The antiX distribution began in a fairly low
key, unnoticed manner. Back in 2006, an English speaking educator from
Thessaloniki, which is a politically charged city, appeared on the MEPIS Lovers Community Forum as "anticapitalista", and announced that he had created a lightweight alternative to SimplyMEPIS entitled antiX.
A few years earlier in 2003 when MEPIS was formed, it was initially a fairly small, light Linux distribution, formed from Debian GNU/Linux software, capable of running directly from what is called a "Live CD". That means that you can insert a CD (or DVD) into your system, and start the system, running not from the disk hard drive, but from removable media instead.
When MEPIS was small, it ran well from CD, at least in 2003. Even today, you can run MEPIS from CD, but since 2004, MEPIS has been a simple, but full featured desktop system, and it is a very good one.
The small, light nature of that first effort also had merit. The gentleman named Paul, who prefers to use the "handle" anticapitalista, wanted to recapture that light, flexible look and feel, so he respun the MEPIS effort, removing the full featured, somewhat heavier software in favor of light, flexible, configurable software. Then he approached Warren Woodford and asked for permission to distribute antiX as a derivative of MEPIS. Warren liked the idea and has allowed anti to distribute his work through the MEPIS community.
I like antiX because it is nearly as stable as SimplyMEPIS, yet in some ways it provides even more flexibility, at only a moderate cost in terms of complexity. In fact, it's pretty simple, it's just not quite as much of a "drop in and use" system as SimplyMEPIS is; it tends to require just a little bit more experience, particularly in using system tools, and occasionally command-based utilities. This can scare off some beginners and novices, so it's clear that MEPIS definitely has its place, but so does antiX. There are times when you want to be able to easily tailor your system to your own specific needs, and that is an area in which antiX truly excels. It's great for aging hardware, and it's also great for the hobbyist and enthusiast who simply wants to experiment with a variety of configurations.
I happen to have hardware that is over three years old. At the time I started with antiX in 2006, all I had available to me was a 2000-2001 vintage Dell Dimension 4100 desktop system with a 996 MHz Pentium III processor, 256 MB of RAM (memory) and a single 40 GB Western Digital IDE hard drive disk. Other systems would work with this configuration, but light systems, such as Puppy, Feather Linux, and antiX, worked much better. I also tended to take full featured systems and add light window managers and browsers on them so that I could do certain things faster and more effectively.
When antiX was released, it was immediately apparent to me that a system like this could save me time and effort. Not only that, it had the same proven installation system and configuration tools found in the reliable and familiar SimplyMEPIS, plus it had that feel that I had enjoyed in the earliest builds of the prototype versions of MEPIS.
Since 2006, antiX has grown and evolved in capabilities. There is now a "full featured" release, still light, using resource conserving window managers in place of heavy, full featured desktop environments, but it has acquired quite a few powerful programs in it. Not everyone wants the same thing, though, and that is why antiX has developed two additional alternatives, the "Base" version, which still provides a graphical installation and initial login, but strips out applications, and allows you, with the assistance of tools, to create your own customized configuration. Another version, developed over the past two years or so, called "Core", takes that a step further: all that "Core" includes is a system kernel, essential system utilities, and a core set of tools that allows you to create the system you want. It does not come with any graphical user environment; you choose the one you want, if you want one, or you can use "Core" to set up a command-based server environment.
I've created several custom distributions of my own using antiX, starting with the original edition, the Base edition, and the Core edition. All three are nimble, flexible, solid, and very useful, and they have become part of my essential collection of Linux systems that I use on a regular basis. I wrote this article using antiX M12.0 Base Test 2, which I built back in the third week of March, and have been testing it since that time with excellent results.
I encourage those who have read this article with interest to take a look at the antiX offerings. The antiX site http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page#Downloads has download locations for those who are interested in trying it out.
A few years earlier in 2003 when MEPIS was formed, it was initially a fairly small, light Linux distribution, formed from Debian GNU/Linux software, capable of running directly from what is called a "Live CD". That means that you can insert a CD (or DVD) into your system, and start the system, running not from the disk hard drive, but from removable media instead.
When MEPIS was small, it ran well from CD, at least in 2003. Even today, you can run MEPIS from CD, but since 2004, MEPIS has been a simple, but full featured desktop system, and it is a very good one.
The small, light nature of that first effort also had merit. The gentleman named Paul, who prefers to use the "handle" anticapitalista, wanted to recapture that light, flexible look and feel, so he respun the MEPIS effort, removing the full featured, somewhat heavier software in favor of light, flexible, configurable software. Then he approached Warren Woodford and asked for permission to distribute antiX as a derivative of MEPIS. Warren liked the idea and has allowed anti to distribute his work through the MEPIS community.
I like antiX because it is nearly as stable as SimplyMEPIS, yet in some ways it provides even more flexibility, at only a moderate cost in terms of complexity. In fact, it's pretty simple, it's just not quite as much of a "drop in and use" system as SimplyMEPIS is; it tends to require just a little bit more experience, particularly in using system tools, and occasionally command-based utilities. This can scare off some beginners and novices, so it's clear that MEPIS definitely has its place, but so does antiX. There are times when you want to be able to easily tailor your system to your own specific needs, and that is an area in which antiX truly excels. It's great for aging hardware, and it's also great for the hobbyist and enthusiast who simply wants to experiment with a variety of configurations.
I happen to have hardware that is over three years old. At the time I started with antiX in 2006, all I had available to me was a 2000-2001 vintage Dell Dimension 4100 desktop system with a 996 MHz Pentium III processor, 256 MB of RAM (memory) and a single 40 GB Western Digital IDE hard drive disk. Other systems would work with this configuration, but light systems, such as Puppy, Feather Linux, and antiX, worked much better. I also tended to take full featured systems and add light window managers and browsers on them so that I could do certain things faster and more effectively.
When antiX was released, it was immediately apparent to me that a system like this could save me time and effort. Not only that, it had the same proven installation system and configuration tools found in the reliable and familiar SimplyMEPIS, plus it had that feel that I had enjoyed in the earliest builds of the prototype versions of MEPIS.
Since 2006, antiX has grown and evolved in capabilities. There is now a "full featured" release, still light, using resource conserving window managers in place of heavy, full featured desktop environments, but it has acquired quite a few powerful programs in it. Not everyone wants the same thing, though, and that is why antiX has developed two additional alternatives, the "Base" version, which still provides a graphical installation and initial login, but strips out applications, and allows you, with the assistance of tools, to create your own customized configuration. Another version, developed over the past two years or so, called "Core", takes that a step further: all that "Core" includes is a system kernel, essential system utilities, and a core set of tools that allows you to create the system you want. It does not come with any graphical user environment; you choose the one you want, if you want one, or you can use "Core" to set up a command-based server environment.
I've created several custom distributions of my own using antiX, starting with the original edition, the Base edition, and the Core edition. All three are nimble, flexible, solid, and very useful, and they have become part of my essential collection of Linux systems that I use on a regular basis. I wrote this article using antiX M12.0 Base Test 2, which I built back in the third week of March, and have been testing it since that time with excellent results.
I encourage those who have read this article with interest to take a look at the antiX offerings. The antiX site http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page#Downloads has download locations for those who are interested in trying it out.
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