was looking for an OS that ran decently well on the underpowered machine. Slitaz ran well on it as did a minimal install of Debian with e17 compiled from source. Not much else could handle my usual work flow on such a limited machine. I discovered some minor bug in a package in Slitaz's repo and patched it and sent my pacth to the Slitaz devs, but around the same time I stumbled across Bodhi. Bodhi won out, being Ubuntu based made it more akin to what I was accustomed to and Jeff soon recognized I could be an asset to the Team. Needless to say Bodhi ended up installed on that netbook and then soon afterwards on all my machines and Slitaz became an OS I played with some in a VM. At some point I gave up playing around with Slitaz and moved on to other more difficult projects like doing the whole Linux from Scratch thing. |
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Post by Hippytaff on Dec 15, 2020 19:30:09 GMT
I like this universe. I’ve not yet done Linux from scratch. I do arch every now and again, and that’s the closest I got to doing it from scratch. I will one day, though when I have a computer that doesn’t take half a day to compile anything at all.
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37bodie
Crew Member
Learning Bodhi Linux (I hope)
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Post by 37bodie on Dec 16, 2020 16:31:57 GMT
Having tried many lightweight Linux distros for old PCs over the years (I am a lifelong Windows user) Bodhi has been the best for me, and I say that with no affiliation to this site either. I used Puppy around 10 years ago and that would be my number 2 after Bodhi Legacy. Slax OK, but I want an installed version. I was really hoping Android x86 would come to fruition but that didn't happen. Honestly, all I want is EASE OF USE and INTUITIVE Windows style desktop (I cannot imagine I am on my own). I also do NOT want to have to read pages of online stuff I don't understand either. On another more powerful machine I use Linux Mint 19.2 but for my two old war dogs (Intel Atom and P4 desktop) it is Bodhi any day. My only gripe with Bodhi Legacy is the interface. That is partly my own fault expecting a Windows clone and not accepting the new norm, but also I feel that Moksha isn't as intuitive as I would like it to be. I love the Mint interface but Bodhi Legacy just has the speed. Therefore I don't tend to fiddle with settings on Bodhi and just use apps, which is the general idea I believe. Therefore the more apps for Bodhi Legacy the better please |
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Post by majpooper on Dec 16, 2020 16:47:56 GMT
Therefore the more apps for Bodhi Legacy the better please But isn't the beauty of Bodhi that you can add just the apps you need simply from Synaptic? To me the bottom line is I don't want to trade "speed" at the cost a bunch of per-installed apps (read bloat = overhead, libraries,dependencies) I don't need that just slow the OS down.
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enigma9o7
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 16, 2020 16:54:15 GMT
My only gripe with Bodhi Legacy is the interface. That is partly my own fault expecting a Windows clone and not accepting the new norm, but also I feel that Moksha isn't as intuitive as I would like it to be. I love the Mint interface but Bodhi Legacy just has the speed
One idea, moksha is modular (meaning you can unload things) and light, if there is something you particularly like from Mint, you can probably add it to bodhi and get the best of both worlds. You're not going to duplicate mate or cinnamon obviously, but if there are some little details in there you may be able to use.
An example is what you'll see in my customizing Moksha thread where I use Plank dock, I think I found that first when trying mate in a VM, which I think mint uses? I decided I liked it and discovered it integrates just fine with bodhi and isn't resource heavy. I also noticed some other desktop environments use a top bar, sometimes integrating it with an applications menu or clock or system tray type indicators. I couldn't figure out how to do something quite as useful in Moksha, but I did put my clock and forecast on the title bar as you can see in this screenshot... anyways point being if there is one thing you really like in Mint, I bet you can get it working on bodhi too if you're willing to experiment and customize...
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Post by mdiemer on Dec 16, 2020 17:58:02 GMT
Along these lines, I am one of the minority who actually liked the Unity desktop. Not necessarily loved it; just thought it was OK. Last night I tried putting the "I-bar" on the left side, and voila, it looks just like Unity, especially after I increased the icon size to 40. I left a small shelf on the bottom for clock, pager (aka desktop switcher) and other tray items. Looks and works great.
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Post by majpooper on Dec 16, 2020 19:19:20 GMT
Any chance at seeing a screenshot ?
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37bodie
Crew Member
Learning Bodhi Linux (I hope)
Posts: 64
Likes: 22
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Post by 37bodie on Dec 16, 2020 21:04:13 GMT
My only gripe with Bodhi Legacy is the interface. That is partly my own fault expecting a Windows clone and not accepting the new norm, but also I feel that Moksha isn't as intuitive as I would like it to be. I love the Mint interface but Bodhi Legacy just has the speed One idea, moksha is modular (meaning you can unload things) and light, if there is something you particularly like from Mint, you can probably add it to bodhi and get the best of both worlds. You're not going to duplicate mate or cinnamon obviously, but if there are some little details in there you may be able to use. An example is what you'll see in my customizing Moksha thread where I use Plank dock, I think I found that first when trying mate in a VM, which I think mint uses? I decided I liked it and discovered it integrates just fine with bodhi and isn't resource heavy. I also noticed some other desktop environments use a top bar, sometimes integrating it with an applications menu or clock or system tray type indicators. I couldn't figure out how to do something quite as useful in Moksha, but I did put my clock and forecast on the title bar as you can see in this screenshot... anyways point being if there is one thing you really like in Mint, I bet you can get it working on bodhi too if you're willing to experiment and customize... Tbh, I am a bit reluctant to change too many settings in case I can never get it back again. Don't get me wrong, I love using Bodhi, just stating that what seems pretty intuitive in other systems, requires more effort. I am in the group who just wants stuff to be easy without having to research the how in depth. |
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Post by mdiemer on Dec 16, 2020 22:01:11 GMT
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Post by thewaiter on Dec 16, 2020 22:11:54 GMT
I have noticed your systray has a little glitch. Connection manager icon is truncated. Try to upgrade moksha, reset and look if better. If not, consider adding env_variable MOKSHA_SYSTRAY_SPACING with value 4 or bigger. bodhilinux.boards.net/post/1871Stefan |
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Thanks !!
