MX Linux Forum

Sup everyone.

I installed my first linux system about 5 years ago which was Linux Mint. Later I set up an old PC for video streaming using Xubuntu. The latter one is also used for testing and learning, since it's no big deal if it breaks and isn't available for some time. Both work well, but I always felt Mint being a little too bloated and I don't like some decisions on the Mint team, while Xubuntu felt a little too light and old-fashioned-looking.

In search of a distro for my main workstation which I plan to migrate from Windows 7 to Linux (bye, bye, M$), I stumbled over MX Linux on YouTube and distrowatch where it is basically pinned as #1 for some time now and I have to say - MX Linux looks awesome. I like the approach of giving the user a simple yet powerful environment and finally a distro manages to make Xfce look good and modern out-of-the-box. I also like having Debian with its well-tested repo as base while being able to install newer versions via MX test-repo.

Now, in the last few months, I prepared quite a bit in terms of looking for compatibility and software to make the jump to Linux and I'm at about 90%, so a test run would be due. But now I read Debian 11 is about to launch and MX 21 started its beta phase. I'm someone who doesn't like fiddling with the system too much and since I use my main workstation sort of semi-productive it has to be stable, so running MX 21 beta is no option.

Should I just wait until MX 21 stable launches in a few months or should I go with a MX 19.4 installation now? I'm not in a hurry, so I'm tending to the first option. How does the support schedule for MX 19.4 look once MX 21 launches? Is there some kind of LTS like in the ubuntu-family? Or is upgrading/reinstalling to MX 21 due anyway once it's out?

I'd appreciate any thoughts of more experienced linux users :)

PS: From what I've read on the boards until now, this is a great community, so I'd be happy to become a part of it.

PPS: Also I'm not sure if that's the right section for this topic, forgive me if this should go into another section.

Welcome to the forum.

Just my personal opinion, but in your position I would absolutely wait for MX-21 to go Final.

MX-19.4 is based on Debian 10, which will be supported until June 2024.

Chris

MadMax wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:48 pm In search of a distro for my main workstation which I plan to migrate from Windows 7 to Linux (bye, bye, M$),

What is your hardware? (Win 7 makes me think older hardware, slower?) You could download MX 19.4, boot the live USB. See how it runs. You can download the 21 beta too, see how it runs.

I've been happy with 19, and don't plan on changing to 21 in a hurry.

I think MX is great for its stability. One downside to that seems to be that newer hardware doesn't work as quickly as it does with other distros. But, I like stability as you do. I'm not complaining.

AMD Llano A8-3870K @ 4x3.00 GHz, 8 GB DDR3-1600 (planning to upgrade to 16 GB soon), 120 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD

It's kinda outdated, but does its job quite well, mainly thanks to the SSD I guess. I've got a spare 128 GB SSD for a linux installation ready which I'm planning to switch out then. Maybe I'll also go for dual boot, but I'd rather not.

One "speciality" is the use of an Asus Xonar DX sound card. I have yet to test its linux compatibility, especially considering the Dolby Headphone feature which is a must-have for me. Most sites claim the card to be 100% compatible with linux, so I'm not too worried yet - it will be one of the first things to set up, though.

@MadMax As a heavy windows user I can say 100% MX-Linux has been awesome! I also have been running Mint for years and moved over to MX on version 17 and it was instantly amazing at how good it has been. ( now on 19.x and have had 19x versions up for quite some time, but just pulled my big machine over a few weeks back.)

I use the xfce version, and run multiple VM's for windows development and support etc. ( Personally, I would stay on 19.x for a while until 21 has been a few revisions out, but that is my taste :)

The community here is VERY good, and LOTS of great data in the forum for helping work / fix things too. I think you will find this IS a great place to be!!

MadMax wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 4:37 pm AMD Llano A8-3870K @ 4x3.00 GHz, 8 GB DDR3-1600 (planning to upgrade to 16 GB soon), 120 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD

That's a Passmark score 2341. I've run MX 18 on an old Passmark 1000 laptop. I'm currently running 19.4 on a Passmark 2000 as a torrent-serving machine. I feel it's a little slow (but, that's compared to a daily-driver passmark 7766 laptop which colors my perceptions.).

If I were you, I'd boot the live USB for MX 19.4. Play with it for awhile to see how it feels speed wise. Do the same thing with the 21 beta (download). Get a feel for if it is heavier. Worth waiting for. (I bet 21 will be heavier than 19. Everything goes that way.).

For me: if I were using that Passmark 2000 laptop as a daily driver, I'd run Linux Lite. MX isn't lightweight. It's not heavy like Cinnamon. But, it's mid-weight. Antix would be the lightweight alternative to MX. (But, to me: it's a little too lightweight. Too different.). One thing Linux Lite has going for you is that it's designed specifically for people left behind by Microsoft. It's made for older hardware, lighterweight to run better. But, also the look/feel should be a bit more like Windows. When leaving Windows, a little thing like look/feel can make a difference between getting through the frustration, or giving up. Not trying to steer you away from MX. I love MX. But, at your hardware level and transitioning from Windows. That might be the way to cut your baby teeth. :) Linux Lite is light like Lubuntu, Xubuntu. But, more Windows-familiar IMO. Probably more recent refugees seeking the same solutions, alternatives to Windows software (or WINE guidance for such "gotta have it" situations). So, it's just a thought.

Zorin OS is another "geared toward fleeing Windows users." They have a lightweight edition. I've never run it. Not sure how light it is (Core is heavy like Cinnamon). But, like LL, I bet there's more recent refugees facing the same "how do I do this in Linux" challenges. Just alternatives to compare. It's not like you have to choose one like a cigarette brand (Tareyton's famous "I'd rather fight than switch"). They're all stepping stones to others.

Thanks for the input, everyone. Linux Lite also looks promising, but I think performance won't be problem, especially on Xfce - I will test out the live images, soon, though, to get a feeling for MX's performance.

Since I've got a whole spare test drive, I might also just install 19.4 and if it runs, fine, if I run into problems or something doesn't work quite right, I can switch back to the Windows drive without even messing with bootloaders :D

Final question: My 2 TB HDD obviously is formatted NTFS and is a data drive only. Would you recommend re-formatting in ext4 or btrfs in the long run (once I'm sure I won't need to mount it into a Windows again) or is running NTFS as data drive fine in Linux nowadays?

I concur trying MX out via Live USB, both MX-19 and MX-21 Beta1. Especially the beta cause we need more Live USB testing/feedback.

As much as I want to say …

If you want to best, go with MX, don’t worry about the rest!

Choosing your Distro of choice is very personal, not everyone likes MX, not everyone likes a lot of Distros.

It’s like buying a car… You have to try them out. But most people that actually try MX… typically will stick with it I think.

I think the Asus Xonar DX can work, we’ve had a few posts about I believe, but it’s not perfect OOTB if I recall. And I think most Linux Distros has issues with it.

For me, in Mint, I found that running an NTFS drive was giving me some "little glitches" once in a while. When I moved to ext4 the little glitches went away. (that was approx 4 years ago.)

I do plug in NTFS drives fairly regularly ( USB ) and have not had any issues. And I have two Windows machines (Server and Win10 ) with shared NTFS drives and have had zero issues with anything on these.

As a side note I use MXL via USB sticks for ALL data transfers when I am moving data from Windows machines to new windows machines or backing up etc... and it has been 100% stellar for me. I went to using linux this way with mint and it was good, but MX is not only faster, but I have had much better performance.

MadMax wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:48 pmIs there some kind of LTS like in the ubuntu-family?

No.

MadMax wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:48 pmOr is upgrading/reinstalling to MX 21 due anyway once it's out?

You need a fresh install as Debian bases are different. Debian 10 and 11 ...

az2020 wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 4:56 pmMX isn't lightweight.

Would you all like to see a bare-metal, real-life example? MX 19.4 on this Single core (Pentium M) 32bit HP from the end of 2005 with DDR2 ram (2048MB at its max). Just look at the conky , all parts. (Meanwhile the kernel is neither the default 4.19 nor an older one like 4.9 to be lighter, but it's 5.10)... And, yes, this is when idling, but with a browser like Slimjet, Ram is still about 500MB with 15-20 tabs , even when all youtube etc..

az2020 wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 4:56 pmOne thing Linux Lite has going for you is that it's designed specifically for people left behind by Microsoft. It's made for older hardware, lighterweight to run better.

So, as an owner of such an old hardware laptop, may I please have the link to download the latest 32bit version of that "aimed to be light" distro? I just want to try the latest one... (... No 32bit? Oh no.. kidding?.. but... older... hardware... 64 ? )

az2020 wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 4:56 pm... look/feel should be a bit more like Windows.

There is the original: "Microsoft Windows". ( and @MadMax you already tried Linux Mint, right ?... )

Conclusion: Here's the latest iso :

http://it.mxrepo.com/Downloads/Snapshot ... ly_x64.iso

http://it.mxrepo.com/Downloads/Snapshot ... iso.sha512

Enjoy.

(And don't forget to tell us in case you find somewhere any better and more useful tools than "MX Tools", especially "MX Snapshot" , "Chroot Rescue Scan" and "MX Remaster CC" ).

Verdict:

MadMax wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:48 pmIs it time to switch to MX?

Yes.

This will be helpful to you.

https://mxlinux.org/wiki/help-files/mx-faqs/

Huckleberry Finn wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 8:23 pm

az2020 wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 4:56 pmMX isn't lightweight.

Would you all like to see a bare-metal, real-life example? MX 19.4 on this Single core (Pentium M) 32bit HP from the end of 2005 with DDR2 ram (2048MB at its max). Just look at the conky , all parts.

I can only speak to my own installs of 10-20 different distros (which I posted to mx forums) showing MX to be midweight compared to L/Xubunty, Linux Lite. (Bodhi, Antix were in the extreme light realm). Some people may remember me posting that. Not sure how things are today. I didn't compare 32-bit (which might be different?). I just tried to have an apples/oranges.

If I might say. You often come off as provocative/defensive/disapproving. I'm sorry I posted. I hope as a guide, you will understand what I mean.

If as you say you're in no hurry, wait for MX-21. If you think MX-19 looks nice, wait until you see 21. It's beautiful!

As a present to both MX-21 and to your system I would consider upgrading to a larger SSD. The bigger-capacity ones are usually NAND which are faster. You can get a 500GB one for around $60. Of course your system is probably SATA 2 which limits the throughput, but maybe you could find a PCIE-1 SATA 3 controller card too. I know I've seen some on Ali Express and they're probably on eBay and/or Amazon too.You can get a cheap USB SATA dongle that would let you use your old SSD as an external drive.

8GB of RAM should be enough: that's rather a "sweet spot" and unless you perform a lot of memory-intensive activities such as running multiple virtual machines you shouldn't need more, at least not right away. Memory that's never utilized is memory and money wasted. Most resource-intensive activities actually use the processor more than they do RAM in my experience.

.finally a distro manages to make Xfce look good and modern out-of-the-box.

To be honest, that amused me. Many naysayers of mx go on and on about how ugly or dated it looks. Not about how well it works.

It's why mx19 was named patito feo, or ugly duckling, as a self-deprecating inside joke.

Really shows how beauty is often in the eye of the beholder.

Just install now. If you don't, you'll always be waiting. Supported into 2024 and will only become more stable as it matures.

So-called "modern believers" prefer, for example, elementary. In Ubuntu system, which has overly complicated the basics of the system, MX is truly functional, straightforward, and provides fast, excellent MX tools with debian-tuned antiX.

There are few feature-focused distributions, and most distributions tend to be more modern in appearance. antiX / MX is probably an antithesis, against that design-trend. And the antithesis has received great support from the world.

MX artwork has a lot of innocent natural scenery and may be different from modern. However, the taste is "loved by experts" demands the system to be truly simple&homeliness. I don't hope MX to go in the direction of elementary-like design.

I love philosophical distributions that are not confused by the surface.
Hopefully, be a seeker of truth.

I waited until MX 19 was released, stayed on antiX and Artix for a couple of months while waiting. Worked out well for me - MX 19 was very polished from the start, and my work flow was not harmed by the move. I'm not saying you should wait, just sharing my experience. The one thing I needed was for the distro to be painless and not interrupt my daily work, and for all my necessary work software to be available. If that's your goal, then try to plan around that. If you have other goals, then plan around those.

figueroa wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:28 pm Just install now. If you don't, you'll always be waiting.

These might be some wise words

As I said, I'm not too much concerned performance-wise. I run into RAM bottlenecks from time to time when I see Windows expanding the swapfile and my system is unsing a little shy of 10GB (thanks Chrome), so I figured, upgrading the RAM might be worthwile.

Also, yea, I've been using Mint and Xubuntu regularily, so I don't feel anxious about making the move to Linux. I'm also comfortable using the terminal and learned to do most bottom-level configurations there. Co-administering a RHEL server at work helps, too.

Again, thanks for all the input, everyone :)

@Huckleberry Finn Where did you get that wallpaper from?

When I search it on Google images I get all sorts of moon images, which is not what I want, obviously

az2020 wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:28 pmYou often come off as provocative/defensive/disapproving.

You're the first member that say these. I'd be glad if anyone else says if he/she thinks the same way. All I say is I "disagree". (If I have such a tiny right ... )

Meanwhile I didn't write this to not make the post too long: I like and respect all distros. That one is not something specifically against Linux Lite.. But just as an ordinary PC user, it sounds weird to me (I'd say the same if was antiX, too): In general speaking, as the XXX distro you aim to be light , you target old / older hardware, and you don't support 32bit (for whatever reason) ...

Eadwine Rose wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:30 am @Huckleberry Finn Where did you get that wallpaper from?

When I search it on Google images I get all sorts of moon images, which is not what I want, obviously

I'd grabbed from Linux Mint once upon a time and keeping for it's one of my favorites. Here it is, with pleasure :)

Huckleberry Finn wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:35 am

az2020 wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:28 pmYou often come off as provocative/defensive/disapproving.

You're the first member that say these. I'd be glad if anyone else says if he/she thinks the same way. All I say is I "disagree". (If I have such a tiny right ... )

@az2020 and @Huckleberry Finn, if any further discussion talking on this issue is needed between the two of you, please do so in private messages.

I'd grabbed from Linux Mint once upon a time and keeping for it's one of my favorites. Here it is, with pleasure :)

Thanks for that picture!

Oh no, not a discussion. I was just surprised, that's why replied here ...

Just letting everyone know, I'm up and running 19.4 ahs right now. I had some (unfortunately foreseeable, even though I tested everything under Xubuntu on another device, but that's wine for you) with wine. Also my board apparently doesn't support UEFI albeit there is some "boot from disk via EFI" option in the bios which gave me a little headache in the beginning, but oh well, legacy install it is then.

The Xonar DX works actually out of the box and sounds better than in Windows without tweaks. Unfortunately advanced dolby functions are not supported because of Asus' proprietary drivers. One can only hope we'll get them for Linux - like Nvidia does it for GPUs - some time... I managed to grab a used standalone Dolby-adaptor for headphones, though, it is yet to arrive. Audiophiles might throw their hands up in horror on that thought, but it was cheap and why not give it a try :D

I still have some smaller issues which I will bring up on the other boards.

I recently switched to MX on a 10th Gen i7 HP Laptop and it has been amazing and I recommend the switch. This distro has been one of the most stable I have ever used and I'm enjoying it very much. All of my production tools installed just fine aside from O365 but I can use the cloud version when I need to. Even steam and playing games is very stable and I'm super happy about that. This is hands down the best distro especially because of the way they handle systemd which is an elegant solution in my opinion

@Zebus Thank you and welcome to the forum :)

Pretty happy with MX right now, it does so many things right. That manual is awesome, btw.

But really switching from Windows is hard in its own way