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.
Home page of the former forum (click on the image)
The forum was no longer active, except for consultation.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.
On March 10, Bento Openbox was released in an updated and improved version, localized in English as well as in French . This means there are now 2 different editions available in the download area.
The main difference we can notice is the removal of the language selection at startup (which was no longer working), and once the desktop is launched live, everything is already in English for the En version.
Apart from that, all components have been updated, and a few minor additions that have been made, including a localization package for the Smplayer multimedia player.
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
The kernel is Linux 6.8.0-49
The sound server is no longer Pulseaudio, but Pipewire
The software repository is installed, you will find it in the menu “System → Software”, or “Applications → System → Software” from the Openbox right-click menu
This edition has been enriched with a number of packages. Some applications more often requested have replaced others and are generally larger in size.
This edition has been rebuilt ton top of the Bento antiX x86_64 edition already available online, and comes with some additional packages. Also some applications have been replaced with some more often required and larger in size.
Bento antiXi686 PAE is a spinoff of the antiX Linux 32bit system rebuilt with the help from members of the antiX forum https://www.antixforum.com.
Wallpaper by Charlie Henson on https://gnome-look.org and logo letters made with Gimp.
User level: beginners and up.
Hardware requirements: 1 GB RAM at least, 2 GB recommanded, and 32bits CPU with 730 Mhz minimum + HDD 7200 RPM ou SSD (PATA ou SATA).
Continue reading
Bento antiX i486 is a respin from the distribution antiX Linux 32bit system with an i486 kernel,rebuilt with the help from members of the antiX forum https: //www.antixforum.com
Bento Openbox Remix 20.04 core 5 is the latest Ubuntu Openbox Remix version available.
Bento Openbox 20.04
The installation image is 734 MB large, and reducing the size below 700 MB is now proving difficult. Also, Ubuntu no longer provides versions for older computers equipped with 32-bit processors.
However, Ubuntu is still a very good choice for an easy use on most computers, and thanks to the LTS editions, can allow keeping your installation always up to date.
/!\ This very stripped “core” version is intended for users who prefer minimalism, so if you would rather want an edition fit to use “out of the box” with many codecs and applications for everyday use, you will prefer either an official version or one of the community editions supported by Canonical.
