Why Does Everyone Love MX Linux? - MX-Linux 23

MX Linux has topped the charts of DistroWatch's popularity rankings for months--neigh, years--now, and it's often a fan-favourite in discussions of Linux distros. But what exactly makes it so adored by the community? Let's have a look!

[@debian8623]

MX Linux is a distribution of power and beauty. It is the only distribution that I do not do any customization after installing it. I love it.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Glad to hear it works so well for you. I think the default look is a bit polarizing; people either love it or immediately want to tweak it. But the foundation and tools that MX owners are fantastic.

[@RedSntDK]

On my 1440p monitor I make the taskbar a big bitter, play around with the themes, in particular cursor themes, and turn off mouse smoothing, but other than that it's incredible out of the box.

[@johanb.7869]

I do. I move the panel to the bottom and disable Docklike plugin and use Windows buttons because you can't drag and drop on Docklike.

[@marcjacobsen1730]

@@johanb.7869 I've been on MX Linux for a while now and was also annoyed trying to rearrange the icons in Docklike. I finally dug into the docs/google and found that it does allow easy drag and drop rearranging of icons, you just have to hold down the Ctrl key to do it. Unfortunately, it's not intuitive or easy to figure that out.

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

Beauty? What the hell are you looking at? Its literally one of the ugliest distros out there.

[@FredDietrich-i2m]

New to Linux a little more than 2 years ago I tried out MX 17 and liked it .... but after bouncing around for a year I ended up using Linux Mint.... MX linux 23.2 came along and I'm finally home. I run a server and 10 other pc's on my home network... some Windows and some Linux... setting up file sharing was easy breezy with MX.... everything about it just works! Lovin it!!!

[@ijhuana]

Great videos mate I hope you start uploading again soon

[@innerfinder100]

After fighting for years with many distros with a low resources pc im now using MxLinux by 2 years in a live and persistant usb and has be the most ammazin experience

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Glad to hear it! I actually used to run Xubuntu on a persistent USB a few years ago. I should give it a try with MX Linux.

[@glucid4222]

MX Linux XFCE is my main daily driver on my desktop, installed on a separate SSD from the one containing an old, haven't-used-in-a-long-long-time Windows 10. Even though nothing you've covered here is new to me, you've done a very good job of doing so in a concise and eloquent way that the MX developers should be proud of using it to convince the rest of the world of its merits. Yes, MX is worthy of its prime ranking because it balances well the need to be versatile and comprehensive with the need to offer a good out-of-the-box experience and the need to still remain free of bloat-ware or clunkiness other OS's suffer from.

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

I found MX by finding one of a few USBs i got from a relative with OS installs on them an now am thinking of overwriting my XFCE USB with it Lol an repurposing the one I found MX on lol

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thank you; I appreciate the positive feedback!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That sounds like a good idea!

[@arxaaron]

Very nice, well paced walk through of a distro that hadn't previously hit my radar. Thanks! Will likely install and explore MX on one of my systems. Seems like a good crossover solution to the SysV and SystemD issues.

[@neelsb7889]

I've been using MX Linux 23.1 (then upgraded to 23.2) since about 2 months ago, and I'm very happy with the experience!

[@taxaction1]

I enjoyed the review. I use MX Linux on my laptop and it is a very reliable distro.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Glad to hear you enjoy using MX Linux and liked the video! Thanks for watching!

[@peterc335]

Many years ago, I moved from Windows7, to MX-Linux 14. Been using MX-Linux 18.2 for a few years... a few days ago, I started on MX-Linux 23.1. It is GREAT!!! Rock solid, stable, efficient, fast while running on a USB drive... Best part & a total surprise - on startup, it gives option to check integrity of the Live operating system - check md5 of the files!!! What a wonderful function... seems that those nagging small signs of being hacked are history. 5 Stars to MX-Linux Team!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

It really does have a lot of great things going for it! I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but dang, it sure does a lot of things right.

[@BenitoF2009]

Because it just works. I use it for years now and it runs on every PC in my home + firm network. Stable, Flatpak support per default, MX-tools, ...

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I couldn’t agree more! I really focus on the MX-Tools in the video. Hope you’ll give it a watch.

[@BenitoF2009]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Great! And YES of course, I will! 🙂

[@BenitoF2009]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel And after watching your great Video I have to say: Well done! And also: you've got a point there with systemd. That's also a huge reason for me. Most of the time I don't use systemd but it is there when you need it.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Yeah. Seems like a decent balance to me. The system won’t use it unless an application that depends on it specifically needs it.

[@BenitoF2009]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Yes, that's right. ... And all the rest of the time systemd doesn't stand in the way of everything. I started with Debian in Jan. '20 and it worked about half a year. Then the problems begun and grown bigger from day to day. And every time the growing log files showed "critical failures" in or with systemd. So I switched to MX and don't regret it a bit, despite of Mx haven't the "latest and greatest software versions" like Arch or Void etc. It just works and that is fine with me.

[@richardholt4154]

It works. Doesn't 7:19 break. Does what I want. Has tools to do things I've forgotten how to do from CLI. No longer distro hopping, since 2014. And it still runs sysdinit.

[@ramboi9498]

When installing mx Linux I can't see any WiFi on, my laptop doesn't have ethernet connectors, it has intel WiFi 6 201, any clue?

[@JohneeTruther]

@@ramboi9498 Don't you have a ethernet icon by the speaker to right click for Wi-Fi?

[@Strammeiche]

I'm almost all day in the terminal for work, but still prefer a gui for stuff like configuring the ui, because for things you do maybe once every few months it's just much easier to memorize and see all necessary options.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Certainly. For things you aren’t regularly doing or familiar with, it’s easier to see all the options you can use. Terminal shells like Fish do make terminal commands easier by providing enhanced auto-completion and searchable command / flag lists, but sometimes it still isn’t as straightforward.

[@slawomir.777]

MX Linux is my daily driver since MX 19 version

[@mabreupr]

I installed in my old PC and it working fine!

[@g2kmobile646]

Why does everyone love MX Linux? Maybe it's because: 1) Live usb functionality (MY os, setup MY way, available to ME, on EVERY machine capable of booting from a thumb drive). 2) Mx Snapshot (either just the system I've customized, or that plus all MY other stuff too). 3) Low resource usage 4) Mx whatever AHS (advanced Hardware Stack) for even the newest computers. 5) Mx Tools (all of which are extremely useful baked right in). 6) Mx one on one help utility 7) The first linux distro whose forum members aren't a$$holes when asking questions. 8) How-to videos by one of the people who actually help create mx linux. 9) Updates that take a whopping 2 minutes to download AND INSTALL. 10) Mx linux is an operating system that is trying to be an operating system. Instead of an advertising platform that has some OS functionality built in (Windows 8 and above).

[@ramboi9498]

When installing mx Linux I can't see any WiFi on, my laptop doesn't have ethernet connectors, it has intel WiFi 6 201, any clue?

[@rockyraab8290]

I run Mint on my primary tower, Zorin on my cheap travel laptop, and MX on my backup emergency there if everything else fails laptop. I'd be perfectly content to run MX as my primary. At first glance, it might be too quirky for a first-time Windows convert and that's the only reason I usually recommend Mint for Linux newbies. But for anyone with even a bit of Linux time, MX is just amazing.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I couldn’t agree more!

[@loucipher7782]

is there invert colours function in xfce via shortcut?

[@jonthebru]

I bought a Beelink SER5 Mini PC,AMD Ryzen 5 5560U to experiment with Linux on. I first chose Mint but the audio didn't work except with a USB soundcard. Sound did work on the Win 11 side. Anyway I then tried to load MX Linux as a dual boot but the Grub just wouldn't take, I tried several ways. I had upgraded the SSD and had the Win 11 part on the removed drive so I decided to install a complete MX Linux onto the 2 TB drive. It went quickly and smoothly and the sound worked as it is supposed to. I'm spending the day and possibly the night installing music and videos onto it and look forward to using it as a second computer and OS. I now have a tiny, quiet computer with 4 TB of memory.

[@birthing4blokes46]

I have just installed it, seems ok, on my ThinkPad, open ai recommended it for my usecase, hobby. just getting used to it. I'm newbie ish to linux so it is a lot of fun, thanks for the video. I love the look you achieved and as a beginner I would like to learn how to do that....have you done a video on it.

[@sebastianmakowiecki7421]

Excellent video, keep it up, thanks a bunch!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ricosun]

I love my Mx Linux on my 2012 mac pro.... its given it a second life.

[@achintyavatsraj288]

Which theme and icon pack you are using !!!?

[@justinmarcus1049]

I tried Garuda Linux for similar reasons - it's GUI tools and configurability; but it didn't run well on my old system - so I came across AVLinux MX Edition and haven't looked back.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Yeah, Garuda is really nice, but I don’t think it’s exactly light on resources. Glad you’ve found something that works well!

[@neilpatrickhairless]

AVL is cool, I use it for music production. It's the only distribution that worked with all my gear out of the box. Even worked with much of it through a virtual machine which is nuts

[@justinmarcus1049]

@@neilpatrickhairless I was wondering about using a virtual machine for windows instead of dual booting. Would be interested to hear more about the setup you used to achieve that.

[@msp5-010]

Which template is it?

[@leadlearner6391]

this is a great video showing the ease-of-use of MX Linux. this is my daily driver. Would you please create a video showing how you styled the XFCE using the built-in GUIs, thankyou.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I’ll definitely consider doing a video about that. I don’t remember exactly how I did the theming in this video, but the same principles can certainly be applied in another video. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@mike_skinner]

I use bluetooth for the sound. MX forgets every time that I shutdown and I have to reset my speaker.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That stinks! I wonder if it’s a shortcoming with MX Linux, XFCE, or the audio server (PulseAudio or PipeWire?)

[@Pudgie]

Ive been hopping to different Linux distros from Minx to Opensuse to Arch to Debian 12 but they didnt satisfies my needs that much until i found mx linux and i love it!

[@davidwayne9982]

SIMPLE-- it's GREAT--- super tools included-- FAST, smooth- LIGHT WEIGHT- and VERY highly customizable-- and can make it's own ISOs of the setting you put in it- you so you can reload YOUR partucilar set up on another computer anywhere you like.. and so very much more... 23 is out- and it's GREAT...

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Honestly I completely overlooked the ISO creator (Snapshot?). That’s something I absolutely love being able to do!

[@Pyro-Moloch]

I prefer that a distro closer resembles what I want out of the box, not gives me a ton of customization tools to bring it closer myself. The default configuration of MX Linux is far from my favorite, and the abundance of tools feels overwhelming in an already very customizable desktop environment. I think Linux Mint strikes a better balance between customizability and user-friendliness. That being said, lately I've been considering switching to a Gnome distro (my choice fell on Pardus, which I consider an excellent and very underrated distro) because Cinnamon has been getting buggier in newer versions. Gnome might be a bit weird, but its level of polish is unrivaled. I also really liked Deepin, which took me about 10 minutes to set everything up. But my issues with Deepin are exactly the ones you described in your Deepin video.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I’ll definitely have to check out Pardus; I hadn’t heard of it before. Yeah, GNOME is one of those desktops that takes time to get used to, and some people never warm up to it, but I personally like its clean minimalistic design.

[@Pyro-Moloch]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel It also took me time to warm up to Gnome. I couldn't stand it at first. But it's commitment to its vision definitely yields results. Regarding Pardus, I was surprised to discover it myself. Nobody seems to talk about it for some reason. It basically has all the user-friendliness of something like Ubuntu or Mint, with its own Software Center and tools similar to MX (but much fewer of them), while at the same time being based on Debian-stable, which means a more stable base than Ubuntu and no snaps. Really, if you think about it, there is no other beginner-friendly Debian-based (non-Ubuntu) Gnome distro.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

@PyroNexus22 It sounds really promising. I’ll have to check it out!

[@Saturn-OS]

I tried MX linux probably like once but never really actually gave it a chance. Maybe I will try it out sometime

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

It definitely has some cool features.

[@cantdance3077]

I love MX Linux. Just works beautifully and intuitively. Was using KDE at first, but switched to XFCE. I'm not a power user, I just needed something that worked, and the wifi printer was effortless to setup compared to other distros I've tried.

[@markhathaway9456]

I have recently looked at various Linux distros in anticipation of a need to switch from Canonical's Ubuntu (not decided on that yet) and saw a lot of love for MX-Linux. Apparently, and this may be going out on a limb, people appreciate a solid OS and a way to use it with ease. The GUI is an obvious huge step from ONLY a CLI, but having great tools could be nearly as significant. More people may indeed be grabbed by the tools.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Very true. It isn’t the best-looking GUI around, but it is usable, and can be made to look nicer. Plus the tools are a huge benefit that I wish more distros would take note of (or some developer could fork to support more distros).

[@k.b.tidwell]

I like your delivery style, and I think you gave MX a fair shake. I happened onto MX Linux about three years ago when I was resurrecting an old weak laptop for my writing when out and about. It has an excellent keyboard (for MY hands) and let's face it, writing is a low-resource-needy pastime. It worked extremely well on that machine, and I became an XFCE evangelist and could pull off some very nice looks with it...not to mention MX let me scale the 1366x768 display to roughly FHD. That's not as crazy as it sounds...on some displays you can do that and it actually looks nice. I just needed more screen real estate ha. But I fell in LOVE with MX's toolset! The only other distro I've been similarly impressed with its tools is Garuda which is Arch-based. If you try that go straight for the Dragonized version! It looks like 14 year old gamers high on Red Bull designed it, but it is a VERY impressive distro...super complete and smooth and fast, not to mention the AUR. And the graphics will actually grow on you if you let them...like a fungus lol. I'll say that OpenSUSE pulls a close third place on the tools with YaST. All that distro worship aside, I run Linux Mint Cinnamon now (after two years with MX and hopping over 30 distros) just because it's dead-simple and reliable and smooth. When LMDE gets full feature-parity, I'll go to that. But not before. I'm past the tinkering obsession and I just want to be productive now. Great video!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

LMDE keeps getting closer and closer; only a few more things to go! I’ve used Garuda Dragonized in the past and absolutely agree with your sentiments. I don’t hate the theming; other than maybe changing the wallpaper, I sort of like the bright colours and fancy effects. And yeah, it definitely has a lot of great tools! I find some of them to be a bit more advanced or complex that a lot of the MX ones, but they’re great to have regardless. I really should put together a video about Garuda at some point. I can actually appreciate wanting to scale a screen like that to be smaller (higher res). While I imagine text could get a bit small, those 768p screens just can’t fit very much on them at native scale. Is it specifically XFCE that allows for the scaling in that direction?

[@k.b.tidwell]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel I'm not going to say XFCE is the only one. I think the basic requirement is that the distro uses Xorg. I've scaled on several distros, but some have better access to the capability than others and I'm not enough of a Lingeek to attack it in the command line. Wish I could give you other examples but...memory.🙄 I'll say that as much as I love KDE and Cinnamon, I haven't been able to get either to scale like that, so I guess maybe yes XFCE IS the only one.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

@k.b.tidwell6910 I’ll pay attention to the scaling options as I check out different desktops and distros. Thanks!

[@neilpatrickhairless]

I have used suse/opensuse off and on for YEARS. underrated distribution, but most people don't like how slow the package manager is especially if they constantly update packages. Also I think opensuse would be more popular if they actually advertised it whatsoever to audiences outside of Eastern Europe lol

[@Badger8200]

Any tips for battery consumption on a laptop using Linux mx? Seems the battery doesn't last as long using Linux but this could be the laptop (Acer aspire v5)

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Linux often doesn’t get quite as good of battery life as Windows. Though there are some tools that can help (you’d have to decide which seems to provide the best battery improvement vs any potential performance impacts) such as auto-cpufreq, Slimbook Battery, and TLP / TLPUI.

[@kairon156]

I gave ZorinOS a try a while back. It looks good and smooth but lacked some ease of use or no nonsense stuff I expect from an OS. I might check out MX Linux when I feel brave enough to format my main PC again. It looks like an interface that is straight forward and simply does it's job.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I’d say that’s pretty accurate. It isn’t the most visually stunning interface around, (though it can be made to look quite nice) but it does its job really well.

[@kairon156]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Because of how Microsoft has been behaving in the last decade or so. I'm willing to give up some flashy features for an OS like this.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s a good point!

[@xellaz]

I luv MX Linux but the default look is kinda bland. I have to tweak it to my liking. Where it shines are the MX tools it comes with and system stability being Debian. 💪

[@ronwilliams4184]

I installed it on a formerly windows machine (a pc actually from microsoft) and MX didn't go well at all. I ditched it and installed Ubuntu, and that worked perfectly. I could even install the AOC monitor driver to have two monitors.

[@xellaz]

I tried Xfce but MX Linux with KDE Plasma is more my jam! 🎷🎸🎶

[@OliverWoodphotography]

My current fav distro for low resource demand is AntiX 23 ... MX's lightweight sister and I love it. After years of depending on Lubuntu I find AntiX to be a superior replacement which is even lighter. I now think I will replace Mint on my most powerful laptop with MX-Xfce ... as it appears to be a better mid weight alternative.

[@philwood9760]

I had mxlinux on one hdd and linux mint on another. Every time mx updated some software, it screwed up my printer usability. I really liked it, but had to drop them and rely solely on linux mint. I'm using lmde now and have never had any hiccups after software updates since I've been using it six months now.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

MX Linux was the very first Linux distro I ever installed back in the early 2000's. It's always been fast and efficient. But I'm so happy to see it's finally getting the recognition it deserves 👍

[@espana86]

I was surprised when I installed MX Linux on my decade old bussiness laptop, which has a 60 Hz 720p screen, and it could play 720p60 videos (on Firefox, idk about Chrome) without dropping any frame for MINUTES. I was using the Liquorix kernel which you can install and make the default kernel in like six or seven clicks.

[@nixlad]

Great video. I've used desktop GNU/Linux for about 10 years before moving to Windows, MacOS and Debian on my home server. Last I heard of MX Linux was 3 years ago, and it was in a rougher state when I tried it. But recently I heard someone say that MX Linux doesn't primarily use SystemD and this piqued my interest, leading me to this video explaining and reviewing it. I'm confident that if I went back to using desktop GNU/Linux, I would probably use MX Linux. Thanks for the review, great stuff. Liked and subbed. PS: What are your thoughts on Arch and Arch-based distros?

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Happy to hear you found the video helpful! And thank you for the sub! I don’t personally care to set up and configure standard Arch; it’s not particularly difficult once you do it a couple times, but I just don’t like taking the time when I already switch distros so regularly. However, I do really like some of the Arch-based options around. Garuda is great for gaming pretty much out-of-the-box. Manjaro is…kind of the “Ubuntu of the Arch world”, but it does provide a nice experience. The real appeal of Arch to me has always been the AUR. Even the most obscure pieces of Linux software can often be found in there. But I’ve found that only using it as a last resort (when a package isn’t attainable elsewhere) tends to be a good idea as it’s usually just a matter of time before some random AUR package causes something funny with the rest of the system.

[@RarefiedError]

How did you get the dark theme to work on Strawberry ??

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I can’t recall the exact steps I took to achieve the overall look / theming, but I’m pretty sure I just installed and applied the theme, and Strawberry followed the look of it.

[@RarefiedError]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel mine refuses to change, flatpak or deb pkg, I dunno

[@RarefiedError]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel I got it! Had to install and run QT6 configuration tool , qt6ct

[@waltermitty4132]

Informative video. Thank you. What theme, icon set, and window style did you use? They were impressive.

[@bramfran4326]

Thanks, I was also clueless why it is on the top on DistroWatch. But since more GUI to do terminal stuff is the answer, why isn't OpenSUSE at the top of the rank? (it is 9th now)

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Very good point. I think SUSE does that aspect right as well, but the rest of the system isn’t necessarily designed for end-users (of course it can do all the same things, but needs a bit of extra work to get it ready to go for certain desktop use, since its development is more focused towards professional workstation and entire line systems).

[@ebblair9663]

I've used that few years ago with my AMD A6 2010 laptop and it's okay. But I've shifted to Big Linux as super friendly distro compare to MX Linux. In Big Linux, I could highly customized easily with it. Yes. Without the terminal (CLI) and tried it to my students in grade 5 & 6. They find it super easy as Big Linux in different distort desktop environment is concerned. You can shift by choosing a button layout and it will apply by itself without logging out. Software installation is so easy. Apps almost complete in the Big Store. It is my daily driver for 2 years already . You should try to make a review on Big Linux too.

[@garyjonjon]

I run mx-linux kde from a usb drive as an emergency repair os. it's great and it boots from legacy or uefi pc's. Love it.

[@OliverWoodphotography]

I'm very familiar with Mint and Lubuntu but I recently switched over to AntiX 23.1 on my least powerful laptop to replace Lubuntu and there is no going back. Now I am thinking about replacing Mint/Cinnamon on my more powerful systems with MX ...

[@13Carrey1]

It is looking cool! But i'm still not sure if it is the best alternative to Windows yet. Because I'm still in Windows 11 and if u have used Windows so long it is hard to get into a Linux System if u don't know what to do. And that is the biggest Problem for me. I really wanna try it out and i have it a bit via the Virtual Box here on Windows, but sometimes there the Bootscreen lagged after the Installation and didn't start, 2. I didn't have much space to install some stuff and test it (I have 2 hard drives in my pc: 1. is a SSD with 120 GB where windows is now at and a HDD with 1 TB where i install my other stuff). I've heard Linux decide for itself where to install the stuff but if you don't have enough space i don't know what to do then. There was no workplace like in Windows where i can see how much space i have left and also i don't know how to get linux to install in my 2. Hard Drive. Maybe you could say something about that :) I'm very intresting to hear ur oppinion :)

[@MrHurricaneFloyd]

The installer and the MX Tool suite set it apart from plain Debian/Ubuntu based releases.

[@andrewcharlton2709]

the problem I have with other distros, is just they look cartoony. I have tried so many other distros but always come back to mx linux, but they need to do something with gaming

[@human3504]

The video hasn't even been released yet, but I'll give my two cents. I think people like MX for a few reasons. One is that it's based on Debian. Nearly everyone loves Debian for being rock solid and stable, plus it's an easy target for app support. I think another reason is because MX seems to stay out of trouble and doesn't make any big changes, and it's more community-focused. Manjaro had issues that people didn't like, so they left. People despise Ubuntu (I have used it in the past and had no issues but I went back to Windows). Lastly, I've noticed that Linux users are like groups - once you get inside that group, they'll tell you it's the best. I feel like MX Linux is the biggest group in the Debian sphere. I may not actually watch the video when it releases. What I'll do is open up a tab in the background, mute it, and have it loop. So you can get that sweet, succulent ad revenue. Yes, I've done this before to one of your videos. Because as a good, well-known guy, you know I want to be good and support your dreams the best I can. The longest I've looped a video was for a few days before KZbin moved it somewhere else

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Well I certainly appreciate your support of the channel and the content I upload! Linux users definitely get quiet…passionate, about the distros they do and don’t like, but there are often valid reasons for it. Ubuntu can be a perfectly usable system. Some users take issue with what Canonical is doing as they fear it will harm the Linux / free software space as a whole. But there also shouldn’t be any shame in using Ubuntu. Tons of people do, and if it works well for you, there’s no reason not to.

[@josephfilm73]

Looping a video does not equal more views. You don't need to waste your time. It goes by computer ip address. I've rewatched a video with like 12 hits and it stays there, same number.

[@tobysource]

"Linux users are like groups, once you get inside..." Bro, what are you saying?

[@RedSntDK]

Writing this comment from the MX KDE live environment. As a Windows user with limited linux knowledge from 20 years ago, AND an Nvidia owner, MX just works. Only other KDE distro that hasn't been problematic regarding graphics has been Manjaro (I think either KDE Neon and Kubuntu might've run ok as well). And like you said, MX comes with a lot of neat utilities for setting things up via a GUI. And as someone that enjoys booting up random ISO's using Ventoy from an USB drive, MX Snapshot is pretty darn nifty. Did I say that booting MX is lightning fast? SystemD booting is such a drag. EDIT: Also love the Job Scheduler, most important tool coming from Windows.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Yeah, I imagine the Job Scheduler would be quite handy. I generally don’t mind Systemi until I run a system that doesn’t boot with it and it’s so much faster like you said. I used to have some issues with Ventoy, so I haven’t used it in a long time. But I hear of so many people using it now, so maybe I need to give it another go; it certainly would make things easier!

[@egilslauters6656]

Excellent video.... and interesting comments,too. Personally, I'm not a fan of MX. Every couple of years I try MX, Mint, and Zorin. I don't understand the popularity of these three distros. I am not attracted by their original visual presentation... But the video is really informative. Thanks.

[@jpwillm5252]

Interesting presentation. I use Artix Linux on my machines, but for beginners, I install MX Linux.

[@needsLITHIUM]

I'm sure you're already aware, but for the sake of everyone else, who may not know, MX Linux and AntiX are "sister distros" with their devs sharing an borrowing a lot of resources and ideas from one another. They are symbiotic collaboration distros. Both are great distros. AntiX is especially great if you want a small home or office server, since they have 2 different ISO's with only the CLI, and the GUI installs are lightweight enough to be great as a VM host.

[@jpwillm5252]

@@needsLITHIUM Thank you for this additional information which deserves to be highlighted. I think it's one of the best distribution mergers. We can compare with Artix Linux (Arch OpenRC and Manjaro OpenRC): very good mechanics associated with a beautiful body.

[@louisfifteen]

I have tried MX a couple of times and I don't like it one bit. Fedora 39 though is a jewel.

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

I could not agree more.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Currently running Fedora 39 as my daily driver. A truly great experience!

[@louisfifteen]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Yup

[@looseparts]

Opposite for me. Haven't used any RedHat / rpm stuff for 20 years. Just shows how we find our thing and stick with it.

[@seditiouswalrus]

My two main loves are MX and LMDE.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

LMDE 6 is really great!

[@hendrx]

been using mint for 10 years but I'll give mx a chance, these tools are very appealing

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

They certainly are! Hope you enjoy trying it out.

[@rolandstrasser9839]

MX Linux ahs is my daily driver for more than two years since I skipped Windows. It simply works, no issues at all and a friendly and competent forum. Xfce is the most suitable desktop for my needs.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s great to hear!

[@VintageGearMan]

Plus Linux provides a simple NVidia driver install. I put in a Nvidia 4gig Quadro graphics card. It rocks! I ended up with 1600 x 900 resolution now. This MX 23.2 operating system is unbelievably smoking great! I upgraded from MX 19.4. It also was fantastic but support runs out in June 2024.

[@powerdude_dk]

before I watched this video, I was going to install Manjaro with KDE Plasma on my dads laptop... but now I'm considering MX Linux, with either KDE Plasma, or Xfce.

[@isiseshisewebhu]

I am 63, a Linux user since 2005-ish, and experienced in all from Ari to Zorin. MX KDE AHS works best for me. As I am writing here, banks and insurance companies in South Africa, airlines and airports in the US are blacked out after Microsoft updates. MX, being Debian-based, is the winner, as I use KDE apps, also for syncing my phone. Ryzen 7 5.10GHz, 96GB DDR5, 4TB SSD, 8K video editing in OpenShot and KDEnlive, CPU intense. Oh, RTX4070 8GB as well, but will get e-GPU. 😊

[@geoffreyrenemoiens3089]

Good job!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@acegear]

all the tool should be on all distros and naming should be good enough easy to understand , its a good recommend for new users as in never left windows the goal is to never touch as much as possible the terminal

[@veerapraneeth]

MX Linux is stream lined and well designed to suit most users. The UX is great and not everything is complicated unless you need something specific. It’s lean and powerful. It’s out of the box experience is top notch.

[@ultraviolent233]

i was a distro hopper just for fun for about 6 months. i tried out 100+ different ones just to see what kind of stuff people were doing. when i landed on mx linux i stopped. its exactly what i wanted. an os that seems like it was designed by a system administrator!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

It really does feel that way! A has a lot of truly useful tools that actually make managing the system way easier.

[@rawmaterials3909]

I've tried the last version. I don't really see the awe. Yes the tools are great, but the rest... ... rock stable? After 1 month, updates are broken. I had a screen issue and asked the official forum for advice. They gave me a temporary fix saying "that's all you can do". I had to copy a configuration file from a manjaro guide to make it finally work. Mah...

[@k.b.tidwell]

The systemd facet...I don't give one care about the philosophical reasons not to use systemd. HOWEVER, I have a couple low-resource laptops (a Dell Latitude 3189 and an Acer E11) that gag on molasses when booting with systemd (Linux Mint was the install). MX gives both laptops a much faster boot, and makes them much more pleasant to use. So there's that.

[@niazmurshid]

I left using mx linux because of lack of Graphical mx package installer. It is more texual it sucks when having trouble finding software where in mint i can get it seeing its Icon.

[@Tzalim]

I love MX Linux but I also love the AUR. And I know about distrobox and it works on MX, just some of the programs don't work or I can't get them to work on MX. I really miss the Snapshot utility. I wish they would or some devs could port it over to Arch or have it in the AUR. But I can only dream.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Yeah, the AUR can be a godsend. I haven’t used MX’s snapshot tool. Is it similar to something like Timeshift that does system snapshots?

[@Tzalim]

@PlanetLinuxChannel no, it's even better, in my opinion. It's a program that creates a live CD (iso) of your current running system. And it's only available for MX Linux or AntiX Linux. MX is based on AntiX.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Ahh, that does sound incredibly useful! That’s the kind of utility I wish every distro had (or a distro-agnostic tool that would work on a bunch of them).

[@Tzalim]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Defiantly!

[@needsLITHIUM]

MX Linux KDE has been my daily driver ever since Feren OS started breaking from updates. I had previously used the XFCE version in the past, and ran a portable install on an external hard drive of AntiX (a "sister distro" to MX Linux, if you will) via Ventoy and using MX Remastering tool to commit software changes and updates to a new ISO image, as a portable recording studio with a small USB audio interface. The only other distros I'm really all that interested in are Fedora Kinoite, Ultramarine Linux, PCLinuxOS, and Mint/LMDE. Ubuntu has taken Snap packages way too far, well beyond their origins as a tool aimed at CLI packages and canned configs for servers.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That sounds like a pretty cool recording setup. And yeah, I try not to hate on Snaps too much, but they just aren’t built for desktop GUI apps. Canonical is trying to jam a square block into a round hole.

[@needsLITHIUM]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel That "Square block in a round hole" bit is spot on. The inline updating of running CLI apps without closing them is cool for LAMP usage and updating MySQL and Ruby libraries on the fly, but for using Libre Office or a web browser or something latency intensive like a DAW, it's a dumpster fire. Reaper installed via Flatpak already gives me latency issues, so I'd imagine snap would be even worse.

[@needsLITHIUM]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel I can run MX Linux KDE and use Audio Assault Amp Locker guitar amp sim in standalone or loaded in Reaper or Carla, on a Celeron N4020 with 4GB of RAM. If I used a snap version of any of those, I don't think it would have usable latency to play back with my guitar or bass playing in real time.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

@needsLITHIUM Is Reaper suddenly getting really popular or something? You’re the third person that’s mentioned it in the past few weeks, and I had never heard an anyone say anything about it prior to now. 😀

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

@needsLITHIUM Yeah, that would definitely be an issue!

[@mike13foxtrot79]

Installed on my All in one potato. Sign on pay bills from my bank and sign off. Got the Dell All in one for 20 bucks. Laptop with MX23. Laptop dual booting 19 and 23 From Arch to Debian based. I had 19 set up for Raspberry Pi stuff and VR's did not want to start over. So split the drive with GParted and added 23. Installed it on a Dell Inspirion 13 Touchscreen Laptop/Tablet the touchscreen works no hassles. Mint is on my Gaming Rig Dual booting with Win10. Other than that and just installed AntiX on a very old IBM G41 Thinkpad I grabbed for 10 bucks in a thrift store. MX is my goto. Started with Red Hat in 1996 from Linux for Dummies CD's. Have probably tried them all since.

[@samsungtech6116]

The distribution tools are key, that's what make it an OS/distribution

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Absolutely!

[@michaelgreaves2375]

Actually, I'm using MX Linux right NOW!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

How have you been liking it?

[@michaelgreaves2375]

@@PlanetLinuxChannelTo be honest, It's the distro that works perfectly for me. I've set up systems for my wife and daughter, and my friends. I've never crashed it,and problems I've run into have been not too hard to solve from the GUI.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s great to hear!

[@MorganEdgy]

FINALLY, a distro that lets me install children of varying categories

[@krisnasp]

Just switching from Win back to Linux after several years. After tried Mint vs MX, I chose MX for it's lightweight on XFCE DE. Nice dev!

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Glad to hear you’re liking it! Mint does have a nice XFCE edition that might be worth a try as well.

[@shaddow1dog]

MX Linux their XFCE new styles darkcold,darkblood, and darkfire tells us why they are number one.

[@kensolar69]

I tried MX21 KDE and didn't really find it great, .. good, OK, but not great. MX23 KDE came out and I found it a big improvement, it's now my daily driver.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I hadn’t used MX for quite a long time (I think it was 19 or 20) and I was also pleasantly surprised at how good MX 23 is.

[@fishybizz5658]

Mx linux is my main desktop os atm

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Very nice! How long have you been using it?

[@someonesays8022]

It does not go well with dual boot unfortunately. LMDE 6 would be better for that situation. But it looks like a very nice distro, that I will try for sure.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I’ve always found dual booting to work better when you have a second physical drive that you can put the other system on. So long as you pay close attention to the drive you install to, and put GRUB bootloader on the Linux drive, it tends to work fairly well.

[@sefoi]

System FIve (V) not "Vee"

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Thanks for the correction. I hadn’t heard it spoken before.

[@tobysource]

Whisker by default? Sold.

[@VintageGearMan]

Ya don't work on it for one! Boot time is incredible speed wise. It is super rock solid! Waaaaayyy love it! My computer is FAST!

[@davidwayne9982]

I've run most evey linus distro out there--- and THIS is ONE of the 3 I use as MAIN distros. ( I always have multiples available) and out of ALL the ones I've tried-- MOST of the- arch and debian--- and MX is 1, SPARKY is 2, and ARTIX (yes an arch one) is 3.... these are MUCH better than all the rest... PERIOD!!!

[@snsm6730]

- Light weight - Debian based - New User friendly - Easy Installer - The 'base' version is excellent for netbooks and older laptops ....Next question ? Typing this right now on MX-23.3 64bit by the way 8)

[@reinn-df2ti]

is mx linux really that light resource?.....I mean, ubuntu getting bloated every new released, I hope other distro not follow that trend

[@justy1337]

Who is everyone??

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

It’s not that there are a ton of people using it, but rather the vast majority of people that do use it really seem to like it.

[@tambuchalinux]

The first time I tried MX, I installed steam, which ran very slow on it. I wasn't very impressed and switched to Manjaro, on which steam ran much faster. I didn't try it again till years later, and after I took a deeper dive, I realized that I misjudged MX. Now it is my favorite Debian based distro. #2 Spiral, #3 LMDE.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

That’s interesting. I’m glad to hear it’s working well for you now!

[@tambuchalinux]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Yes, it is. The main problem before was that my Nvidia video card was brand new and Debian-based systems only had older drivers in their repos. Arch-based distros having bleeding edge software had the newer Nvidia drivers I needed. But my video card is several years old now, so a Debian base is fine now. Also, I learned how to install the latest proprietary Nvidia drivers on any distro; something which I was too lazy to do before. The MX tools definitely make it stand out from the rest.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Those graphics drivers sure can be pesky.

[@Little-bird-told-me]

You have been noticing lately ? Which rock have you been living, because MXlinux is been NO#1 for many years now

[@carlosfernandes8919]

Eu uso o MX-Linux , no BRASIL, em lingua Portuguesa... É muito bom , As ferramentas , Mx-tools , facilitam demais... Eu estou na versao 23 com KDE...num PC - 10 Generation Intel WINE, pra alguns Software , antigos de Windows... Playonlinux Winetricks, pra instalar Reistruturaveis c++ Muito bom mesmo MX-Linux... Depois de uns meses , Voce nem lembra de outros Windows... Bem confiável , Debian 12 , com Mx-tools , Bem mais facil e completo.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

It really is a great Linux operating system. Happy to hear that it works well for you! Realmente é um ótimo sistema operacional Linux. Fico feliz em saber que funciona bem para você!

[@carlosfernandes8919]

@@PlanetLinuxChannel Parabéns, ótimo seu canal youtube de linux...falando...

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

@carlosfernandes8919 Thatk you / Obrigado

[@BWGPEI]

Well why not - download happening and test bed system available to test it. Am I a miserable old sod because I insist on bare metal testing?

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

If you’re referring to bare metal as opposed to a VM, then I definitely agree! I try to avoid testing systems for review in a virtual machine.

[@BWGPEI]

Well test it I did on that bare metal system, where passed my basic tests. But as good as MX-Linux is, Mint Cinnamon edition is still better for our needs, and has been for the last three years of me testing other distributions. I doubt that it would surprise you that LMDE is our plan B. But I did have fun testing MX-Linux and that was the main goal.@@PlanetLinuxChannel

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

@BWGPEI Both Mint / LMDE are absolutely fantastic distros. Mint Cinnamon is often my go-to recommendation for most users, though I sometimes recommend Zorin OS for people coming straight from Windows.

[@52bbibbs]

I jus t installed MX and so far so good. I like it better then Mint and Bodhi.

[@rigel875]

the best best one absolutely at all!

[@dansanger5340]

MX Linux looks fine, but I'm a little suspicious of it always winding up on top of distrowatch.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Yeah. I’ve heard rumours about bots being involved, but I’m not sure. Distrowatch has never been a truly accurate representation of how much a distro is actually used, rather how much people just happen to look it up on the site. MX Linux has seen a lot of coverage on KZbin over the past couple years, so it’s possible that that’s drawn a lot of people over to its Distrowatch page.

[@jaye7679]

I prefer Mint but MX looks decent, I may give it a try

[@michaelfriscia8166]

It's fast and it works that's why

[@EmirKATIRCI]

Distro Watch doesn't follow setups. It follows clicks on their websites. Hence why it says hits next to the number. Which is why it shouldn't be a reference as to why a distro is popular. Because in reality most probably it's not a popular distro. People need to stop acting like it.

[@scotth5132]

As a long term MX user I agree. Hits are curiosity not popularity.

[@doctorsocrates4413]

Because it works..Most distros are all the same..make them unique to ourselves with customisation.

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Very good point.

[@jimw7916]

SUPERB DISTRO

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

I couldn’t agree more!

[@glenbarrington2634]

Your review made MX Linux look very interesting. Especially so since I've been looking to move away from Windows. But once i booed it up, I found it WAY too unintuitive to use. I have a non-techy wife to consider, and this just won't fly with her. It just barely flew with me. This is NOT a distro for Newbies and the willfully tech challenged.

[@Andre_XX]

A few tweeks here and there and my non-techy wife does fine on it.

[@BmxAddict08]

i don't know how you guys like mx linux , i had plenty problems linux mint all the way

[@PlanetLinuxChannel]

Sorry to hear about that. Mint really is great! I recently did a video covering 21.2.