I nearly crashed trying to decode this one. Where did I imply transparent is more vulnerable? I'd go for LFS-based Arya Linux any time if it worked with debian packages and was maintained as well as debian.

Neither a joke, nor an entirely serious suggestion but--

Debian has all the source-- why not just Compile Debian?

Because antix works with less ram and cpu usage. At least the version I tried a few years ago did. It even booted on year 1999 hardware.

That was antiX-13.2_386-full Luddite 4 November 2013 on a Celeron at 400 MHz with 384 MB of ram.

Since systemd creep on ram usage and cpu usage has been documented on the net over the years since sysytemd was adopted.
Citation: link

Why rebuild something already tweaked and polished?

http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2009/07/...-old-gear.html

Some kid bought the above for street cred in high school . After I fixed it.

...and I strongly suspect that this entails shipping with non-free firmware at the very least, maybe even non-free drivers.
Oh, those two sentences.
They cannot be reconciled, only a compromise is possible.

Pretty sure there's very little finance involved apart from running the servers for the web pages / download mirrors, the rest is an ongoing community effort and the mothership debian of course.
But it would be interesting to hear anticapitalista's statement.

That's a good reason for me, though I'm trying to figure out Ulysses's reasoning.

You and I are on the same page regarding systemd-- that, or I like it even less than you do.

Or one might wonder: why not just compile devuan (debian without systemd). Because antix is faster and needs less ram. Could configure devuan with the same packages but there must be more to antix than a collection of packages.

You *could* of course dwell a bit on the antiX documentation to see, what's it about...

Have a feeling though, you're probably guessing right... :rolleyes:

Bitjam and Dave are giants in human form. Lot's of custom scripting going on. Anti is like the rock we all live on.
A lot of free flowing tweaking goes on even after a release.

Just a thankful opinion though.

Edit: cringing after I posted this. I abhor main stream. Ubuntu and Mint can keep it.

Look at what is installed and then perhaps try to discern what it actually is:
Those emphasised above are device firmware/microcode for those devices. The binaries mostly live in /lib/firmware and they are in most cases part of the Linux kernel sources.

There are a few important points you should consider with regard to these:

1) None are Linux binaries, so they cannot be executed by the host OS.

2) If you don't own that particular hardware, they will never be used.

3) Some devices, by design, have their firmware/microcode loaded by the host OS.

4) Many other devices on a typical x86 system have the same (closed source, proprietary) firmware already loaded onto the device. The system BIOS/UEFI, CPU microcode, the IME/PSP firmware and other firmware in devices such as hard disks and network controllers are just a few examples.

5) Once loaded, the firmware runs on the device, not on the host OS - which is exactly the same as any firmware already installed on any other devices.

It boils down to:

Do you have any of that hardware?

If so, do you want it to work?

You can remove the packages and get some "feelgood", or you can just leave them there...

Those I have not emphasised are not part of the kernel, but in particular, the broadcom/b43 related packages are to do with drivers for certain wifi chips. If you have those devices, you either install the required driver or don't use the device (but presumably continue using the rest of your hardware with it's embedded firmware - ignorance is bliss?).

x86 is what it is, if you want totally free, then you need different - open - hardware.

This was a fascinating conversation that I constantly find myself referring to as it incorporates concepts than I'm learning, applying & turning over in my head regularly regarding privacy, software freedom, etc.

I do know for a fact that AntiX would not be happily running on my WinXP-era HP Pavillion w/out some of those "blobs" particularly the broadcom ones...so in that regard I must be pro-blob.

On the side, there's my librebooted X200 running a certain liberated legacy-era distro well enough but there are issues (w/the browser's ability to handle the modern web, to be more specific) that keep me from going all in with the libre camp for now.

Lots of Smart People, some even on this forum ;-) are ok with binary blobs. They believe that the dangers are negligible to non-existent and that leaving no binary blob unturned is a rabbit hole from which there is no escape. I can see that, although I think we can all agree that things like the Intel ME are a truly unsettling trend.

But as cynwulf notes, open hardware offers the only true escape from "the blobs."

In the Sparky linux aptus package(control center) there is an option to "remove all non-free". You might have a look at that

Looks like andyprough has done something about it...in the form of a de-blobbed antiX alpha!

Check it out -
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/avail...-non-free-bits

I haven't tried it yet but it looks suspiciously like the distro I've been looking for since blag bit the dust...

According to chatter, there should be a new/improved beta sometime this summer.

Have you ripped the blobs out of your hardware yet? :doh: