antiX a Marxist Distro?

[gregorylock]

I remember when Switched To Linux did a review on antiX he mentioned that there was some bookmarked websites.  He made it very clear that it didn't bother him that the developer believed these things.  However it did bother him that it came pre installed with the developers political views.

I decided to put anitX 19.2 into a virtual machine and look at it myself.  Here is what I found in the Firefox bookmarks.  It's under anticapitalista!

Code: [Select]

www.antiracismfascism.org
www.democracynow.org
www.counterpunch.org
https://newleftreview.org
https://monthlyreview.org
www.marxists.org
https://chomsky.info
www.radicalphilosophy.com
https://jacobinmag.com
https://catalyst-journal.com

Here is where things get really interesting!

I deleted .mozilla and then restarted Firefox.  Everything comes right back the way it was.  Those bookmarks and everything else!  I even tried to delete it and then restart the system.  Just as soon as I launch Firefox all of that stuff comes right back.

I'm with Switched To Linux.  I don't have a problem with the developer holding to His political views.  I just don't understand why He thinks he should weave them into the system.  I don't have a problem with Ubuntu Christian Edition or even the Satanic Edition.  At least those Distributions tell you exactly what they are before you start using them.

[CwF]

Yes it is interesting! Maybe this is part of the reason why the probability of me ever taking a random distro for a spin is approaching zero, and that's a good place to be.

anticapitalista is the devs screen name too.

poke around in /opt and etc/skel, there's obviously a default setup located outside /home.

maybe you could get lucky with locate.

Better yet, nuke it.

[gregorylock]

I don't understand where things are going with Linux.  I've been trying to figure out what distribution will fit my needs once the ones I'm currently using is no longer supported.  Everything I've been looking at has something about it that does one thing good but another thing not good.  A couple years ago I thought I found my Distro with Linux Mint.  Then the 19 series gave me issues.  I thought that Linux Lite was good, but then the 4 series didn't seem to be as good.  I'm currently experimenting with MX 19 series.  I found some minor annoyances.  PCLinux had just enough issues that it took me too much time trying to resolve them.  Otherwise I might be using it.  I can't wait to see what Linux Mint 20 is going to do.

[Crimson]

I eventually got to the point where looking for the perfect distro became a never ending search. The ONLY way you'll find it is if you make it yourself, and that requires a level of skill I don't have time or interest in acquiring. I decided to settle with Debian and Ubuntu as they are the most widely supported and easiest to find tutorials for.

[gregorylock]

Lately we've been having a snappy package controversy.  I heard that Linux Mint thinks that Ubuntu is using snaps to take control of things.  If it's true or not, I haven't had good luck with snaps.  On my old machines they take forever to load up.

[Crimson]

I think it's obvious that they're trying to take control, but not by any means in a bad way. Linux is kinda chaotic, I think a bit of order to things may actually be beneficial in the long run. Then again, what do I know?

[gregorylock]

I think it's obvious that they're trying to take control, but not by any means in a bad way. Linux is kinda chaotic, I think a bit of order to things may actually be beneficial in the long run. Then again, what do I know?

I agree that some order would alright.  But they are starting to force snap packages.  As far as I can tell it takes longer for them to launch and there is big concern over their security.  I want things to perform well, I want security, and I want privacy.  From what I'm hearing, snaps mess up all three.

[Spatry]

IF something in a distribution bothers you.... FORK IT; or just use something else. In my day I have seen distributions do things which did not sit right with me <cough> P1nguy OS <cough> Pear OS <cough> Comice <cough> early versions of Deepin <cough> Get the picture?

I concur with CwF: The first time Firefox launches, the .mozilla folder is added from /etc/skel. If you use root to DELETE the .mozilla folder from that location, a new .mozilla folder without those abhorrent settings will be generated.

[gregorylock]

I concur with CwF: The first time Firefox launches, the .mozilla folder is added from /etc/skel. If you use root to DELETE the .mozilla folder from that location, a new .mozilla folder without those abhorrent settings will be generated.

First I need to share what I learned.  What I learned is weird.  Some distro bookmarks seem to install into both Firefox and Firefox ESR.  However only the controversial sites I listed appear in Firefox ESR.

I removed Firefox ESR and Installed the following browsers:  Chromium, Firefox, Google Chrome, Palemoon, and Waterfox Classic.

Without reinstalling Firefox ESR, I'm not sure if we will find what we are looking for.

.mozilla is not listed in that directory.

List of Files located in /etc/skel

Code: [Select]

.bash_history
.bash_logout
.bashrc
.config
.conkyrc
.conkyrc-lua
.desktop-session
.dillo
.fehbg
.fluxbox
.foxrc
.gconf
.gexec
.gtkrc
.gtkrc-2.0
.gtkrc-2.0.mine
.icewm
.jwm
.jwmrc
.jwmrc-numix-bevel
.jwmrc-numix-square
.jwmrc-papirus
.local
.mcthemes
.nanorc
.newsboat
.profile
.smb.conf
.smbnetfs.conf
.xmms
.Xresources

[Kalthrix]

Yeah, that's kind of not cool to throw that nonsense in a distro. I get you can get rid of it, but personally for me its an immediate turn-off. I'll just stick with Ubuntu/Feren OS for now. Piloting on a couple of different machines and so far, they've been rock solid.

[gregorylock]

Yeah, that's kind of not cool to throw that nonsense in a distro. I get you can get rid of it, but personally for me its an immediate turn-off. I'll just stick with Ubuntu/Feren OS for now. Piloting on a couple of different machines and so far, they've been rock solid.

I think when you start considering things, you realize that making this decision isn't as easy as it seems.  I like MX Linux.  MX Linux is built on top of debian.  That part of the equation is good.  However MX Linux is antiX combined with MEPIS.  I'm not sure what that means for the state of MX it's self.


If my memory serves me correctly, I met a guy on cupoflinux who told us He used antiX.


The good side of antiX is it's a really lightweight OS.  I have been thinking about trying it on my due core machines.  After a cold boot, it only uses 185 Megabyte of Ram.  I think it is probably more secure then Puppy Linux.  Puppy Linux runs as root.  Gathering from what I heard Matt Hartely say on youtube, Puppy has a method/tools/ a way of doing things that helps keep the system safe, but you need to learn how to use those tools.  I don't mind learning new things from time to time. But sometimes I find stuff like that annoying.  In other words because distros don't agree on security, they come up with different ways to handle it, and then expect the user who learned how to do things one way, to conform and do it another way.  antiX is more like a debian distro.  You have "su" and "sudo".  You you have your su password, and you have your user password.  I had to join the antiX forums to ask about how to install the guest additions for virtual box.  I think this information should of been included in the manual, or even easy to find through the website or a simple good search.  I got to give them credit, they didn't take a long time answering my question.  Following two users instructions I got the guest additions working.

Like CwF said, if I got lucky then I might be able to get rid of the controversial stuff.  If I understand Spatry correctly, I should be able to use root to delete etc/skel/.mozilla.  But it does not appear to be in that directory. The next suggestion for CwF is look in /opt.

Here is what I found in /opt

Code: [Select]

ls -al
total 20
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root 4096 Jun  7 14:47 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 4096 Jun  6 19:53 ..
drwxr-xr-x  9 root root 4096 Jun  7 14:45 firefox
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Jun  7 14:47 google
drwxr-xr-x  8 root root 4096 Jun  7 08:08 VBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.10

Code: [Select]

gregory@antix1:/opt/firefox
$ ls -al
total 155152
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:47 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       887 Jun  2 22:37 application.ini
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 browser
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    241720 Jun  2 22:37 crashreporter
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      4003 Jun  2 22:37 crashreporter.ini
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 defaults
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       174 Jun  2 22:37 dependentlibs.list
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 distribution
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     14584 Jun  2 22:37 firefox
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    630592 Jun  2 22:37 firefox-bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      1449 Jun  2 22:37 firefox-bin.sig
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      1449 Jun  2 22:37 firefox.sig
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 fonts
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 gmp-clearkey
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 gtk2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      4096 Jun  7 14:45 icons
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    715368 Jun  2 22:37 libfreeblpriv3.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    691064 Jun  2 22:37 libgraphitewasm.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     43400 Jun  2 22:37 liblgpllibs.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   2221104 Jun  2 22:37 libmozavcodec.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    220392 Jun  2 22:37 libmozavutil.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     14352 Jun  2 22:37 libmozgtk.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    113512 Jun  2 22:37 libmozsandbox.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   1219632 Jun  2 22:37 libmozsqlite3.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     18376 Jun  2 22:37 libmozwayland.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    243728 Jun  2 22:37 libnspr4.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    694896 Jun  2 22:37 libnss3.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    474888 Jun  2 22:37 libnssckbi.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    191728 Jun  2 22:37 libnssutil3.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    184120 Jun  2 22:37 liboggwasm.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     22872 Jun  2 22:37 libplc4.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     14592 Jun  2 22:37 libplds4.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    168024 Jun  2 22:37 libsmime3.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    313920 Jun  2 22:37 libsoftokn3.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    398016 Jun  2 22:37 libssl3.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 125112880 Jun  2 22:37 libxul.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      1449 Jun  2 22:37 libxul.so.sig
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   1322144 Jun  2 22:37 minidump-analyzer
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  22046937 Jun  2 22:37 omni.ja
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    687936 Jun  2 22:37 pingsender
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       164 Jun  2 22:37 platform.ini
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    622328 Jun  2 22:37 plugin-container
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      1449 Jun  2 22:37 plugin-container.sig
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      2017 Jun  2 22:37 precomplete
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root         0 Jun  2 22:37 removed-files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       825 Jun  2 22:37 Throbber-small.gif
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    101856 Jun  2 22:37 updater
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       681 Jun  2 22:37 updater.ini
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       132 Jun  2 22:37 update-settings.ini
I noticed that google is in /opt too:

Code: [Select]

gregory@antix1:/opt/google
$ ls -al
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jun  7 14:47 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Jun  7 14:47 ..
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Jun  7 14:47 chrome
What files are we looking for?

[gregorylock]

I noticed that the Dev also messed with some of the other browsers too.  Google-Chrome and Pale Moon looks completely clean.  However Chromium has three Debian bookmarks.  Not controversial, but why are they there?  The non ESR Firefox (Latest Firefox) browser I currently have installed has 5 MX Linux bookmarks and two antiX bookmarks.  Again not controversial but it shows that Firefox ESR is not the only one that has been tampered with.

[CwF]

Well I know when I see it! maybe... I'm not a pro searching linux files yet and it reminds me to do some more work on my 'ask the cat' probe. I'd like to search knowing the string being searched is in plain text, hex, binary, etc. I can in windows but haven't found such a thing for linux yet, something like SpaceFM filesearch with a integrated 'beav' viewer.. I'll build it someday...

Anyway, poking around does help you learn. Absorb these details for how to make your own linux better!

On the sudo stuff; more proof in my mind linux has many 'blind fan boys'. Linux security was(is) a mess so we have strict newer implementations (good) and old school holdouts (gksu, et al.) When your building up your own linux you can learn polkit to do it properly. My desktops are all click, no sudo, it's the 'who has the keyboard' security model. I always have a root terminal a click away without a password. There are some how-to I think on xfce's forum, maybe year+ old.

I do see a storm coming this reminds me of, distro surfin' that is. 20.04 will be the line in the sand we just crossed. There's a few areas of fragmentation that simply need to break off and die. The mentioned polkit/su is one getting settled, next up is GTK2 to 3 to 4 and where is QT? That's going to be a mess. The alt packaging is a little irritating too, I like appimages, not the others. Etc...

[gregorylock]

I don't know why I didn't think of this.  They are probably making those changes before creating the deb packages, and sticking them into the repos.