Linux is somewhat a difficult and scary operating system for most of the users, right? It’s a more horrible experience for newbies to Linux, especially those who have shifted from Windows or macOS. MX Linux is a nice Linux distro for newbies as well as for pros to feel an ease of mind.
Community
MX Linux is a joint venture of two different communities – former MEPIS Linux and antiX. That’s where the name comes in – MX (MEPIS + antiX). Gathering the talents and the best features into one distro, MX Linux is a great midweight OS for simplicity, higher stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint. The distro is highly polished so that noobs don’t have to scratch their heads for finding out what to do.
Features
MX Linux 17 changed its base to Debian 9 (Stretch). As you’ve guessed, Debian is the most popular base for Linux distros, ensuring the maximum availability of software. It’s also packed with fresh MX tools, improved live operation (credit for antiX). The updated MX-apps include mx-tweak, mx-conky and NVIDIA.
The interface of MX Linux is XFCE, a very lightweight and customizable desktop environment. Although the entire size of the distro is far away from being lightweight, it’s a lot lighter than other mainstream distributions like Fedora or openSUSE. Being a midweight Linux distro doesn’t affect the performance, whatsoever. This also ensures faster startup speed. In my PC, it boots up within 4-5 seconds, where Windows 10 would take around 10-15 seconds. It’s not a big factor for general users, but a big difference in the benchmark.
The system only consumes around 4.5GB of the hard drive and 280MB of RAM. It ensures better performance with optimal resolution.
Here’re a few other important features to keep in mind about MX Linux.
- Platform – i386, AMD64 (available in 32-bit or 64-bit ISO separately)
- Kernel – 4.13.0-1
- Desktop – XFCE v4.12.3 (default desktop)
- Size – ~1.2GB (ISO)
- Simple installation
Installation
The installation process of MX Linux is just like other Linux distros. As installation media, you can either use a USB flash drive or burn the ISO into a DVD.
The installer is very simple and self-explanatory and uses XFCE GUI. It starts by asking the default installation storage of MX Linux. It’s completed using GParted, an awesome, powerful yet simple partition manager. If you need an in-depth guide on installing MX Linux, take look here.
After installation is complete, a welcome box will pop up with some links to help your journey through MX Linux,
Everything is easy to locate, no matter whatever you’re looking for. The XFCE environment comes up with awesome default themes as well. You’re free to modify the appearance any time without any issue.
Default programs
Like any other Linux distro, MX Linux comes up with a default package to help you through.
- Firefox – v56.0.2
- LibreOffice – v5.4.1-1
- Thunderbird – v52.5
- Clementine music player
- Gufw firewall
- VLC
- FBReader e-book reader
- Samba file sharing
- Xfburn v0.5.4
And a lot more. All of them are in the default version, but you need to update them to the latest on your own.
Terminal
The terminal is a very useful and important part of Linux. It’s quite similar to PowerShell/Command Prompt in Windows but comes up with more color and theme. It really stands out.
MX Linux really stands out for anyone. Its simplicity and power are also helpful for other users to shift towards Linux. I loved the distro very much. The only drawback (for now) is that lack of support, but it’s nothing new for any new Linux distro. I strongly recommend others to have a taste of MX Linux (even by using Virtualbox).
