MX Linux

Reader supplied reviews for MX Linux Average rating 8.1 from 793 review(s) What are your thoughts on MX Linux? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- 25.123.621.319.418.317.116.1 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 25.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2026-02-15 Country: United States Votes: 1 It's nice and fast on my ancient AMD-FX 8370, which is what I was looking for most because I number crunch on BOINC and need every computer possible to help things along (I even have my phone crunching numbers). I've always been a KDE fan, but found KDE Plasma to be far too heavy for this old machine, since I did run KDE 3 and 4 on it, but that was some years ago and not nearly as bloated. Anyway, I did try my Slackware 15.0 on it, but when I installed the Nvidia stuff, the system wouldn't boot except to a black screen. I installed MX, which I've played around with before, just to try it out, but I really don't like the file manager(s) for XFCE, so, anyway, I installed it and it too rebooted to a black screen. Now I was kinda bummed, but willing to try one more time. So I did and again it booted to a black screen, but on a hunch, I alt-ctrl-del to get it to hopefully reboot again, and this time it did what it was supposed to do and booted to the log in screen. I have now been running it for a week using *my* installed Firefox (not the one already on MX) as the security cam 24/7 so I can look over at teh screen anytime the driveway alarm goes off, and using Motion to record movement. It's working wonderfully. Still nice and peppy even using it for something like a security camera setup. I still don't care for the file manager (my ultimate favorite being Krusader) but I only use it to watch videos from the security cam and then delete or save to the cloud as needed, so it's just barely tolerable. Anyone else wanting to use it on an old, slow system is going to be pretty impressed. It's fast and happy and you will be happy too. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 25.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2026-02-13 Country: Switzerland Votes: 16 Coming from antiX some years ago. After extensive distro hopping across various Debian derivatives and lightweight options, MX Linux 25.1 has proven to be an exceptional choice on my Lenovo IdeaPad S540 (Intel i7, integrated graphics, NVMe SSD). Installation from the live USB was straightforward, with full hardware detection on first boot: Wi-Fi (Intel AX201), Bluetooth, touchpad multi-touch gestures, keyboard Fn keys, suspend/resume cycles, and audio all functioned without any proprietary drivers or kernel tweaks. The standout feature is its out-of-the-box usability combined with solid performance. Powered by Debian 13 "Trixie" and the Linux 6.12 LTS kernel (with AHS editions offering Liquorix 6.16/6.18 for newer hardware), it idles at around 800mb ram, boots in about 8 seconds on SSD, and handles multitasking efficiently thanks to zRAM swap technology. MX Tools — now rebuilt in Qt6 — are a highlight: the graphical package installer (with Nala support), MX Updater, Snapshot for system backups, and Cleanup tool make maintenance intuitive for beginners while empowering advanced users. Conky is pre-configured with locale-aware clock options, and the Whisker Menu in Xfce 4.20 offers instant search and refined animations. Documentation is comprehensive, covering dual-init support (systemd default with SysVinit switchable at boot), Secure Boot compatibility, and live-kernel-updater for seamless upgrades. On my S540, battery life improved noticeably with power management profiles, and multi-monitor setup worked flawlessly via Display settings. The only minor drawback is the visual style of some components, like the guided installer dialogs and certain MX Tools windows, which retain a somewhat dated GTK3/Qt5 aesthetic despite theme updates (MX Ease and MX Matcha). This is subjective and doesn't affect functionality — everything remains stable and responsive. In summary, MX Linux 25.1 excels for me in hardware compatibility, lightness, and user guidance without overwhelming the terminal-phobic. It's a mature, no-fuss distro ideal for production use on a mid/normie laptop. After weeks of daily driving, it's my go-to — highly recommended for stability seekers. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 25.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2026-01-29 Votes: 22 Using a spare laptop, Intel i7 1365u Raptor Lake P cores. I've never properly used Mepis, but I was a huge fan,and still am of antX, starting with Lysistrata, (playing with Puppy started me on the path of playing with lightweight distros). So, when MX came out, I've spun it up quite a few times. I really like the 25.1 version with KDE. Uses stable Deb kernel 6.12.63. Easy to install and setup. Comes with a nice kit of software out of the box that will meet all your basic computing needs. If you don't see your favorite application, you can grab it from Discover, the MX Package manager, or just use the terminal. Upgrading the kernel, changing the boot options, UEFI, etc are stupidly easy with MX Tools. Seriously, if you're a Windows user who has never used Linux, you could manage to find everything you need and tweak or fix it with ease. I haven't used the XFCE version yet but it should make Windows refugees feel right at home, (and it's probably even snappier than the KDE version,if that's possible),. So far, it's stable with no driver issues with wifi, bluetooth, video, sound, etc. Wayland works well with the Intel hardware. Very snappy on modern hardware, and I do mean fast, Response times are better than Debian Trixie. As mentioned, I've taken MX for several spins before and really like this 25.1 version. I had some issues with earlier versions with AMD which were fixable, just odd because usually Linux distros play well with AMD. Overall, MX has always been a pleasure to use and has always worked quite well on older hardware. Linux Mint and Zorin are great distros for Windows users looking to switch to Linux, but I would also highly recommend MX Linux. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 793 reader reviews of MX Linux...