MX Linux

Last updated

MX Linux
MX LINUX Logo.svg
Mx21.1-wildflowers.png
MX-23
Developer MX Dev Team
OS family Linux (Unix-like)
Working stateCurrent
Source model Open source
Initial release24 March 2014;10 years ago (2014-03-24)
Latest release 23.5 [1] / 12 January 2025;25 days ago (2025-01-12)
Available in Multilingual
Update method APT
Package manager Apt
Platforms x86-64, i686
Kernel type Monolithic (Linux)
Default
user interface
Xfce, Fluxbox & KDE
License Linux Foundation Sublicense No. 20140605-0483
Official website mxlinux.org

MX Linux is a Linux distribution based on Debian stable and using core antiX components, with additional software created or packaged by the MX community. [2] The development of MX Linux is a collaborative effort between the antiX and former MEPIS communities. The MX name comes from the "M" in MEPIS and the "X" in antiX — an acknowledgment of their roots. The community's stated goal is to produce "a family of operating systems that are designed to combine elegant and efficient desktops with high stability and solid performance".

Contents

MX Linux uses Xfce as the main desktop environment, to which it adds a free-standing KDE Plasma version and, in 2021, a stand-alone Fluxbox implementation. Other environments can be added or are available as "spin-off" ISO images.

History

MX Linux began in a discussion about future options among members of the MEPIS community in December 2013. [3] Developers from antiX then joined them, bringing the ISO build system as well as Live-USB/DVD technology. To be listed on the Linux distribution clearinghouse Web site DistroWatch, MX Linux was initially presented as a version of antiX. It received its own DistroWatch page with the release of the first public beta of MX-16 on 2 November 2016.[ citation needed ]

Desktop environments

MX Linux has four desktop editions:

Recent releases

A table of current MX Linux Development Team supported releases and how long Debian will provide Long Term Support. [23]

VersionReleaseKernel [24] Kernel (AHS) [25] NotesDebian LTS support [26] ends:
Current stable version:MX-23.5 all DE's [15] 13 January 20256.1.1236.12.8 Liqourix5th refresh of MX 23. Bugfixes, kernel updates, application updates, updated firmware packages and updated Xfce 4.20 core packages.Debian 12.9 December 2026
Current stable version:MX-23.4 all DE's [14] 15 September 20246.1.1066.10.10 Liqourix4th refresh of MX 23. Bugfixes, kernel updates, application updates, updated firmware packages, and updated Xfce 4.18 core packages.Debian 12.7 December 2026
Current stable version:MX-23.3 all DE's [13] 19 May 20246.1.906.8.93rd refresh of MX 23. AHS now has the 6.8.9 Liquorix Kernel.Debian 12.4 December 2026
Current stable version:MX-23.2 all DE's [12] 21 January 20246.1.x6.62nd refresh of MX 23. AHS now has the 6.6 Liquorix Kernel.Debian 12.4 December 2026
Current stable version:MX-23.1 all DE's [11] 15 October 20236.1.x6.5All ISOs updated to the newest 6.1 Kernel and AHS now has the 6.5 Kernel.Debian 12.2 [27] December 2026
Current stable version:MX-23 all DE's [10] 31 July 20236.1.0 [28] 6.4.0Xfce Desktop Environment upgraded to 4.18Debian 12 "Bookworm" [29] December 2026
Old version, yet still maintained: MX-21.3 all DE's [30] 15 January 20235.106.0Debian 11 "Bullseye"

To be defined; roughly
July 2024 to June 2026
Old version, yet still maintained: MX-21.2.1 all DE's [8] 18 September 20225.185.19 & 6.0 kernel are in the AHS repo. [31]
Old version, yet still maintained: MX-21.2 all DE's [6] 28 August 20225.18
Old version, yet still maintained: MX-21.1 all DE's [5] 9 April 20225.165.14 & 5.16 Kernel available

in Package Manager [32]
Old version, yet still maintained: MX-21 AHS [33] 22 November 20215.14
Old version, yet still maintained: MX-21 [34] 21 October 2021
Old version, no longer maintained: MX-19.4.18 April 2021Debian 10 "Buster" [35]

30 June 2024
Old version, no longer maintained: MX-19.4 [36] 31 March 20214.19
Old version, no longer maintained: MX-19.311 November 2020
Old version, no longer maintained: MX-19.2 KDE16 August 2020
Old version, no longer maintained: 19.2 [37] 31 May 2020
Old version, no longer maintained: MX-19.114 February 2020
Old version, no longer maintained: MX-1921 October 2019
Legend:
Old version, not maintained
Old version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

Features

MX Linux has basic tools like a graphic installer that handles Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) computers, a GUI-based method to change a Linux kernel and other core programs.

It includes MX Tools, [38] a suite of user-oriented utilities, many of which were developed specifically for MX, while some were forked from existing antiX applications or are existing antiX applications; a couple were imported with permission from outside sources. These tools are also available in Debian Stable-based Linux distributions, and some of the main tools are as follows:

A particularly popular one is MX-snapshot, [39] a GUI tool to remaster a live session or installation into a single .ISO file. [40] The "cloned" image is bootable from a disk or USB flash drive, maintaining all settings, allowing an installation to be completely backed up, and/or distributed with minimal administrative effort, since an advanced method of copying the file system developed by antiX Linux uses bind-mounts to perform the "heavy lifting".[ citation needed ]

System requirements

Minimum

Recommended

Derivatives

The developers of MX Linux also have been releasing "Community Re-spins" which are treated as unofficial releases. There are MX-Workbench, MX_Minimal, MX_CLI and so on. [41]

MX users can further customize these re-spins by using a software application called "MX Snapshot". Some community members exchanging posts at MX Forum and distribute their custom respins. [42] AV Linux [43] is one of well-known respins. [44]

See also

References

  1. Dolphin Oracle. "MX 23.5 Now Available!". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
  2. Smith, Jesse (1 January 2018). "MX Linux 17". DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. Copenhagen: distrowatch.com. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  3. "About Us – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  4. Dolphin Oracle (21 October 2021). "MX-21 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. MX Linux. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (9 April 2022). "MX-21.1 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. MX Linux. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  6. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (28 August 2022). "MX-21.2 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. MX Linux. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  7. Delony, David (29 August 2022). "MX Linux 21.2 "Wildflower" Lands, Keeping Things Simple". MakeUseOf. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  8. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (18 September 2022). "MX-21.2.1 "Wildflower" released!". MX Linux. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  9. Dolphin Oracle. "MX-21.3 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  10. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle. "MX-23 "Libretto" now available – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  11. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (15 October 2023). "MX-23.1 "Libretto" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. MXLinux. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  12. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (21 January 2024). "MX-23.2 "Libretto" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
  13. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (19 May 2024). "MX 23.3 now available - MX Linux New". mxlinux.org. MXLinux. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  14. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (15 September 2024). "MX-23.4 "Libretto" now available! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  15. 1 2 Dolphin Oracle (13 January 2025). "MX 23.5 Now Available! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  16. The Xfce development team (15 December 2022). "Xfce 4.18 released". XFCE Desktop Environment. Xfce Development Team. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  17. Dolphin Oracle (13 January 2023). "Xfce 4.18 will be coming to MX 21 main repos this weekend. – MX Linux". news blog. mxlinux.org. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  18. "MX-21 "Wildflower" released!". mxlinux.org. 21 October 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  19. "MX-21.3 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". 15 January 2023. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  20. "MX-19.4 now available! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. April 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  21. "Download Links – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  22. Dolphin Oracle. "MX-21.3 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  23. Wiki Staff (27 November 2022). "LTS - Debian Wiki". wiki.debian.org. Debian.Org. Retrieved 14 January 2023. Debian Long Term Support (LTS) is a project to extend the lifetime of all Debian stable releases to (at least) 5 years.
  24. Jesse Smith. "DistroWatch.com: MX Linux". distrowatch.com. Atea Ataroa Limited. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  25. "New "Advanced Hardware Support" Repo (ahs for short) – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. 29 November 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  26. wiki staff (12 November 2022). "Debian Releases - Debian Wiki". wiki.debian.org. Debian.Org. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  27. "Debian 12 "bookworm" released". www.debian.org. Debian.Org. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  28. Nestor, Marius (11 December 2022). "Linux Kernel 6.1 LTS Released with Initial Support for the Rust Programming Language". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  29. "Debian 12 "bookworm" released". www.debian.org. Debian.Org. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  30. Dolphin Oracle. "MX-21.3 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  31. Dolphin Oracle (3 November 2022). "Linux 6.0 kernel now available in our ahs repo". Twitter. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  32. Dolphin Oracle (3 May 2022). "Kernel updates - MX Linux Forum". forum.mxlinux.org. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  33. Dolphin Oracle (22 November 2021). "MX-21 "AHS" iso now available – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. MXLinux. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  34. Dolphin Oracle (21 October 2021). "MX-21 "Wildflower" released! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. MXLinux. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  35. "Chapter 5. Issues to be aware of for buster". www.debian.org. Debian Org. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  36. Dolphin Oracle (31 March 2021). "MX-19.4 now available! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org blog. mxlinux.org. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  37. Dolphin Oracle (1 June 2020). "MX-19.2 now available! – MX Linux". mxlinux.org. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  38. MX Linux Developers (10 October 2021). "Tools To Make Common Tasks Easier". Current Release Features – MX Linux. mxlinux.org. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  39. Bond, Jerry (13 June 2015). "HELP: MX Save system to ISO (Snapshot)". MX Wiki. MXLinux. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  40. Ljubuncic, Igor. "MX Snapshot - Superb system imaging and backup tool". www.dedoimedo.com. Dedoimedo. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  41. "MX-Linux - Browse /Community_Respins at SourceForge.net". sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  42. "MX Respins - MX Linux Forum". forum.mxlinux.org. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  43. "AV Linux MX Edition". 22 January 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  44. "DistroWatch.com:". distrowatch.com. Retrieved 2 June 2024.