Indian distro based on Debian provides a hefty toolset, setting it apart from others
By Larry Cafiero
Today’s Distro of the Week comes to us all the way from India, and comes with an interesting story around its name.
Once known as Zinc, this Indian distro based on Debian (with a version based on Ubuntu as well) is called Asmi – pronounced like “us” and “me” – and is a name in Sanskrit and Hindi that means “I am” or “I exist.”
Asmi 13.6, which we’re taking a look at today, comes with Debian 13.6 “Trixie” and the Xfce desktop, aims to provide a lightweight and modern Xfce-based experience with the addition of distro-specific tools to make the experience a good one for the user.
But we’re getting ahead of the story.
Installing Asmi 13.6
The ISO for Asmi comes in at just under 2 GB, which makes for a quick download. Onto a USB drive it goes, and the live USB comes up quickly on the various hardware we have running the distro.
On the live USB, the Xfce 4.20.1 desktop comes up immediately in a unique screen formation, with the dock on the left side, along with a customary desktop icon to install the distro. Clicking the icon brings us to the Calamares installer, which goes through the customary questions to be answered like keyboard choice, location for time/date purposes, disk setup, login/password setup, and once you confirm all of that, you’re on your way.
The system requirements for Asmi 13 are somewhat standard, and would easily fit a wide range of hardware. The minimum RAM requirement for the distro is 2 GB, although the distro would absolutely love 8 GB or more – wouldn’t we all? – using an Intel or AMD-based 64-bit processor. A user could have as little as 10 GB of storage, however the distro runs better on 20 GB or more in the storage department, and the screen resolution could be as low as 1024-by-768 but it would really like a resolution of 1920-by-1080.
The installation goes relatively quickly – in one case our hardware took the installation in under 15 minutes – and once we reboot, we were on our way.
Kicking the tires
First things first: After updating the distro to make sure we were working with the latest and greatest version, we had to do some proverbial desktop surgery. While the panel on the left was, for all intents and purposes, unassuming at best, we needed to change that to either a top or bottom panel, as is customary among Xfce-based distros.
This is where a Asmi-based tool came in and excelled. The Asmi Settings window popped up after logging in and while it was understated and underassuming by other distros’ Welcome window standards, it packs an absolute wallop in the way of assisting the user in modifying their distro to their particular liking.
Want to move the panel? No sweat, there are several options you can choose thanks to the Layout button on the window. Wallpaper is the same. Software support includes Flatpak and Snap, we well as Gnome Software Center and other options. From the Settings window you can also choose a variety of web browsers (we’ll keep Firefox, thanks!), as well as choose from a list of recommended software to install. There’s a Change and Remove Kernel options for those brave users wishing to venture that far, as well as System Restore and Software Updates. Finally there’s a link for a variety of tools from Teejee Tech, the creative force behind Asmi Linux.
Once the user examines what’s available and how to install software using this provision, it was time to add a few things. It should be noted that after the in-house Asmi tools and Firefox, the software on the original install drops off considerably, although it does include a variety of programs like the Celluloid media player, a Flash USB installer, ChronShield Recovery Wizard, the Fresh text editor, Geany IDE, the Nemo file manager, and Sensor Viewer to keep an eye on the temperature of your hardware.
So now the Popular Software button on the Asmi Settings window gets a bit of a workout. Let’s add the usual suspects, shall we? VLC media player, please, as well as the GIMP image editor. Let’s not forget one of our favorites, the LibreOffice suite of software, as well as an email client like Thunderbird. Once we got all our proverbial ducks in a row, we were ready to go.
Daily use of Asmi 13 went flawlessly. Web surfing and emails with Firefox and Thunderbird respectfully went without a hitch, and the CPU usage graph in the upper panel gives the user a unique look at what the system is doing under the hood, and to the right there are small CPU, memory, and swap monitors to keep things going. Speaking of under the hood, the Debian base in this distro hums along, willingly and effortlessly handling every request thrown at it.
That said, multitasking is hardly an issue for Asmi 13, since having several software programs open and being used at the same time did not faze the distro one iota. In fact, it was a stretch to get the distro to use up to 3.5 GB of RAM, which it handled with the typical Debian aplomb. Using only programs like Google Docs and Google Drive were a breeze, which the distro handled without a problem.
The final word
We’ve said this before in past columns, but it bears repeating: Of all the distros that serve as a base in the wider Linuxsphere, Debian tops them all. With over 90 distros based on Debian, it makes up just under 20 percent of the Linux universe.
So in a crowded field of Debian-based distros,what makes Asmi 13 so special?
Well, there are a couple of things right off the bat. The Asmi Settings window is something that both unassuming and yet uncharacteristically useful in Asmi 13. From this window alone there are a wide range of option for the user to tweak the system to their liking, in ways that some might consider overkill. For example, I would never had considered deleting old kernels, but here we are, given the option to do so. Secondly, the system overall is very responsive and giving, which might be normal in a Debian-based scenario, but chances are it is an overlooked issue when it comes to reviews.
Asmi 13 works on a wide range of hardware, to its credit. But is it for all levels of users? It gets a green light for beginners thanks to the Xfce 4.20 desktop environment being akin to what Windows users are escaping. For intermediate and experienced users, the distro provides a wide range of tools – some of which are proprietary, which may be the distro’s only drawback – as well as the power of Debian beneath the hood.
Try it out yourself. Download the ISO from the Asmi download page and give it your own test-drive.
Do you have a distro you think would make a great feature for Distro of the Week? Don’t be shy—let me know! Email me at larry.cafiero@gmail.com and I’ll make an effort to make your choice available to the wider public … No suggestion is too mainstream!