Expirion is alive again

Well I have just uploaded a new Expirion - now with the Advanced Mate Desktop
available here https://sourceforge.net/projects/expirion-linux/files/
Kernel is 6.12.37

Mate.png
 


What's the difference between that and just the regular Mate DE?
The menu - here is original Mate desktop
mate 1.png


Here is Advanced - as you can see it is laid out differently
Mate.png


You can add the menu-mate (Advanced MATE menu) from the Synaptic Package Manager - it is not installed by default
1.png
 
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The menu - here is original Mate desktop

I have to say, I like that better than the Mate that I'm familiar with.

Thanks for the information. I don't use Mate, even with Mint. My (only) Mint box runs Cinnamon.

I admit it, I'm pretty partial to the more traditional layout. I like the 'Windows-esque' task bar though I sort of got used to the task bar being on the bottom back in the days of the CDE. Though, you could adapt that quite a bit and it really wasn't too complicated to understand.

In a way, I sort of miss CDE. I'd not use it in modernity, but I miss it. (If that makes sense.)
 
I have to say, I like that better than the Mate that I'm familiar with.

Thanks for the information. I don't use Mate, even with Mint. My (only) Mint box runs Cinnamon.

I admit it, I'm pretty partial to the more traditional layout. I like the 'Windows-esque' task bar though I sort of got used to the task bar being on the bottom back in the days of the CDE. Though, you could adapt that quite a bit and it really wasn't too complicated to understand.

In a way, I sort of miss CDE. I'd not use it in modernity, but I miss it. (If that makes sense.)
I like the Advanced Mate better as well so I now use it as my daily driver
 
I Saw the review, congratulations. :)
 
That review makes for an interesting read.
 
It's a lot of work to get listed on distrowatch. So, congrats!
 
That review makes for an interesting read.

It does indeed, Brian, but I find a number of deficiencies and inaccuracies in it - I hope Charlie does not mind my being TL;DR here. Many of you will now I am a stickler for accuracy, and I am not just waving the flag for one of our Valued Members.

Credit where credit is due.

1.
Refracta is one of the more cryptic and least friendly system installers I have used and it takes an unusually long time to get through compared to Ubiquity and Calamares. It's a curious choice for a young distribution.

Nowhere near as bad as Anaconda, used by Fedora and some others, whose dark theme makes options to manually partition next to impossible to see. I had no problems with Refracta.

2.
Earlier I mentioned there is sometimes overlap in functionality. We see this a little with the two web browsers,...

IMO, any user of Linux for some period of time is a little short-sighted if they do not have two browsers on board, for backup and comparison.

3.
LXQt is a light-to-middle weight desktop and so I was surprised to see it consumed a lot of memory, about 750MB. This puts LXQt running on Expirion on par with heavier desktops like Plasma 5.

That is nonsense. 750 MB is not a lot of RAM, at all.

In my stable of 70+ distros, I have eleven (11) with KDE Plasma.

My Expirion 6 is Xfce, not LXQt. I do have an LXQt, but it is Lubuntu.

For a legitimate comparison, below is a list of them and their consumption of RAM, "at rest"

Code:
/dev/sda9: LABEL="KubuntuNoble-HDD"     1.3 Gi (KDE Plasma v: 5.27.12)
/dev/sda17: LABEL="MJRO-KDE-HDD"        1.3 Gi
/dev/sda27: LABEL="BigLinux-KDE-HDD"    1.6 Gi
/dev/sda30: LABEL="BluestarKDE-HDD"     1.5 Gi
/dev/sda35: LABEL="Neptune8-KDE-HDD"    1.3 Gi (KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5)
/dev/sda41: LABEL="Mageia9-KDE-HDD"     809 Mi (KDE Plasma v: 5.27.10)
/dev/sdb6: LABEL="Tuxedo-KDE-SSD"       1.5 Gi
/dev/sdc19: LABEL="CachyOS-KDE-WD"      1.3 Gi
/dev/sdc32: LABEL="MX23.5-KDE-WD"       1.2 Gi (KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5)
/dev/sdc33: LABEL="Q4OS-KDE-WD"         1.3 Gi (KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5)
/dev/sdc38: LABEL="Feren-KDE-WD"        885 Mi (KDE Plasma v: 5.27.10)

Those unmarked on RAM usage use Plasma 6 up to KDE Plasma v: 6.3.2 or more

My Expirion 6 (Xfce)

/dev/sda22: LABEL="ExpirionXFCE-HDD"
                    1.0 Gi (Xfce v: 4.20.1)

My Lubuntu (LxQt)                        1.0 Gi  (LXQt v: 1.4.0)

/dev/sda15: LABEL="LubuntuNoble-HDD"

On Plasma versions - Plasma 6 was released February 2024, the Plasma 5 (5.27) series is only being supported now for serious bug fixes and translations.

My Xfce of Expirion, at 1.0 GB, and Jessie Smith's (DistroWatch) 750 MB under LXQt are by no means heavy.

If you are going to compare apples, compare them with apples, not oranges.

As far as I am concerned @GatorsFan , well done, and more power to you.

Wizard
(chuckle) I could provide this to DistroWatch as my review of the project - do you think it would last, or fall through the cracks?
 
That is nonsense. 750 MB is not a lot of RAM, at all.
Amen
If you are going to compare apples, compare them with apples, not oranges.
And more importantly, not with Lemons
As far as I am concerned @GatorsFan , well done, and more power to you.
Amen !
Wizard
(chuckle) I could provide this to DistroWatch as my review of the project - do you think it would last, or fall through the cracks?
The reviewer there needs to be kept 'honest'

As I said, the review there, in its present form, is 'interesting'

I have run the earlier version of expirion on my pc and found it be good......very much to my liking. Good one Charlie !
 
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Expirion Linux Wins an Award from SourceForge

Congratulations! Expirion Linux has just been recognized with a Community Choice award by SourceForge. This honor is awarded only to select projects that have reached significant milestones in terms of downloads and user engagement from the SourceForge community.

Thought I would share the news - have a great day
 
As a long-term (albeit not so active lately) Slashdot user, congrats! I remember back when Rob Malta added the repositories. I think I have one of the oldest, except I've never once added a single file to it. (Same username, for those that might wish to spy on me.)
 
I just released Expirion Testing 7.0 is now out - it is based on Debian Testing (Forky) has kernel 6.16.7 and LXQt desktop v2.2 it is about 3.4GBs in size

 
Just created a VirtualBox machine with Experion using the LXQt DE. Looking nice! Good job.
I have to start it in recovery mode but I'm pretty sure it's due to the issue between VBox and the latest kernal on the host ( Mint 22.3 ).
 
The release notes for 22.3 document an issue with some VirtualBox VM's having some display issues. Also reccomends using the VBoxSVGA graphics controller rather than the VMSVGA controller as a possible workaround.
I don't know if it's a kernal issue or something else but there does seem to be an issue. No problems with my existing vm's, but any that I have created since upgrading to 22.3 have to use the VBoxSVGA controller to boot.
Of course, it's entirely possible that operator error is the real issue. ;)
 


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