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Distrowatch review grumbles

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asqwerth
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Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#31 Post by asqwerth »

dolphin_oracle wrote: Mon May 14, 2018 4:39 pm I'm not sure we should be playing any guessing games. Someone writes an opinion, they are entitled to it......
+1

People will have different opinions, and that's fine.

The important thing is to consider all points, and then decide whether a particular suggestion or criticism is something for MX to take on board or not.

Sometimes a critical review might have more interesting food for thought than a completely gushing review, even if all the positive reviews are very much appreciated. Depending on the situation, of course.

And a critical review that (in my opinion) is off the mark for ALMOST everything, might still have a single, valid point.
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Gordon Cooper
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Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#32 Post by Gordon Cooper »

@ colin_b. Colin you could always go back to your first post and edit it to fix the spelling - then everyone else would be wrong! :happy:
Backup: Dell9010, MX-19_B2, Win7, 120 SSD, WD 232GIB HD, 4GB RAM
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MX-18.2 64bit. Also MX17, Kubuntu14.04 & Puppy 6.3.

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ChrisUK
Qualified MX Guide
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Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#33 Post by ChrisUK »

There isn't a perfect Linux Distro for the Desktop - unless all of the hardware manufacturers suddenly support Linux as they do Windows, and all devs from every distro get together and create a unified Linux Distro, there never will be... IMHO (I'm not saying this can or should happen)

But, MX Linux is one of only two distros that works perfectly on all of my varied hardware (three Laptops (Nvidia, AMD, Intel integrated GFX) - two Desktops (Nvidia, AMD)). There's also a forum that's regularly visited by a helpful development team... good luck contacting the devs in most other forums - and you'll need the "luck of the devil" to receive a positive response for a package that's not been built to be added to the repos.

So, don't concern yourselves with these negative reviews... you can't please everyone, and you never will. Console yourselves with the fact that there are many distros worse than MX, some are even as good, but there aren't any that are better.
Chris

MX 18 MX 19 - Manjaro

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penguin
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Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#34 Post by penguin »

Distrowatch is a website that I watch regularly.There are opinions of different experts or articles Linux magazines based on their way testing. During last years I have tested almost all of major Linux distros. Almost all. Two weeks ago I re-tested latest Mint, but also distros based on Slackware or distros based on Gentoo. Re-testing means, re- installing them on my laptop to see and distinguish what are improvements from the last time that I installed them. I also have re-tested some nice Usb distros developed by creator of Exton Linux.I do not want to go in detail now, but sometimes I do not share the same opinion with some articles that experts wrote about different linux distros on Distrowatch. I am not expert , but I have gain enough experience to understand how a distro works,what are glitches that makes a user happy or not and how fast the distro performs on everyday work.For example: The latest Mint, is more heavy than MX Linux and lacks as Ubuntu, during packages updating (package center). Gentoo Usb created by Exton's creator, makes the same trouble as the predecessor one (destroys your mounted or unmonted partitions), also was not able to start by Kernel Panic on old Laptop.He's KDE Slackware USB Linux , was not able to change wireless profile.The latest Red Core was impossible to start by a Kernel Panic on old Laptop.The Calculate Linux was impossible to install on a partition less than( if I remember well 25 gb).AbsoluteLinux was not able to start in old laptop as per Kernel Panic. And so on.I found the latest XFCE Manjaro, much better than the latest that I tried some times ago. No plethora of updates each day. Maybe it's creators,have decided to have not huge everyday updates, or less frequently , not the same as his originator Arch Linux.But Manjaro lacks to offer many useful packages, that you should install as AUR from Arch repos. Manjaro offers a very fast install only for packages on their repos. I remember that 2 years ago, Arch encountered a problem during grub installation. All distros based on Arch had reflected the same issue until the Arch resolved this problem. The same problem was on Debian Calamares during this period.Need to be said that when a original Linux suffers by a problem, all the derived distros suffers also. The latest problem still not resolved on ARCH ( free type fonts) caused stopping some softwares to run.So...?
My approach to MX Linux has been not slight and easy. I have installed and reinstalled several times. Last week I re- tested Antix, but MX Linux is more polished. Antix offers some very interesting and pioneer capabilities. I can say that both distros use memory respectively of what they offer. Antix is lighter because is using Openbox or Flubox and ROX. Do not lay yourself than LXDE, LXQT or OpenBox are much faster than XFCE. Maybe in the first install you can see that light Desktops produce or present themselves lighter on resources and memory.That comes also because the packages chosen by creators of this distros are light on resources. The problems comes up when you want to use really applications(that are much heavy and offers much more features). You will see that light system that was on the beginning of install is not light anymore. Some of them suffers more to load and run a ''heavy'' software than XFCE. Anyway.... I use MX Linux, Sparky Linux and ARCH on my laptops. I have also decided to keep also the latest Manjaro instead of Mint. Based on my experience I have found MX Linux one of the fastest and leanest Debian based Distros also the MX Community is very friendly,collaborative and productive. Also Sparky Linux is a very good chose.Very good.It is pity that that Sparky has a small team/contributors behind or maybe just only one person. Seems similar/organization as PCLinuxOS , but Sparky is a beast comparing PCLinuxOS. I suffered/encountered problems using PCLinuxOS some times ago, also did not found it as propagandized. On my Linux experience I am trying to combine tools, repos and the best of both distros (MX Linux and Sparky). Lately, the creator of Sparky Linux has decided to continue only Sparky based on LXDE (stable) and LXQT (rolling). Another very good experience and distro is Gecko Linux based on SUSE. But also is pity that is only a person and small community behind Gecko.
So... as I said.I share not the same option with some articles published on Distrowatch (about distro testing), also with Distrowatch Linux's classifications. The Distrowatch is maybe one of the more respected websites about Linux and Unix, or the first website that folks reach/search on Internet to get opinions of what Linux or Unix distro to use as Windows or Mac alternative.... but this does not mean that Distrowatch's opinion and classification is a bible.
So, MX Linux fellows: do not attend to keep so much in your mind Distrowatch's opinions as Direction and Guide.After years on distro testing, it is very easy to understand. Simply to say...everything derived from Originators. Almost every thing that you see around, derived from Debian. There are also many derived by Slackware, so many especially on the last years from Arch, from Gentoo, SUSE and Fedora (Red Hat). One that really want to taste purified Linux ...should stay as closer to Originators.

The latest words to MX creators and other folks. Stay tuned strongly with MX based on XFCE. XFCE is a really very good and balanced desktop.I have tried a lot desktops , but still I come back to XFCE. It would be much more productive to develop only on desktop instead of many of them. Would be losing of time to spend energy in vain instead of focusing on increasing of MX Linux performance. Every one can install a different desktop based on his preferences, feelings, experience and can use it. MX Linux, really works good. Very good. MX fellows:Keep going on this way and continue to consolidate your efforts to make MX leaner, robust , lighter. MX Linux is on the right way to his perfection. There are not so many other distros better or much better than MX Linux around/within plethora of Linux distros on the World.

Thanks to all MX Team for their work, efforts,support, help and responsibility also for packages that they build, update and maintain based on request.
Last edited by penguin on Mon May 21, 2018 5:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

djmclaws

Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#35 Post by djmclaws »

While none are perfect, the MX Developers should be proud of their work.

I find this to be a much more informed ranking than their "page hits per day" ranking.
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anticapitalista
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Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#36 Post by anticapitalista »

Here's another 5 from DW
I like how MX-17 makes a lot of Linux tools and functionality less obscure. However, there are few things I don't like about it. It won't let me position the panel where I like it to be -- the bottom of the screen. I use LibreOffice a lot and MX won't let me open a file located in another machine in the network using LibreOffice. It requires the file to be stored locally. Also, I don't like that it asks for an admin password to access other drives in the local machine.

I think I could find fix for the issues above, because anything is possible in the Linux world. But readiness and ease of use are important criteria when I review a distro. This is a review of MX as ran from live CD. I do not install a distro that doesn't pass this initial test.
I'm sure the issues raised are either false or easily fixed.

Some 'negative' antiX reviews have actually been useful and were pointing to some bugs e.g.
This distro is quick, nice looking, stable BUT for a left-handed person it's not usable. Tried everything to change my mouse to left-hand. In control you must set right-hand for left-hand to work!?!? And after re-boot it's back to right-hand.
The left-hand bug has now been fixed.
anticapitalista
Reg. linux user #395339.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - lean and mean.
https://antixlinux.com

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richb
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Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#37 Post by richb »

The two reviews while negative are much different as you pointed out. The first is clearly not the experience of the vast majority of users and not inherent to MX while the second led the developers to an issue I suspect was understandably not considered by the developers.
There are posts on this Forum that have led to improvements, changes and fixes. It is unfortunate that the first poster did not visit the Forum for help. But this is what you will see on a public site like Distrowatch. It is part of being "in the game".
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xali
Posts: 96
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:14 am

Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#38 Post by xali »

i would like to say something related somehow to penguin's comment. i also use mx and sparky. sparky is very good indeed (solus is nice too-did you tried it penguin? it is not a derivative also ) and very similar to mx in my point of view and i dare to say that a possible future cooperation between sparky and mx and antix in some way sounds amazing to me. i mean mx has a systemd boot option and we have already seen the amazing result of mepis and antix cooperation.
and i also agree with penguin about xfce and that mx is on the right way.
thanks mx team

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cyrilus31
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Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#39 Post by cyrilus31 »

anticapitalista wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 4:58 am Here's another 5 from DW
I like how MX-17 makes a lot of Linux tools and functionality less obscure. However, there are few things I don't like about it. It won't let me position the panel where I like it to be -- the bottom of the screen. I use LibreOffice a lot and MX won't let me open a file located in another machine in the network using LibreOffice. It requires the file to be stored locally. Also, I don't like that it asks for an admin password to access other drives in the local machine.

I think I could find fix for the issues above, because anything is possible in the Linux world. But readiness and ease of use are important criteria when I review a distro. This is a review of MX as ran from live CD. I do not install a distro that doesn't pass this initial test.
I'm sure the issues raised are either false or easily fixed.

Some 'negative' antiX reviews have actually been useful and were pointing to some bugs e.g.
This distro is quick, nice looking, stable BUT for a left-handed person it's not usable. Tried everything to change my mouse to left-hand. In control you must set right-hand for left-hand to work!?!? And after re-boot it's back to right-hand.
The left-hand bug has now been fixed.
If I understand well reviews are anonymous. Just seen a french review: too sad this reviewer didn't ask for help on the forum.

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penguin
Posts: 260
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: Distrowatch reveiw grumbles

#40 Post by penguin »

xali wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 5:44 am i would like to say something related somehow to penguin's comment. i also use mx and sparky. sparky is very good indeed (solus is nice too-did you tried it penguin? it is not a derivative also ) and very similar to mx in my point of view and i dare to say that a possible future cooperation between sparky and mx and antix in some way sounds amazing to me. i mean mx has a systemd boot option and we have already seen the amazing result of mepis and antix cooperation.
and i also agree with penguin about xfce and that mx is on the right way.
thanks mx team
Yes xali. I have tried Solus.As I said. I am a distro eater. Testing distros , give me a lot of experience. As I remember from Solus.... a problem with first attempt to install and problem to find packages that I wanted to install.

I began to test distros years ago. meanwhile I have used Windows.Now that generally I run Linux , I test much more.
As I said: Testing gives you a lot of experience. On this days, for example I have seen a bug on Sparky Linux and Manjaro Distro running XFCE desktop.Double click does not maximize Thunar windows. Searching on Internet , I found that reaction time mouse double click need to increased to 570 ms instead of 200 ms that is default. Another problem that I have faced was non function of double click on mousepad that I resolved by typing on terminal synclient TapButton1=1.

A strange situation happens me yesterday when I installed the new Sparky 4.8 32 bit. I tried a lot with LXDE desktop and I surrender.Personally I do not thing that LXDE has any of benefits over XFCE. LXDE uses less memory that XFCE but not so less. LXDE is much more difficulty to maintain and configure.I installed lovely XFCE and XFCE goodies.Everything was fine. After this I removed LXDE and Openbox but still some glitches or some things have been mixed up when I installed i3lock instead of light- locker. I tried to make some kind of modification of file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf, but still I did not arrived to resolve default user login and desktop lock. On the end I copied lightdm.conf from my Sparky64 to Sparky32 bit and everything is fine. (Sparky32 bit 4.8 is a little bit faster on but than his predecessor). What I have noticed was than Sparky 32 (4.8 ) LXDE uses roundly 175MB on first desktop and Sparky32 XFCE uses 189MB up to 210MB. Meanwhile MX Linux 17.1 32bit uses over 300 MB, but MX Linux 17.1 is much faster on boot. The strange thing that I faced yesterday was that i3lock did not recognize my password after screen lock. I found on

Code: Select all

https://github.com/i3/i3lock/issues/119
that
sudo chmod +r /etc/shadow
After I have compared file shadow on both my Sparky32 and Sparky64 and I found that the difference on both was Group Owner (that needs to be Shadow).The right solution instead of +r.

After years of testing directly one will feel directly if a distro needs much more testing and attention since the Live running process. I am not very sure if some one gives so much time and attention during testing a distro. Personally I gave my opinion on the previous post about MX Linux. Things to be repaired ? Decreasing of memory that MX Linux uses, for example: for MX Linux 32 bit from over 300 MB to roundly 200 MB (the same task for MX Linux 64 bit) in aim to make it leaner, lighter, faster.Some additional tools can be added.I useful tool was Woogaloo(I found it on Swappiness thread).Additional tool that can be added,is an editor to read logs (boot and shutdown). Etc.

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