Trisquel Mini, a favorite!
After working with Lubuntu for a long time, I had to look for another distribution because Lubuntu has unfortunately changed the desktop. No heart for low-ram users? It couldn't be done with 1GB of RAM. So I went looking ...
The first one I found was Q4OS with Trinity Desktop. Really good and easy to use. What I think is particularly good about Q4OS is, that it works without "problems", out of the box. A bit of a long installation time, but it's worth it. In the RAM it is around 400 MB after boot, which is significantly higher than Trisquel. It's a little slower at work, but not by much.
Then I found antiX and worked with it for 6 months. No problem for English speaking users, others will have trouble because it is non-systemd and many settings have to be made directly in the files. The community is also strongly ideological, which is a problem in the forum. Nothing for beginners.
Then I tested Devuan, with about the same results as antiX. Then Debian, which is very good. A little more unwieldy than Q4OS. Bodhi is pretty good too, I just don't particularly like the desktop. Tiny Core is also one of my candidates. Very interesting, sometimes difficult and the applications are not always up to date. But super small and fast. There is also dCore, a systemd version of Tiny Core, where you can also install debian packages. I haven't tested it yet as there is no graphical installer.
Ok, and then I found two more interesting ones, Trisquel Mini and Archbang. I'm testing the first one now, the second one soon after :-)
Trisquel Mini is very similar to Lubuntu with the old desktop. After booting, I have about 200 MB in RAM. Programs start much faster than in Q4OS. It takes some fine-tuning, but then it's excellent. I'll see if it becomes my working distro. But I will definitely recommend it on my website, which nobody visits because it is on ifastet free and therefore very slow ;-) If someone knows a better free hoster, I am grateful for the tip. I need something with a subdomain as there is no money.
> Trisquel Mini is very similar to Lubuntu with the old desktop.
Indeed, Trisquel 9 Mini is the fully libre version of Lubuntu 18.04.
> Lubuntu has unfortunately changed the desktop
If that came with Lubuntu 20.04, Trisquel 10 Mini will probably implement the same changes. If it came more recently (in 21.04 maybe), I would guess that the 20.04 Lubuntu desktop will be retained in Trisquel 10. I am curious now, I want to check that new LXDE look.
I was never a fan of the name Lubuntu. Sounds gross.
Sounds like it should be the name of a follower of Cthulhu.
Lubuntu. Cthulhu. Same kind of energy.
Cthulhubuntu just sounds so natural indeed.
It appears the change from LXDE to LXQt happened with Lubuntu 18.10 anyway, so resistance is futile.
World dominance by LXQT is clearly a Cthulhu kind of a bold move. Right before he eats us all.
It appears you were right, as always on Cthulhu matters.
The takeover is already complete, the project page itself is now hidden under a weird address: https://lxqt-project.org.
Sending thick trolls to the Trisquel forum was only a diversion, we should have foreseen it. Maybe they were only fleeing the advancing Cthulhu minions? Should we trust them when they say they mean no harm?
I associate it with Lubumbashi or Patrice Lumumba.
Or Awilo Longomba. Not only is he my favorite Congolese drummer, but his creativity in naming his son "Lovy Believe Church Awilo Longomba" sets a new standard for us Judeo-Christian parents.
Young guys like me and Awilo really know how to shake it: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=v0522swhBBI
> Patrice Lumumba.
Indeed, his story also illustrates how resistance to Cthulhu is heroic but futile, and people usually die in the process:
In June 2001, newly-discovered documents by Flemish historian Ludo De Witte revealed that while the US and Belgium actively plotted to murder Lumumba, the British government secretly wanted him "got rid of" because they believed he posed a serious threat to British interests in the Congo, such as mining facilities in Katanga. Howard Smith, who became head of MI5 in 1979, said, "I can see only two possible solutions to the problem. The first is the simple one of ensuring Lumumba's removal from the scene by killing him. This should solve the problem..."
But our current concern is that LXDE is out and LXQt is in: Trisquel Mini 10 will have made a crucial GUI toolkit choice. Suspense is unbearable.
So you think Trisquel Mini might leave LXDE? There are some lightweight desktops out there. Trisquel could take one of these, for example IceWM or Trinity. But what is the motivation to leave LXDE? Is it no longer being developed further?
I am specifically looking for distributions for computers with 1GB RAM and single core processors. Because there are extremely many such computers in poor societies ... and they are thrown away! People then buy a smartphone and are more or less away from the Internet, because who can work efficiently with something like that? So I did LinuC so that the poor people would have a chance. Here in Buenos Aires, a new notebook costs more than a month's wage for a normal worker. People then pay in 12 monthly installments, which makes it even more expensive! And the old computers are collected and recycled. Hundreds of thousands of computers end up in scrap metal and plastic. And the computer manufacturers earn even more! And where does the money end? No, not with the poor, but with the rich "philanthropists"! You know what they're doing with it, they call it "Build Back Better"! I call it fascism and totalitarianism!
Your worry is undoubtly shared by many people here, and this is one of the reasons why Trisquel Mini exists.
I just discovered after reading your OP that Lubuntu had switched from LXDE to LXQt, which I never tried, so I have no idea what direction it is taking except from Gtk+ to Qt.
This would need to be checked with the people in the know (Trisquel devs), but yes, Trisquel 10 is supposed to be based on Ubuntu 20.04, which apparently shipped with LXQt.
Personally I've been liking my time with LXQT. I think it's a good move - I think that the Gnome Foundation takes GTK off in too many weird directions, makes it difficult for non-Gnome devs to create GUI's in the way they are used to. Hitching their horse to Qt instead seems like it's already paying off.
As a general rule, I am rather GUI toolkit agnostic, as long as it is my favorite one.
Trisquel Mini 9 will be supported at least until April 2023 anyway, so that should leave plenty of time to see Cthulhu come from afar.
> Hitching their horse to Qt instead seems like it's already paying off.
The LX people are certainly right to explore different things, and seem to have done it successfully with Qt.
Not sure why the change has taken such a toll on RAM, though. I'll be off researching that.
EDIT: I might stop researching soon: https://blog.lxde.org/2016/10/04/benchmark-memory-usage-lxqt-desktop-environment-vs-xfce. Other sources point to markedly different figures, though (250-270 for LXDE against 350 for LXQT, which means a difference of about 100 MB, or 10% of a 1GB RAM).
If that came with Lubuntu 20.04, Trisquel 10 Mini will probably implement the same changes.
Not necessarily. (L)Ubuntu's default system does not matter to Trisquel. It may be a source of inspiration though. What matters are the packages in Ubuntu's main and universe repositories. https://packages.ubuntu.com/lxde indicates that, until now, LXDE can be installed on Ubuntu. It could therefore become the desktop environment of Trisquel Mini 10 and even of Trisquel Mini 11.
That said, the default desktop environment for Trisquel Mini 10 may have already been decided. I have no idea. Somebody following the development may tell something about the future of Trisquel Mini. In fact, for all I know, there may even be no future (if the MATE desktop is considered light enough). Even if it is the case, it will be possible to install the "lxde" package on top of Trisquel's NetInstall.
I'll give up a try to trisquel mini. How much of ram do you use when you use the computer? 700MB ? If you watch videos with abrowser etc. The more "apps" you open the more memory your computer use.
I use more the keyboard than the mouse. Fell in love with openbsd-cwm.
https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20090502141551
I'm surprised that lxde use less computer resources. I'll try it because that sound very interesting.
Hi Andy
I see you already have some life experience :-)
I also know such cliques, you can probably find them in all forums, regardless of what it is about. But that doesn't matter. I've learned a lot since looking for a new distro, but it's still not enough. Many years ago I studied computer science without graphical interfaces. Ok, it wasn't really the right thing for me, but in project management and later as a lecturer I was still able to make my contribution. If I were 21 years old again, I would become a Carthusian monk, no joke!
Keep having fun with Linux!
Andy you are funny with your screenshots. You use an intel graphic card. "intel graphics" work well with GNU/Linux. You can buy the latest intel processor with a graphic chip on the market, it will works. You just need to use the latest kernel. It's not really what the FSF recommend. But it'll work. The latest nvidia graphical cards on the market are pain to work with trisquel. They require "nvidia code" to work properly. The proprietary nvidia driver is closed source and nouveau "bug" a lot of time. It's really a pain to get those to working.
You can find that on the libreboot website
"Nvidia GTX 780 cards are what Libreboot recommends; it has excellent support in Nouveau (free Linux kernel / mesa driver for Nvidia cards) and generally works well; however, the performance won’t be as high in Nouveau, compared to the non-free Nvidia driver because the Nouveau driver can’t increase the GPU clock (it doesn’t know how, as of 18 March 2021)."
These are not professional machines in the field.
It's a joke of course. Any decent GNU/Linux user use a thinkpad.
Of course you have a tinkpad we know...
So you are just a desktop user and nothing else. Don't come to pollute ours topic when we speak about Free Software. You know nothing.
Hi Andy
Quite "amusing" the verbal battles :-)
At the moment I am busy looking for accommodation. My hostel will close at the end of the month and there aren't many alternatives for my budget.
I like Trisquel Mini. Since I test different Linux distributions in order to describe them on my website, I have to be content with little information. Otherwise the description will be too complicated for beginners.
It is important that the installation works well and that the most important extensions can be easily installed. I focus on the firewall, swapfile, GNOME software, Opera browser and update manager. That then makes the distributions comparable.
The firewall is normal, as always, installing with synaptic.
At Trisquel, the swapfile comes with the installation. It's good. Why is there actually no graphical swap tool for Linux? That would be great! You enter the type of swap, the size and the swappiness. The rest of the work is done by the tool. Tiny Core has such a tool :-). Maybe you could add the zswap and zram and the type of compression. The main thing is that there is a good explanation so that a new user doesn't make a mess. Compression is good, but not when you have a single core processor. Zram is good too, but not if you have very little RAM. I normaly use a simple swapfile wit swapiness 40 (up to 60) and vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 10. That works fine with 1GB RAM and a single core processor.
Unfortunately, GNOME software does not work on Trisquel Mini, which is why you have to switch to gdebi. For new user GNOME Software is good, as it gives you some information about the applications.
Opera browser is running well and as always it manages the RAM and browser cache very well. Best of all from modern browsers! The license is not my problem :-)
Ok, the last part of my description is the update manager. There is a problem with the certificate here. But I hope it is resolved soon and the new ISO contains the solution. New users don't want to deal with such problems :-)
Unfortunately, I've had this strange error message for a few days and can't get it away. Whether it has something to do with the certificate problem? Or with the installation of gdebi? No idea.
I also lose the settings of pcmanfm and the leafpad when rebooting. Strange. A desktop session problem, I suspect.
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/gdbuserror-lose-settings-pcmanfm
PS: You did not react to the two dates that can be read backwards. Yes, I know, a "religious matter", but extremely important for our future, if we want one. You can find the rest on my private website at hagia.
> Quite "amusing" the verbal battles :-)
Enjoy! They mostly happen on rainy days.
Why do you copy/past? We don't understand at all. You should stop.
I like Trisquel Mini because I don't have to listen to that irritating screenreader when I'm installing! :D
Thank you very much for reviewing Trisquel Mini!
After a busy week looking for a new place to stay, I finally found it yesterday. It'll be good for a month, but probably not anymore. But now I have a little more time to search.
I haven't reinstalled Trisquel Mini yet, but it should be possible by the weekend. Then I will see what is left of the small problems and whether this problem could be solved with the certificate in the ISO.
Just in case you would still be wondering about this next time you visit, Trisquel Mini 10 Nabia ships with LXDE, which is still alive, kicking and maintained:
LXDE has some really cool stuff that I use frequently, like lxterminal and pcmanfm.
I can't remember anymore - was Andy posting 40,000 word rants in favor of LXDE or opposed to it? Or was he playing both sides as usual?
Oh the irony!
He was for LXDE but against LXQT, I think. By the way, after getting banned here he also started posting in r/trisquel on Reddit but didn't get much of a response.
It would almost be worth signing up for a reddit account just to tell him how much people like you and banana-mage and lanun/Ianun/|anun miss him.
Haha. Well he hasn't posted in over 3 weeks, so it's possible that he might have been banned from there as well.