Linux is installed & running nicely. Here's what I need to figure out now

I think Slackware is systemd-free.
Most of the time I can't tell whether a system is running systemd or not. But once I tried to run VMware Workstation Player on MX linux, and it ran only with systemd enabled. However, the devs at MX said I went too far, and it's trivial to get it to run even without systemd.

 

Slackware is systemd free.

 

pgrep systemd or systemctl --help?

BTW, have you dumped Arch forever?

 

Thanks. I meant that I don't notice any difference when doing what I normally do on the system.

 

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@chrisretusn -- KeePassX works fine. (If it's not broken, don't fix it.)
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Hmmmm -- I used Etcher to make UFD's using ISO's from several different Distros. Worked great for all Distros EXCEPT MX. For MX, the downloaded ISO had a perfect SHA-256 & Etcher declared the UFD was pristine, but it didn't load properly. I tried another D/L & made a new UFD using Etcher. I used the UFD on a different computer. No joy the UFD didn't load properly.

So I made a UFD using Rufus instead of Etcher. The UFD functioned perfectly.
Go figure.

 

Most distros need a flash drive that was burned the "dd" way. It makes an image that fills the whole flash drive.
MX, which by default is systemD-free, needs the other type of burning a flash drive (it's the first choice in Rufus, forget what it's called). It leaves the rest of your flash drive over for personal use.
Etcher makes "dd" style flash drives because it wants to just work without asking questions.

 

VERY illuminating! Thanks muchly for the info.

 

By the same token, with MX you can make a "snapshot" that is an ISO of your current system (you can exclude certain folders if you wish). You can then burn that ISO to a flashdrive, and now you can reinstall MX, even on a different computer, with all your files and apps and customizations. The snapshot feature is in the "MX Tools".

 

@shmu26 -- Is MX's "snapshot" similar to Mint's Timeshift?

 

You can install Timeshift on MX, if it is not installed by default. It can be used on most distros.
But MX snapshot istotally different. It is a method that only systemd-free systems support, AFAIK.
You don't "restore" a MX snapshot, you "install" it. It is a reinstallation of the system, but with all your customizations in place.
If you made only a few changes, use Timeshift. Sometimes, the quantity and nature of the changes is too overwhelming for Timeshift, and the restore will fail, or not fully restore the previous state. But MX snapshot will still work.