Continued from Manjaro Openbox on a 7-year old Acer Aspire 5500Z Part 1
Quick Hardware Rundown
The installation didn't take very long mostly because I had no access to the Arch repositories. After rebooting, Linux proved once again why it's great for old hardware. Manjaro supported the old Broadcom and Intel networking components without further tweaking (Fedora's recent releases no longer supported the wireless card out-of-the-box). I quickly connected to my N network and found passable connection speeds. Important FN keys and the physical wireless button found at the lip of the Acer Aspire 5500Z worked too.
As mentioned previously, the Numlock key was enabled by default on boot. If you encounter this issue, try installing the package numlockx and edit the configuration file to switch off the Numlock key. Instructions can be found in the Archlinux forums.
Openbox and Manjaro performance
The 7 plus year old Acer Aspire 5500Z had seen its share of Linux distributions during its workhorse days. The Aspire grappled with earlier buggy openSUSE (10-11) and Mandriva releases as well as being a testbed for several versions of Fedora and Ubuntu.
I must admit that I was surprised how fast the Aspire felt with Manjaro's one-two punch combination of Openbox and Arch. Applications didn't struggle (as they did with openSUSE KDE) and multitasking didn't take a hit on the legacy components. I did, however, work only with the preinstalled applications since I couldn't access Manjaro's repos or UAR. I'm fairly confident, however, that most users wouldn't be disappointed with Manjaro on a legacy system such as the Acer Aspire 5500Z. After all, the included VLC was able to play movies and Qupzilla (the default browser) was able to pull up Flash pages without crashing.
Manjaro Openbox applications
Discussing preinstalled applications is somewhat unnecessary in Linux because most Linux users probably remove them or install a more familiar replacement. I can't help, however, but point out some of the interesting inclusions the brilliant Manjaro developers tucked into their Manjaro Openbox release:
1. Geany handles all configuration files by default - Several configuration files for Openbox, Conky and Pacman are listed on the menu and once clicked, will automatically open in Geany, an open source lightweight editor. Although I'm partial to basic text editors and Bluefish, I thought Geany was a great choice. Geany loaded quickly and remembered previously edited config files, which is pretty useful for those who regularly tweak their settings.
2. Qupzilla browser - Manjaro doesn't include Mozilla Firefox or Chromium, but instead uses Qupzilla. I've had a poor experience trying out Epiphany, Konqueror and Midori browsers in other distributions so I was apprehensive with running Qupzilla. The browser, however, proved its mettle even when running on the slow wireless card of the Aspire 5500Z. I was also happy that it used the DuckDuckGo search engine as default.
3. Avahi SSH browser and VNC browser - I've never tried the Avahi SSH or VNC browser before so finding them on the menu was definitely a plus.
4. Xnoise for playing MP3s and videos - Manjaro includes codecs by default so I didn't have to struggle with playing media the way I did with Fedora Xfce's Pragha.
5. Htop - This terminal utility for monitoring elements of the system was featured in an episode of Linux Action Show and could be very useful for hardcore administrators who love watching data changing right in front of them.
As a final note, Manjaro Openbox does not come with any office applications but does provide a LibreOffice installer from the main menu.
Bottomline
Due to issues with repository access, I didn't get to experience the full Manjaro desktop as the great folks over in Europe intended. However, the Openbox desktop was very polished and left me with a good impression. Linux has always been exceptional on old components and Manjaro's performance on the old Acer Aspire is another example of Linux at its best. The combination of Xfce and LXDE components was tastefully and judiciously applied to this Linux distribution.
When I try out a new Linux distribution, I always ask myself if the release can be used to teach children or students Linux (trainer present!). Most releases can be used both for teaching Linux and for teaching a plethora of subjects. In Manjaro's case, I would probably lean to the former (though mostly because of my incomplete experience with the distro and lack of access to the repos). If I was to donate the Acer Aspire 5500Z to a struggling student, would I leave Manjaro installed? Probably not. If I was going to tutor him/her personally on running the system, would I do it with Manjaro? Why surely!
Mageia and Linux Mint recently had their time in the limelight and now its Manjaro's turn - and deservedly so. Three thumbs up and a two-gun salute for Manjaro Openbox.
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