Tried bsd and as a desktop the best was ghost and it was less usable than any linux distro I have tried. My problem was my collection of ten year old nucs would not boot any linux distro with a kernel six series. This is not a problem without systemd and refracta worked beautifully. Modifying the refracta installer files to do the job I wanted was easy. as was everthing else I tried on it. whereas mxlinux argued and crashed with a simplified grub to speed up boot. So now I have all my software and my own remastered bootable, installable iso on a usb stick that has up to date sofware on my ten year old nucs and also works on n95 cpus. SO after 4 weeks of trying to get bsd to perform basic system tasks on my machines like bare metal restore and failing, I have my answer. goodbye systemd, I cant afford you $$$$$
I love Debian (or Devuan) distros with Xfce so I tried this almost unknown distro (number 230 in DistroWatch list).
The installer is a little bit cryptic for just a user like me, but in the end I was able to install it in my test laptop.
Everything seemed OK so I updated the system with Synaptic.
Suddenly anti-aliasing disappeared (appeared with a complete re-start). Later I realized that the internet connection icon in the panel didn't work, so I thought there was no connection, but connection worked. I downloaded several more addons for the panel but when I was installing them the panel disappeared. I tried to recover it with the settings panel button but there was only a cryptic message. I re-started the system but it didn't appeared. I reinstalled it with Synaptic, but it didn't work either. With no panel I abandoned Refracta.
It is the worst Xfce Debian/Devuan derivative I know, and believe me: I know a lot..
In the past, I used a few years mint as daily driver, but I wasn't satisfied, especially systemd, and how I hate libreoffice. Meanwhile, I tested many distros in search of the 'perfect' linux distro for my needs. The closest was Devuan, but the look and feel was oldish. Then, I discovered Refracta, this was/is it! Refracta is very clean, but I cleaned it more. I made it as clean as possible. Then, I installed the applications I need. You know, I am a 'paranoid'. So, I decided to make a kind of 'Tails' or 'Heads' of my own. I am very satisfied. Now, I'm busy to build an ISO-image for persistent live USB-sticks (copy of my entire system) including full encryption. Everything goes through Tor (Swordfish Browser), Encryption Wizard, VeraCrypt, Paranoia Text Encryption, encrypted Tutanota email app-image, and so on. My purpose is to use the exactly same system, which I have on PC, to use on persistent USB-stick, where I need it safely, private and anonymous. Therefor, I give Refracta a 10. Thank you!
Everything you like about Debian, minus the systemd(isease)!
I tried the Chimaera experimental build. Refracta in many ways is more minimal than even Devuan. AbiWord being installed instead of LibreOffice is a part of it, but the lack of metapackages installed by default helps keep the package count low. It also uses trusty old ALSA instead of PulseAudio (yet more Poettering software to avoid...) for sound. Very stable, even with a development branch repository.
Tried bsd and as a desktop the best was ghost and it was less usable than any linux distro I have tried. My problem was my collection of ten year old nucs would not boot any linux distro with a kernel six series. This is not a problem without systemd and refracta worked beautifully. Modifying the refracta installer files to do the job I wanted was easy. as was everthing else I tried on it. whereas mxlinux argued and crashed with a simplified grub to speed up boot. So now I have all my software and my own remastered bootable, installable iso on a usb stick that has up to date sofware on my ten year old nucs and also works on n95 cpus. SO after 4 weeks of trying to get bsd to perform basic system tasks on my machines like bare metal restore and failing, I have my answer. goodbye systemd, I cant afford you $$$$$
I love Debian (or Devuan) distros with Xfce so I tried this almost unknown distro (number 230 in DistroWatch list).
The installer is a little bit cryptic for just a user like me, but in the end I was able to install it in my test laptop.
Everything seemed OK so I updated the system with Synaptic.
Suddenly anti-aliasing disappeared (appeared with a complete re-start). Later I realized that the internet connection icon in the panel didn't work, so I thought there was no connection, but connection worked. I downloaded several more addons for the panel but when I was installing them the panel disappeared. I tried to recover it with the settings panel button but there was only a cryptic message. I re-started the system but it didn't appeared. I reinstalled it with Synaptic, but it didn't work either. With no panel I abandoned Refracta.
It is the worst Xfce Debian/Devuan derivative I know, and believe me: I know a lot..
In the past, I used a few years mint as daily driver, but I wasn't satisfied, especially systemd, and how I hate libreoffice. Meanwhile, I tested many distros in search of the 'perfect' linux distro for my needs. The closest was Devuan, but the look and feel was oldish. Then, I discovered Refracta, this was/is it! Refracta is very clean, but I cleaned it more. I made it as clean as possible. Then, I installed the applications I need. You know, I am a 'paranoid'. So, I decided to make a kind of 'Tails' or 'Heads' of my own. I am very satisfied. Now, I'm busy to build an ISO-image for persistent live USB-sticks (copy of my entire system) including full encryption. Everything goes through Tor (Swordfish Browser), Encryption Wizard, VeraCrypt, Paranoia Text Encryption, encrypted Tutanota email app-image, and so on. My purpose is to use the exactly same system, which I have on PC, to use on persistent USB-stick, where I need it safely, private and anonymous. Therefor, I give Refracta a 10. Thank you!
Everything you like about Debian, minus the systemd(isease)!
I tried the Chimaera experimental build. Refracta in many ways is more minimal than even Devuan. AbiWord being installed instead of LibreOffice is a part of it, but the lack of metapackages installed by default helps keep the package count low. It also uses trusty old ALSA instead of PulseAudio (yet more Poettering software to avoid...) for sound. Very stable, even with a development branch repository.
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