My Experience with MX Linux.
I have heard about MX Linux quite allot over the last half a year or so, so I decided to go give it a shot. It is a Debian based distro with antiX components and a few custom tools, boasting a small but passionate community behind it.
If you unfamiliar with antiX it is a lightweight Debian-based distro aimed for running on older machines; MX Linux is more a midweight version of that. It was originally presented as a variant of antiX but soon grew into its own distro. Like antiX, one of the major defining features of MX Linux is that it does not use systemd as its default init, instead using sysvinit. I had long suspected that the turbulence that systemd brought to the Linux community 5–10 years ago (depending on your distro) was long over with. I didn’t expect to find distros still using something as old as sysvinit.
That pretty much sums up my initial experience with MX Linux. Upon installing it felt like booting a fresh version of Linux from 2009. A wave of nostalgia washed over me catching a glimpse of that rather dated looking Xfce theme as the desktop loaded. I got to fight with audio settings for a half hour just trying to get my sound to work correctly with my two separate audio devices, just like the old days. And just like the old days it randomly screws up for no discernable reason. I still have not gotten my volume keys to work past that initial startup, though admittedly I gave little effort into trying. Using the distro for a week that feeling of ‘old’ never faded.
Now don’t get me wrong, old doesn’t always necessarily mean it is horrible, I have just gotten too accustom of the years with the quality of life advancements that have come along with the development of Linux desktops. I think PulseAudio can do some things better but as far as the average user’s case, it just works. Media buttons in most distros these days just works. The display setup just work. We have come along so far with modern Linux desktops that the overall feel of them well polished, clean, smooth and simply works.
It is no surprise that MX Linux to me feels dated, it is based off of a project that focuses on being useable with older machines, legacy is in its DNA. It is definitely a fully functional, modern distro though, this isn’t like booting up some turn of the century relic. It has a fairly recent kernel, Xfce 2.14, almost everything you would expect on a newer system. It is snappy and fast, ran every bit of software I installed on it with little issue. (Discord did have a habit of freezing.)
It is basically well suited to do most tasks, I just can’t recommend it to the average user.
It is important to note that while I point out these issues, I do so with the intention of coming at it from an average user’s perspective. Everything can be resolved with a bit of tweaking and work, if you have the patience and knowhow to do it. MX Linux offers an extensive variety of tools to make this process doable and they have fantastic, well organized documentation to help. And if that doesn’t solve your issue the community is active and engaging.
Linux with some assembly required. That pretty sums it up and probably why it gives me nostalgia of days of old, that is how it used to be. MX Linux is a fine distribution if you are looking to run on older hardware, or if you wish not to run systemd by default. And — admittedly this is a rib to Debian as I haven’t attempted to use it in several years — MX Linux is a far nicer choice for getting a Debian system running without having to start from the base.
