Switching from Windows to Linux

Looking for a Linux distribution dedicated to computers that are still relatively recent but not compatible with Windows 11, I tested AnduinOS and found its interface engaging.

Then, to add several convenience features and fix a few small bugs, I set to work rebuilding it.
Along the way, I provided feedback to its developer on his GitHub project space, and built a Debian package, also available on my GitHub space (you will find the link in the Linuxvillage navigation bar).

Finally, after 2 full weeks of working on it, the distribution is online and here is its complete presentation!

User Level: Beginners to intermediate users looking for a familiar and comfortable environment.
Hardware Requirements: Modern 64-bit processor, at least 6 GB of RAM recommended, and 20 GB of free disk space (an SSD is recommended for optimal performance).

AnduinOS-Butterfly-24.04.4-fr_FR-2026.06.02.iso
md5 : d5936515ceebb64f03c4649730badcb4
sha512 : 77fa5bbed22e1ccb2c1e0759724a8e5d0fecd0339d6a4cca054fc903f449138d27acee4d12caa0c69e6b23c5339bc40a1ae185fcdf09e5ebba4c090c61ab26a1

Size: 2.3 GB
Kernel: linux-image 6.17.0-35 x86_64
Architecture: 64-bit (x86_64)
Base: Ubuntu 24.04.4 (with the kelebek333/mint-tools PPA repository)

Download: https://downloads.linuxvillage.org/

General Overview

AnduinOS is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Ubuntu GNOME, designed to ease the transition for users migrating from Windows 11.

About the Butterfly Edition

AnduinOS Butterfly goes further by integrating more features that make it easier to use for novice users, and this derivative version doesn’t just add software: it brings a configuration designed for immediate comfort.

Butterfly-specific improvements

Its codename is “Butterfly”, inspired by the developer’s nickname whose community sources we integrated: kelebek333 (kelebek means “butterfly” in Turkish) and from whom we installed several packages, one allowing easy file sharing between multiple computers at home, another one creating shortcuts to easily access predefined websites, and a program to watch TV on your computer (details further down).

• Automatic media playback: Native configuration to launch video DVDs and audio CDs directly upon insertion.
• Simplified DVD codecs: A dedicated program ensures a smooth installation of the decryption library for digital locks (CSS) found on some video DVDs (note: installation of this library is not permitted in all countries).
• Usage comfort: Disabling of automatic computer sleep to prevent annoying interruptions.
• Ready to use in French: French keyboard configured by default for this first French-speaking edition.
• Webapp-Manager: included to make it easy to create desktop shortcuts (launchers) to websites, as standalone applications.
• Enhanced software management: Addition of the advanced Synaptic package manager and the classic GNOME Software center, thus offering flexibility and simplicity according to the user’s level.

All this without removing any of the original features provided by Anduin Xue, the developer of the AnduinOS distribution, with the exception of Totem, which was removed because it could not play video DVDs upon insertion.

Applications available right after installation

🌐 Internet & Network

• Firefox: Privacy-friendly web browser
• Remmina: Remote desktop client (VNC, RDP, SSH)
• Warpinator: Simple file sharing over the local network (compatible with Winpinator on Windows)
• Transmission: Lightweight and efficient BitTorrent client.

📝 Office & Productivity

• Evince: Fast and lightweight PDF document reader
• Text Editor: Simple editor for note-taking and configuration
• Simple Scan: Document scanning utility

🎵 Sound & Video

• VLC: Universal multimedia player
• Audacious: Lightweight and resource-friendly audio player
• Rhythmbox: Music library manager and player
• Hypnotix: Free and intuitive IPTV player for live TV
• Sound Recorder: Simple tool for quick voice recordings

🎨 Graphics & Images

Shotwell: Photo manager and organizer.
Snapshot: Webcam capture and preview utility.
Font Viewer: Visualization and management of font files.

🛠️ Utilities & Accessories

• Bulky: Powerful batch file renaming tool
• FreeFileSync / RealTimeSync: Robust folder synchronization tools (with real-time monitoring)
• File Roller: Archive manager (handles ZIP, TAR, GZ, etc. formats)
• Qalculate!: Advanced scientific calculator with extended features
• Clocks: World clocks, alarms, stopwatches, and timers
• Weather: Simple and accurate weather forecasting application
• Disk Image Mounter / USB Creator: Built-in tools to mount ISO files and create bootable installation media. Also allows you to create ISO files from video DVDs, easily readable by VLC.

⚙️ System & Administration

• Files (Nemo): File manager
• GNOME System Monitor: Monitoring of processes and resources
• Synaptic: Advanced package manager
• GDebi: Graphical .deb packages installer
• GParted / Disks: Comprehensive partitioning and disk management utilities
• Software: User-friendly software center to discover and install applications
• Software Sources including additional drivers: configuration of repositories and installation of non-free hardware drivers
• Console: Terminal emulator
• Passwords and Keys: management of encryption keys and passwords

Following more extensive testing, two bugs were discovered and have been fixed today. Both editions of Bento antiX 26, in both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, remained displayed in French when booted in English. The other issue was that during a boot in the French version, the “INFORMATION.TXT” file intended for the live session sometimes failed to appear on the desktop.

This is why a new version of each has just been uploaded to replace the previous one.

In addition, the 64-bit version benefited from a large package update that became available just before its rebuild.

Apologies to those who have already downloaded it; we hope you receive this information and can update.

Version 64 bits

Nom : 
bento-antiX-Spring-20260520_64bits.iso
Taille : 1,5 Go
Noyau : Linux 6.12.86
md5sum : d4af644b61a84ea2ef26968ba86551a3
sha512sum : 247187378a600c9a5847bab9ca1614cc4f87650d6a559e5d9eda3652daef4683f8a48304d74f8d88a55095b13f1d523c726a71550ab0899aed2f51ad6f86ef06

Version 32 bits

Nom : bento-antiX-Spring-20260520_i686.iso
Taille : 1,5 Go
Noyau : Linux 6.1.170 (686-PAE)
md5sum : 316a8be2cafac630f433acca9c0b60d3
sha512sum : b0fba043226b0a8acd90e17cafb364a73000dc6121955e64594b3bbec61a0d77b9ed424cfb3c30a402495542ed12bfd78921c8757e9e5427e685c52fc029b6e5

Bento antiX is a rebuild of the antiX Linux system, created with the support of members from the antiX forum https://www.antixforum.com.
Wallpaper by Charlie Henson from gnome-look.org, lettering created with GIMP.
User level: beginners and beyond.

Required hardware configuration: at least 1 to 4 GB of RAM, and 32-bit or 64-bit processors (minimum power requirements not tested) + 7200 RPM HDD or 2.5″ SATA SSD or equivalent.

Information

antiX is a GNU/Linux distribution that has existed for many years. It is lightweight and designed to run on older computers while keeping it easy for newcomers. Notably, it makes use of the traditional init system instead of SystemD.

Bento antiX makes antiX easier to use by retaining only the core system and equipping it with a single environment, composed of a few programs, some selected and others developed over more than ten years. These were first used in a PCLinuxOS remaster, then an Ubuntu remix, before being ported to antiX in 2019/2020 and featured here since early 2022.

Bento antiX Spring 26

Bento antiX offers a lightweight desktop environment based on Openbox, an advanced and lightweight window manager, configured to create a user-friendly desktop experience for Linux distributions.

It includes openbox-menu, which displays the list of applications from the Openbox menu, and obsession, which allows shutting down the PC, reboot, log out, etc. These various components depend on a minimal set of additional packages without the need for a full desktop manager.

Bento antiX provides the PCManFM file manager to display wallpapers and icons on the desktop. Other setups are possible (Nitrogen, feh, iDesk…).

The included pre-built configuration files form a ready-to-use graphical system out of the box, while remaining fully customizable.

This configuration has the advantage of being very light on resources without sacrificing ease of use.

Common applications to both versions

Internet

• Firefox: the web browser from the Mozilla Foundation.
• antiX Viewer: ultra-lightweight web browser, ideal for machines with limited resources.

Graphics

• Feh: lightweight image viewer, controllable via command line.

Accessories

• L3afpad: simple text editor.

File manager

• PCManFM: lightweight and fast file manager, with desktop management.

System

• Synaptic Package Manager: complete graphical interface for installing, updating, and removing packages.
• Zram-control: graphical application to load and unload the Zram kernel module on the fly. Zram artificially increases the amount of RAM available in the system by compressing data in memory.
• GParted: graphical partition manager.

Preferences

• Display (ARandR): graphical interface to configure monitors and screen resolution.
• Appearance (LXAppearance): to customize GTK themes, icons, and fonts.

Network

• Broadcom Manager: tool for managing proprietary drivers for Broadcom network cards. Essential for machines equipped with this type of hardware.
• Connman: wired and wireless network connection manager.
• Connman-ui: graphical interface for Connman.

Console tools

• Sakura: lightweight terminal emulator.
• htop: interactive system monitor and process manager.
• mc (Midnight Commander): twin-panel console file manager (a versatile tool supporting remote filesystems and archive browsing)..
• rsync: synchronization and backup of local or remote files.
• scrot: command-line screenshot tool.

All other applications needed for everyday use as well as occasional tasks are available and installable via the Synaptic Package Manager.

64-bit version

Name: bento-antiX-Spring_20260517_64bits.iso
Size: 1.5 GB
Kernel: Linux 6.12.86
md5sum: 46a2ff9557be3c0dba1dd13b7bbd4928
sha512sum: 581fe912166fa0b02b2d592003a45d35e82a9e117b0a81fde55e4fe92942d85072b437d2e9f3a9c47abc93e74524bb6c688554fc7b431226003ef6a4327063dd

Accessories

• File Roller: graphical archive manager (zip, tar, gz, etc.).

System

• Printer configuration: add and manage printers.

32-bit version

Name: bento-antiX-Spring_20260517_i686.iso
Size: 1.5 GB
Kernel: Linux 6.1.170 (686-PAE)
md5sum: 75e4d3e0f33288b611fc56232a74ed3a
sha512sum: c6c9b5edb887a1bf80383d687e4ffab893318bd6a3c5ab286266979411e49a69a0effcef305c94ddeda758299af8088e150f6a8836b6c777bff184d9060391e5

Preferences

• PowerStats (gnome-power-manager): energy consumption statistics.

 

Statistics

Knowing the number of downloaded distributions can be interesting, and gathering this information without impacting personal data privacy is important. It is now done. In the coming weeks, we will be able to share the statistical figures.

Downloads page appearance

Along with the production of statistics, the download index now features a “look & feel” matching the Linuxvillage graphic identity.

Furthermore, its content, meaning the list of available distributions with download links and checksums, will be automatically updated whenever new editions are uploaded.

Maintenance and Slowness Resolution

The Linuxvillage community wiki (xwiki.linuxvillage.org), graciously hosted by Gandi as part of their supported projects programme, was experiencing noticeable slowness and lack of responsiveness when loading pages. An in-depth diagnostic session identified the root cause and resolved it.

Issue Identified

The Licensor Application extension (XWiki license manager) was installed by default without any need — no paid extension was installed. The page Licenses.Code.MissingLicensesUIX, responsible for displaying license alerts, had empty content. The system logs showed the following error on every single page render:

ERROR o.a.v.rendering - Left side ($unlicensedSheets.size()) of comparison operation
has null value at xwiki:Licenses.Code.MissingLicensesUIX[line 5, column 61]

This Velocity error was triggered across the entire wiki, including the home page, and could reach one occurrence per second during peak activity. This explains the slowness experienced by public visitors: every page render triggered a cascading error handling process before being able to respond. Additionally, a reference to the legacy Mail plugin (MailPlugin), obsolete since an earlier version, remained in the configuration file, generating an extra error on every server startup:

ERROR - Cannot initialize plugin [com.xpn.xwiki.plugin.mail.MailPlugin]
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.xpn.xwiki.plugin.mail.MailPlugin

Actions Taken

• System log analysis via journalctl -u xwiki to identify recurring errors
• Server snapshot taken as a precaution
• Clean uninstallation of Licensor Application 1.32 and its dependencies via the XWiki administration interface
• Removal of the MailPlugin reference in /etc/xwiki/xwiki.cfg (line commented out and documented)
• XWiki restart and log verification

Result

The logs now only show harmless warnings, and navigation throughout the wiki is noticeably smoother.

Next Steps

A request has been submitted to Gandi, our sponsor, to upgrade the VPS resources (from 4 GB to 8 GB RAM). This request for an upgrade is meant to allow XWiki to better handle simultaneous connections, particularly in collaborative editing mode.

On January 3rd, we sent you an email to inform you of the upcoming closure of the Linuxvillage forum and the steps we will be taking following this shutdown.

The forum was no longer active, except for consultation. There were many tips and tricks in both the French and English sections; we intend to recover and republish some of these articles.

However, after performing successful database export tests yesterday, we have decided to close the forum for stability and security reasons. We will be able to put back online tips that are still relevant today fairly easily.

If you are aware of specific articles that you would like to see back online, please feel free to send us a message to let us know.

We could also consider creating a new forum in the future, using a more modern platform like Discourse, or perhaps setting up a mailing list, if there is interest.

The “Tips and tricks,” in both French and English, will be published on this platform, as the new wiki (XWiki) mentioned in our newsletters is not yet bilingual.

Best regards, and Happy New Year 2026!

A new English and French versions are available. You’ll find them at the top of this page.

The entire system has been updated. Additionally, the following packages have been removed: Libreoffice-draw and its dependencies, Gsmartcontrol, and Geany. The aim is above all to obtain reasonably sized installation images, bearing in mind that the fight against software obesity is a futile one, but not yet lost! ^^

Of course, you can always install the packages you need from the Synaptic package manager, or from the Software Center, once this edition has been installed on your computer.

One small detail has changed: the “@” symbol in the command prompt turns green for the user, and red when the terminal switches to administrator mode.

The previous posts will provide you with information on the system’s general content.

Built on the Ubuntu Openbox Remix 22.04 LTS version, available on the download page, here it is, arriving right on January 1st, 2025! If necessary, be sure to read this article on methods for downloading a disk image containing a system and verifying the file’s integrity after downloading.

We wish you a Happy New Year 2025 with plenty Linux Penguins in your homes!!!

Distribution content

The ISO image is 2.4 GB, contains most of the programs necessary for everyday use. You will find Firefox to surf the web, the Thunderbird client to manage your email, Libreoffice Writer, Calc, and Impress for office needs… In addition, the Synaptic package manager will allow you to install even more applications.

Desktop environment

The environment is composed of lightweight elements brought together and working together through ready-to-use configurations. This is how Bento Openbox Remix was designed from the start. Openbox, the advanced window manager, offers a complete menu from a right-click on the desktop, as well as on the panel. It also provides a session management menu: “Right-click → Quit” which allows you to shut down, restart, put the system to sleep, change users or quit the session.

The panel has changed since version 22.04. We had LXpanel, a very easy-to-configure panel thanks to graphical tools. In this new version, we have Tint2, lighter, more stable, but less obvious to customize. LXpanel has been set aside, following a bug that affects it in the latest versions of Ubuntu and makes it inoperative. However, the provided Tint2 panel is configured for most uses, and it is functional and stable. The session manager is still Lightdm.

Applications

Programs for everyday use are available from the “Cat head” menu on the left of the panel, and from the Openbox right-click menu “Applications”. (You can click on the screenshot below to display it full size).

Above in the accessories menu, we can notice an archive manager, a calculator,  a file manager, a text editor, and other programs.

The Graphics section comes with a scan software, and image viewer, a pictures manager, and Gimp, the image editing software.

The Multimedia menu will allow you to discover the audio volume manager, a lightweight audio player, a webcam utility, and the SMplayer video player, along with MPV (lighter, and on which SMplayer depends).

The Internet menu includes a network configuration manager, an IRC client, and the previously mentioned Thunderbird and Firefox. These are provided by the Mozilla community to avoid relying on the snap package system. For those unfamiliar with this, we’ve chosen to keep things lightweight and use traditional installation methods for these applications. This ensures that updates are handled in the same way as the rest of the system.

The Office section includes the LibreOffice suite, offering spreadsheet, drawing, presentation, and word processing tools. PDF Arranger lets you manipulate PDFs by adding, removing, or merging pages. The Atril document viewer can open any PDF file. You can discover for yourself the following Settings and System sections, which offer extensive customization options.

Technical details

As promised, this is the Bento Openbox Remix Edition, rebuilt from Bento Openbox Remix Core 6.

This edition has been enriched with a number of packages. Some applications more often requested have replaced others and are generally larger in size.

The disk image is 1.8 GB large.

Continue reading