Antix Linux - The Lightweight Distro That Packs a Punch!

[@peterjansen4826]

Antix gets a big thumbs up from me as an Arch-user. I think that many distros can learn something from Antix: teaching the users commands in that way and getting them comfortable with the terminal is a great move.

[@runwiththedolphin]

Nice video! I run antiX primarily as live USB, although I do use a installed 32 bit on an old EEEPC netbook with lousy usb ports. That machine doesn't run MX very well but runs antiX just fine.

[@OldTechBloke]

Thanks mate

[@Tocsin-Bang]

Just installed Antix, went very smoothly. I've tried various distros over the years, and not been happy with any of them, Antix seems to be a cut above the rest. I'm running it on an old HP laptop with 4Gb.

[@balajichandrasekaran6312]

Specs ?

[@ThePressurizer]

Ah, OTB, I really enjoy your distro reviews. Your calm and friendly manner is quite a difference to many other KZbinrs. Thanks for your work.

[@OldTechBloke]

You're very welcome :-)

[@runwiththedolphin]

FWIW, while installing, you can click next at anytime to put in the rest of the details, while the big copy operation is going on.

[@prabhatjindal9645]

Not All heros were cape.

[@charlieoscar09]

What a fantastic distro Antix is...been running it all day today.

[@kelkilkat]

I have never seen a distribution that I actually am excited about. I have AntiX on a USB drive and will soon be installing it on my hard drive.

[@OldTechBloke]

Good luck :-)

[@cuttlefishn.w.2705]

Currently have AntiX running on a 10 year old laptop, after MX kept crashing on it. So far so good. Admittedly, MX is more pleasing to look at, but my experience with AntiX is a lot smoother. Also, a lovely, proper review of an OS with no mention of interpreting politics from version names. Very nice.

[@OldTechBloke]

Good to know!

[@MFTAQ]

I know this video is old but I got to say great video and I will be installing this to my Optiplex 755, thank you for the information.

[@krazykat64]

I fiddled a bit with antiX a couple of years ago as an option to put on my wifes old laptop and thought it was pretty good until I ran into setting up her wifi which required a cli tool to connect and knew that wouldn't fly with someone like her if she had to set up a new connection. I was a little surprised to see that in a distro that seemed otherwise fairly new user friendly given what it is. Ended up with their sister distro MX and she's been pretty happy with it.

[@billfawcett3691]

The "fuller flavour" versions of antiX 19 used the Conman (GUI) application to configure LAN connectivity. I think the CLI app, Ceni is lighter and faster, but that's just my personal preference. Your decision to move to MX Linux is one I made from MX 15 to date. 👍

[@antiX1917]

Thanks for this very enjoyable and detailed review of antiX.

[@eznix]

I am surprised you did not correct the pronunciation and capitalization of the antiX name. :-)

[@antiX1917]

@@eznix Sometimes you just have to let some things go ... :)

[@andyroach5008]

Recently installed antix 21 on my old 8gb eee pc works great!

[@rmcellig]

I really like this video!! I have had an on again off again relationship with antix over the years. I just reinstalled Debian lxde but I think I will install antix again. Icewm is one of my favorite window managers!! Dolphin Oracle has some excellent antix videos. Recommended for sure! 😀

[@jeanwill69]

Antix 19 is great ! I installed it on my very very old Imac. Works like a charm with 3mb ram on this machine. Gave an other live for to the next 20 years. lol Best, Jean , Montreal, Canada

[@FoxtrotMikefm]

Hi OTB, Hope your dreaded lurgy passes soon. I thought that I would recommend that you take a look at the SpaceFM options. Most of the WMs tend to default to Rox (which I know well from Puppy) but you also have the option of running the more fully featured SpaceFM, a derivative of PCManFM, with your WM of choice. I find the ability to run several apps as tabs in a single window (using space-fluxbox) on the 7" screen of my eeepc very handy. I am currently playing with the space-ice combo on the new runit version of AntiX on a larger machine. The ability to change file & window managers from the menu in a live USB system is a tinkerer's delight! ;-)

[@OldTechBloke]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll take a look

[@ttt-sq6ou]

I’d love to see you do a review of puppy Linux. It’s my go to super light weight. But I’m for sure going it have a look at this. Hope you feel better and as always awesome video.

[@OldTechBloke]

It's coming soon :-)

[@redfonzie21]

I've got a several years old Asus C100P Chromebook that I'm looking for a reasonable Linux solution for. I'm actually leaning towards Antix now after watching this video. I was leaning towards Puppy - and I will probably try both from a Live run for a while - but both are rather light weight and can easily fit into the 2GB of RAM I think this thing has. The main concerns I have with either, of course, are the drivers. Drivers, especially with a system with specialty features like touch and "flip" (ie, tablet mode" exclusively) are always a sticky bit for Linux, even more so on these tiny, minimalist distros. But, we'll see what happens. Thanks for the upload, even though I'm finding out about it almost a year later! I'm subbing, BTW.

[@redfonzie21]

I'll have to see if Antix is ARM compatible because I didn't realize that this Chromebook is not x86 based. Oops. I forgot to dig deeper ahead of time! Cheers!

[@tenfourproductionsllc]

It's a good distro, even faster than Lubuntu off the flash drive, I guess the only downside is that the MENU is a mess and expect to spend time to find some things. When Lubuntu 32 bit fades away in April 2021, if this distro is still 32 bit, it will probably inherit it's place.

[@taidee]

Believe it or not but I'm still going through your catalog OTB. Another thorough review as I've come to expert from you at this point.

[@alwadud0196]

Awesome, tried full version of this from a USB and worked so much better (faster) than xubuntu on usb, and was impressed by how consistently much faster it was from USB than windows 10 etc from ssd.

[@joaoaraujo2296]

I recently decided to install either Devuan, MX, AntiX or FreeBSD (all systemd free) on my desktop which had Debian 10. Wasn't easy to decide because I like all of them but eventually I chose Devuan. However, I'm thinking in installing AntiX on my old laptop which only supports 2GB RAM max. I recommend AntiX for: - having a huge repository - uses debian packages; - still active and is about 20 years old so good chances of being around for long; - highly configured for old PCs; - it doesn't use systemd so it offers a freedom of choice since most major distros use it. I don't recommend AntiX for: - beginners in Linux - Linux MX offers better experience and it's still light on resources Curiosity: Linux MX (#1 on Distrowatch) was created as a cooperation between former MEPIS Linux communities and antiX.

[@ordinosaurs]

Run it on an Atom-powered 1GB ram 8GB SSD EEEPC 900a ; it's absolutely fine, but don't expect to browse the modern web with it. On the other hand, it's perfect for my young son to cut his teeth on scratch.

[@ZeroCtr1]

dope intro music

[@atlestray2556]

Thank you for another great review! I really appreciate your work :)

[@OldTechBloke]

Many thanks

[@ressibirwe]

Not on KZbin yet, but we could start a club....

[@pfyearwood1]

I have an RCA Windows 10 10.1 2 in 1 tablet/keybord. Using a 128 G SD card I installed VM. antiX is the only Linux Distro I could get to work on the 2G RAM. Now, I have a Linux capable tablet on my Win10.

[@edalder2000]

Antix will get some looks because Ubuntu based distros are dropping 32 bit support.

[@tenfourproductionsllc]

Thank goodness that Debian for now still supports it. But once Debian drops support, it will fade into the sunset. My HP Mini runs only 32 bit iso.

[@AzizRaharjo]

antiX is not ubuntu based distros, so probably that's not going to happen. At least not that soon, anyway.

[@atpray]

Now no Fedora, or majaro or ubuntu for 32 bit. I tried mx linux it works great, but had some problems with package installation. Mint dropped support as well. Gonna try antix today

[@thomassmith4999]

Man.. this runs so good on a socket 478 celeron I got from scrap last week. Somewhat almost as well as my old Pentium 3 did on Debian 2.1.. and Debian 2.1 is well out of date (more than 20 years out of date).

[@johnthebaptist5649]

Lubuntu 20.04 is also a lightweight distro that packs a huge Ubuntu of a punch.....

[@eznix]

The edit config files tool opens many of the system's configuration files in different tabs, not just the sources.

[@mirko1989]

15 years old Acer one ZG5 intel atom netbook running antix , ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BOTH ANTIX AND HOW THINGS USED TO BE MADE ; THAT TINNY 10" NETBOOK HAS 3 USB PORTS !!!

[@gregoryturner1505]

I tried Antix and my 2011 HP i5 laptop didn't like it very much. I spent very little time with it because other distros ran without problems. I am running feren OS currently and am very pleased with it.

[@michaeljking]

great Distro. I ran Antix for 4 or 5 years on an old Thinkpad x21 (Pentium 3 processor, 320mb ram) that was my go-to beater/travel laptop, I usually Distro hopped on my main computer but Antix ran so well and efficiently.

[@andrewpalm2103]

Great minds follow the same channels, OTB. I just installed AntiX on a couple of spare partitions, fired up Firefox, went to KZbin, and there was a notification for this video! I used it some a few years ago and decided to come back for another look. Back then I was pretty fresh to Linux, and I can remember the shock I experienced when I clicked an icon in the control center and got dumped into the Geany editor and a text configuration file. It was a milestone on my Linux journey and the start of "going to the next level." Be safe.

[@OldTechBloke]

Cheers Andrew

[@henninb]

I appreciate the video. I was not familiar with this distribution.

[@saalkz.a.9715]

Greetings OldTechBloke, is there any chance you're gonna make a review of ReactOS? I had heard some interesting things about it (good and bad). Apparently it's extremely lightweight and Windows like...

[@OldTechBloke]

I'll check it out

[@markharrisllb]

I tried AntiX on my old i3 Acer Travelmate as a dual boot on a separate internal disc, unfortunately it just wouldn’t take it and still be bootable. The only one it would take after trying umpteen different distros was Manjaro Xfce. I like this so much it’s now on my single boot. I might try it as an external drive on my newer Dell Latitude.

[@bushed2743]

Found Antix kind of "primitive" especially when working with external drives. Installed MX instead - a lot more polish.

[@albertday6952]

Hi I found installing antiX a tad testing to say the least ... the distro would install fine until 95% and freeze up on the grub install at the end ...tried several times ... just the same .. so I did abit of forum swatting and research ...I saw a snippet from a user to use keyboard symbols often in the registration password/ root insertions rather than letters upper or lower case ... mmm ..so I did Eureka ... it accepted the installation ..I found the solution of grub repair mods as suggested by antiX programmers confusing . This particular problem raises its ugly head also I see in MX ( big brother ) installations...so GRUB problems bear in mind. It is fine now rinning on old Compaq N610 Evo , Pent 4, enhanced RAM 750 + , Samsung 100 gb hdrive .. a very well presented and descriptive tutorial ... great

[@antiX1917]

Why don't people read the instructions during installation any more? It is paused, waiting for user input.

[@sepsawink]

Thank you for this insightfull video, keep up the good work 😉

[@OldTechBloke]

Thank you! Will do!

[@maybebabyny]

Hi Great video. I am trying to settle on a linux distro for my Sony P Intel Atom Z540 1.86GHz. I'm thinking this might be it. What is your opinion?

[@OldTechBloke]

Antix should do the job nicely on that hardware

[@maybebabyny]

@@OldTechBloke THANKS! It has the GMA 500 which seems legendary for sucking. I downloaded Antix and put it on a USB but need to figure out how to make it work.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

Antix on the usb worked just fine, whether as the ISO or expanded out installed in full but when i installed to HDD it was slooooooooooow why? i'm on a 64bit machine so maybe i shouldn't have used legacy or whatever?

[@fstoplive1991]

Wow, when you're impressed, I have to give this AntiX a spin even though I currently am running WattOS LXDE + Open Box on an old Toshiba. Throw AntiX on my new Ventoy Stick🤣 thanks to you

[@KainiaKaria]

I installed AntiX and Windows 2000 on my Dell Inspiron B130.

[@DGaryMoore]

Great video OTB. However, when I downloaded the 64 bit iso and tried to install it in VB (set to Debian). No menu indicating function keys appeared in the boot screen. The rest of the system installed well. Thanks for the video.

[@runwiththedolphin]

If booting UEFI, then the F keys are replaced with a "customize menus" menu entry

[@jrnamida5470]

I like adding "toram" loading up the entire distro into memory. I run this on a AMD 3400G with 16 gb of memory...

[@jrnamida5470]

Just added a 2 K monitor to the Installed April 6th 2020 64bit version that was a full build with the 4.19_kernel. The April 6th version runs much better on newer hardware.

[@AssociateMinisterReserveDeacon]

A. Mr. OTB Do you think knowing the 8 major distribution families help you understand Linux and and help you provide technical support for Linux? B. The 8 Major Distribution Families Are. 1. Arch 2. Debian 3. Fedora 4. Gentoo 5. openSUSÉ 6. Slackware 7. Ubuntu 8. Independent Distributions (Distributions not based on the 7 other Distributions listed above.) C. Mr. OTB please continue to get on life's stage and let your Godly inner light shine. Please continue to climb life's ladder and let the world see The Great and Wonderful Gifts, Talents, and Treasures that are inside of you. D. Mr. OTB You're a Great Gentleman!!! E. Mr. OTB Please stay safe. F. Mr. OTB God Bless You!!!

[@AcidiFy574]

BTW, which INIT system do you guys recommend, with ANTIX??? The SysV-init or the RunIT???

[@peterjansen4826]

I am starting out with bspwm at the moment, still busy configuring it but it works fine. Feel better soon.

[@OldTechBloke]

Thanks Peter, I'm over the worst now

[@peterjansen4826]

@@OldTechBloke Good to hear.

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

I use MX on 2 systems and it is very stable and I don't have to worry about it, it just works! I did know about Antix Linux but never have looked at it. Guess what is going to happen... Lol I have a project that I am using a old Dell E6400 for. I was going to use MX on a USB stick but I may give this a try! Yes Debian and Arch are my fav's too. Seems like I keep going back to Debian Distro's. ??? Take care and get well soon my friend! LLAP P.S. Look a shorter comment... :-)

[@OldTechBloke]

Cheers Bruce

[@RWBHere]

I like your style. Subscribed. Thanks.

[@OldTechBloke]

Thanks and welcome

[@RWBHere]

The intro: What!!? Something as modern as a Pentium 2? (Just kidding.) I have a G3 iMac DV running Debian very nicely, and am trying to install Linux on a G5 iMac. Plus some more modern systems, including a modified thin client with a post-fitted hard drive, running LMDE, so don't worry. 👋🙂👍

[@OldTechBloke]

Classic

[@andremagalhaes664]

Have you tried SlitaZ, Slax or even Tiny Core Linux?

[@OldTechBloke]

All of them Andre

[@davidwayne9982]

It's PACKAGE INSTALLER under SYSTEM for installing programs.. I'd like to use this-- but installed it and could NOT get it to detect my secondary hard drive-- where ALL my data is..

[@yakonpetzinc7451]

Bien mi venerable amigo, he instalado este sistema, me llamó la atención por lo rápido. Definitivamente más rápido que Q4OS y mucho mejor que LinuxLite, pero Q4OS es muy amigable, e instala paquetes muy útiles. Estoy probanto Antix, por el momento va muy bien. Es cierto, es rápido y revive las computadoras que tienen recursos limitados.

[@MrBobWareham]

Would love to try this but being a Newbie I have looked at the list but don't know the one to download and can I use etcher to USB please thanks Bob in the UK

[@OldTechBloke]

Hi Bob, yes etcher works fine

[@jeromenabede1522]

I want to buy one distro, is it possible?

[@bshibishi5889]

Being a newbie in Linux and having just installed one for daily use 3:29 is really scary.

[@OldTechBloke]

Stick with it, it's worth it

[@marllonbruno608]

It's easier thank you think. It was my distribution right after Lubuntu.

[@peppe540]

Great video again! I will install this also, with Joe's Window Manager (JWM, and just because I like the name of it ;-). Looking at your video and running Arcolinux with Openbox myself I fully agree with you it is definitely worth looking at. And yes, i could live in there as well I think. Get well soon, Steve! PS Might be worthwhile to check this out from minute 19 onwards : kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYG6c6ptlM2MiLs ?!? Well, by calling your distro 'Hannie Schaft' (who was a communist resistance fighter during WWII, who got executed by the Germans in my home country the Netherlands) you make a statement also...

[@OldTechBloke]

Cheers Peppe, I'll take a look

[@vijaynats]

How does AntiX compare to MX Linux?

[@jericksonjaspe2374]

Will it run on my HP mini 210 with Intel Atom (32 bit of course) and 2GB of RAM and 500 GB of Hard Drive? Smoothly :)

[@OldTechBloke]

Yes

[@WinstonStaAna-mu3mf]

Ahmmm i cant type password on a hp dv1000 laptop...it seems its not working

[@jeromenabede1522]

Or more documentation to build one.

[@ilyasayyub]

Could you please help a newbie with installing Manjaro Arm for PineBook Pro that came with Debian or any Arm Distro that is update and friendly for newcomer to the Linux World

[@OldTechBloke]

I'm afraid I don't have an arm system so I wouldn't know where to start I'm afraid. You may find some tutorials on youtube

[@ilyasayyub]

@@OldTechBloke Thanks, there are some basic tutorials, but they hard for the average user; thank you for responding.

[@ToranK]

Does not work on my UEFI Asus

[@iannomantappu2230]

is antiX free?

[@OldTechBloke]

Yes, like most versions of Linux

[@RocDisjoint]

I link anti linux, its great works on a flash drive. I wish someone could help me get it to run directly on my little formatted computer???? I dont need a 19 page forum of instructions it's on the flash drive , want it on the hard drive WHY! is that so hard? no i dont want a 2 hour training course, just one step two step 3 step, done! Computer is formatted , antilinux is on the flash drive and working, how to get it from here to there?..... Does it have to be this huge process?

[@cancerfour69er]

1.2gb isn't small

[@Tylasian]

How do you download chromium on AntiX?

[@OldTechBloke]

Should be in the repos. sudo pacman -S chromium

[@cfischer691]

Sounds a lot like Puppy Linux

[@jonglass]

Exactly what I was thinking watching. Went to comment and saw your comment ;-) edit: a bit more attractive, however. ;-)

[@panjo40]

I like it better then MXlinux ,but the only problem is ,It will not recognise my HP printer ,where most other Distros will,I do not even want to try my Brother printer ,that is another whole kettle of worms.

[@AlexiaVon]

Do you really need a microphone that size ? ?

[@OldTechBloke]

Yes

[@sandy20654]

These videos could be great, but they are so long and padded. Can you please reduce the length, cut the waffle and get straight to the point. I'm sure you could get a lot more views by doing this.

[@OldTechBloke]

Sorry that's my style

[@HelvecioGomes]

Antix is great but I use MX.

[@thunderpaw6541]

Have you, by chance, launched Firefox and looked at Antix's pre-loaded bookmarks? Now I really like the look and feel of Antix, however there is some concern regarding the the ideological message Antix seems to be pushing through these sites. A distro should never be pushing a political ideology one way or the other. Other than that, I like it but would spend some extra effort making sure my system is secure.

[@eznix]

Nothing wrong with a developer inserting their own opinions, that is part of the beauty of spinning your own distro. The user is free to ignore those bookmarks.

[@dougtilaran3496]

Awwwww. A bed wetter. I bet you see "news" with "harsh language" and close the page ? Purn Hob is ok though

[@lukisnootis5708]

Great distro. Don't really care for their politics, but I can separate the art from the artist

[@hermask815]

Sorry. AntiX...- where old hardware goes to die. Scnr.

[@dougtilaran3496]

Antix. Where the threat ripper goes x 32. So fast you get out of bed and its booted before you can open the office door

[@fearsmasher1299]

AntiX installs a list of communist/Marxist/far left bookmarks in the browser. That's why I would never use it or MX Linux. You have to be careful who you are supporting when you choose a distribution. Always take a look at who's behind the curtain.

[@antiX1917]

Well we give you lots of stuff to learn from -all for free - enjoy!

[@kohnjelly]

Fear Smasher - Great, if you are so enamoured with plutocracy and corporate greed, stick with Microsoft.