 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1149, 24 November 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 47th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
These days most Linux distributions have adopted the systemd software to handle init duties and manage background services. While systemd is quite widely used in the Linux ecosystem, there are projects which would like to use systemd, but cannot. The systemd project has, up to this point, relied on the glibc system library exclusively, which prevents some projects, such as Alpine Linux, that use alternative libraries from adopting it. This may be about to change as systemd is testing compatibility with another popular system library called musl. We share more information about this change in our News section. We also talk about the Debian Libre Live project publishing ISO files which strip non-free components from Debian for a completely free and open software experience. Plus we share an overview of last month's hacking attack against the Xubuntu project. Before we get into all of that, we take a look at the MX Linux distribution. MX recently launched version 25 of its Debian-based operating system and we share observations on how the new version performs. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about video drivers and why some video drivers need to be managed manually. Do you install video drivers yourself or use whatever drivers are provided by your distribution? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. This week we take a moment to appreciate readers who sent in donations over the past month and share details on the releases of the past week. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
MX Linux 25
MX Linux is a Debian-based, desktop distribution. The project's latest release, MX Linux 25, is based on Debian 13. The MX project publishes multiple desktop flavours with the main edition running the Xfce desktop. The distribution also provides KDE Plasma and Fluxbox editions.
The various flavours of MX don't stop there though. The MX project provides some editions with advanced hardware support (called AHS on the download page) which supply newer versions of the Linux kernel. Also, one of the significant changes in version 25 is a new group of editions based on init preference. In the past, MX Linux shipped with two init implementations (systemd and SysV) on the same ISO. The user could select which init software they wanted to use at boot time by selecting it from the GRUB menu. Now all MX editions ship with systemd software installed, and only select editions ship with SysV init alongside systemd and boot into SysV. The user no longer selects their init at boot time, we select it when we download the ISO.
MX Linux 25 ships with our choice of KDE Plasma 6.3.6, Fluxbox 1.3.7, or Xfce 4.20. Each edition ships with version 6.12.48 of the Linux kernel, except for the AHS editions which offer version 6.16 of the kernel.
The project's release announcement lists some other updates to the distribution:
The Qt-based GUI MX Tools have been migrated to Qt 6.
Our long time updater tool, apt-notifier, has been replaced with a new tool, mx-updater. Functionally they are very similar, but under the hood there are some additional tricks and preference options, including the ability to use nala as the backend rather than apt.
The installer has a new feature to help 'replace' an existing Linux installation. When this option is selected, the user will be presented a list of found installations to replace. The fstab information from those installs will be used to set up a fresh install, with home folders preserved. There is also a new feature for setting up zRAM swap devices, as well as various optimizations and code updates.
The installer now has support for 64-bit UEFI Secure Boot installations. Users will still need to use a signed kernel (currently the Debian stable 6.12 kernels) for this support to work. Our AHS releases with the Liquorix kernels do not support Secure Boot.
The KDE Plasma [software] received several tweaks to the settings to deal with new configuration options available in Plasma 6.3.6. Wayland is the default session, but X11 is available from the session chooser on the login screen.
MX Linux 25 runs on x86_64 machines only, and is not available for 32-bit machines anymore. There are older versions and spins for other CPUs/machines, such as the Raspberry Pi, but I have not been able to find versions of MX Linux 25 for alternative CPUs.
The ISO file sizes range from about 2.1GB for the Fluxbox edition, to 2.6GB for the Xfce edition, and 3.1GB for the KDE Plasma edition. I decided to try the main flavour (Xfce) featuring the SysV init software.
My copy of MX Linux 25 booted directly into the desktop environment, Xfce in my case. A panel is displayed vertically down the left side of the screen. Quick-launch buttons are shown at the top of the panel, a task switcher is in the middle, and the system tray and application menu rest at the bottom.
On the desktop there are icons for opening a local copy of the project's user's manual, starting the installer, and launching the Quick System Info application. This third item is an application for looking at system files and system logs. This provides us with troubleshooting information.
Once the live desktop loads a welcome screen appears. This welcome window displays a grid of icons which provide us with access to documentation (both local and remote), configuration tools, the system installer, and a Tour program. The welcome window makes it convenient for us to access the MX Linux wiki, tweak desktop settings, and generally learn more about the operating system.
MX Linux 25 -- The local copy of the distribution's manual
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Tour application deserves some attention, I believe. This program opens a window with tabs placed across the top. These tabs are labelled with the names of features, such as Conky, Taskbar, Panel, and Timeshift. On each tab we find a screenshot of the feature in action along with an explanation for how it works. This feels somewhat similar to KDE's tour application, though the style is different. With the default window size, I found the text at the bottom of the Tour window was squeezed too much and difficult to read. However, maximizing the window improved the layout and made the tour text easier to read.
MX Linux 25 -- The MX Tour
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Installing
The MX Linux installer is a custom application and, on the surface, has not changed a lot in the past few years. It begins by confirming out keyboard layout. The next screen covers partitioning and, here, we can see a change. The MX installer can automatically take over an entire hard drive or leave us to manually partition the disk. There is a new option which will replace an existing Linux install, taking over its partition. The guided approach works well, though I felt the manual disk partitioning tool was awkward to use. The manual approach has a cramped layout with little drop-down boxes for options and this does not look as nice at the partitioning tools offered by some other installers, such as Calamares.
The following pages of the installer ask if we'd like to create a swap file (and we can specify its size). We can also optionally enable zRAM to compress memory in RAM. We're asked if we want to enable Samba to provide network share. Then we're asked to pick our locale and timezone from lists.
There is an optional step where we can select which background services (such as Bluetooth, CUPS, and cron) we want to run. Most services are enabled by default and we can click items we know we will not use. The final step of the installer asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves. We can also optionally enable the root account and set a password for it.
The installer works, copying files, in the background as we go through these final steps and the packages finished copying to my drive before I had finished going through the final few screens. This makes MX's installer one of the fastest desktop installers I have used in recent years. When the installer is finished it offers to reboot the computer.
Early impressions
My new copy of MX Linux booted to a graphical login screen where I could sign into my account to bring up the Xfce desktop. On the desktop I once again found icons for accessing documentation and system information. A Conky status panel is placed in the upper-right corner of the screen.
MX Linux 25 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The desktop was fairly quiet. Apart from seeing a notification about new updates becoming available, the desktop mostly stayed silent and out of my way. The Xfce virtual terminal uses transparency by default (this can be disabled), but otherwise the Xfce edition has a minimal amount of eye candy and few effects.
Hardware
I tested MX on a laptop and in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The distribution worked well in both environments. It ran smoothly in VirtualBox and integrated nicely with the host desktop. When running on the laptop all of my hardware was properly detected and used. Audio, wireless networking, and my keyboard's shortcut keys all worked as expected.
This year many distributions have set my laptop's screen to be too dim, lowering the brightness to 30% or lower. MX manages to avoid this inconvenience and put my screen at a medium level, about 66% brightness.
MX Linux used about 7.5GB of disk space for a fresh install, not including the swap file I created at install time. When signed into the desktop MX Linux used about 720MB of RAM, about on par with other distributions running Xfce. This means MX Linux uses about half the memory most mainstream desktop distributions consume when running Plasma, GNOME, or COSMIC. I also found MX Linux to be unusually fast, both in its responsiveness and ability to launch applications. The desktop was always quick to react and most applications opened almost instantly.
Applications included
The MX distribution ships with a mixture of popular and more lightweight applications. On the popular side, we find the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird for checking e-mail, and Transmission for downloading torrents. The Thunar file manager is included along with the LibreOffice suite. The VLC video player is present and is paired with the Strawberry music player. MX ships with media codecs and was able to play both video and music files.
MX Linux 25 -- The application menu
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Some of the lighter alternatives include the Geany IDE application, a PDF document viewer, the Orage calendar program, and the Xfburn disc burning application. Browsing the application menu we can also find the GParted disk partitioning too, a system monitor, and a backup utility. There is an e-book reader and the Timeshift snapshot utility. (MX Linux defaults to running on the ext4 filesystem, limiting Timeshift a bit as the application works best with Btrfs.)
The Xfce desktop provides many configuration modules. These modules can be accessed from the application menu or through a central control panel. MX also provides a number of administration utilities, called MX Tools, and I will discuss those later in this review.
MX Linux 25 -- The Xfce settings panel
(full image size: 1.6MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
On the command line MX Linux provides us with manual pages for commands, the GNU command line utilities, and the GNU Compiler Collection. I found Java on the system and we have the choice of running either systemd or SysV init. In the background my copy of MX was running version 6.12 of the Linux kernel, though 6.16 was available through the repositories.
Software management
There are a few approaches to working with software packages on MX Linux. One is to use a tool called MX Package Installer. This is a graphical application which holds several tabs. In the first tab we see a list of software categories and clicking on a category expands it to display popular applications (or tools) in that category. We can then click a checkbox next to each application we want to install and click a button to fetch the selected items. When we select multiple items to install the process will pause to verify we want to fetch each application and its dependencies before continuing.
MX Linux 25 -- The MX Package Installer
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I feel it is important to note that this package manager does not show all applications in a category, just some popular choices. The latter tabs in the MX Package Installer cast wider nets, displaying all low-level packages in specific repositories. We can then apply filters to winnow down the list of packages displayed. The second tab in the package manager is called Enabled Repos and it appears to show packages in all active repositories. The third tab, MX Test Repo, does the same, but focuses on just software packages in the project's testing repositories. The third tab also shows us a low-level view of packages, specifically in the Debian Backports repository.
There is another tab in the MX Package Installer which helps us browse Flatpak packages, provided by the Flathub repository. As with the other tabs, this screen shows us a simple list of Flatpak bundles and we can click a box next to items we want to install. This screen provides filters too and we can choose whether to see all Flathub bundles or just verified ones.
MX Linux 25 -- Finding Flatpak bundles
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
For people who would like to use a more traditional package manager, the distribution ships with Synaptic. The Synaptic package manager also takes a low-level approach while providing more filters, repository management options, and it includes the option to apply package updates, not just install new items.
When new updates become available a notification appears on the desktop. We can click this notification (or the package icon in the system tray) to open the project's update manager. The update manager is a fairly simply tool which will list the available updates and provide a chance to either upgrade every package or cancel the operation. Detailed package manager output is displayed in the window to show what is happening.
The update manager works and I didn't have any technical problems with it. I think the backend for the update manager has perhaps changed (I suspect from APT to Nala) and this results in the list of packages to update being shown in colour (dark green on black) instead of the previously used white-on-black font. This makes the output harder to read, but otherwise the experience was good.
People who like working from the command line will find the APT and Nala package managers for working with classic Deb packages alongside Flatpak for connecting to Flathub's repository.
MX Tools
The distributions ships with a toolbox of small administrative programs, called MX Tools. This is a great collection of applications which can be accessed from the application menu or a central hub. I won't go into all of the many small programs and what they do, but I will touch upon a few highlights.
MX Linux 25 -- The MX Tools collection
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The MX Tools collection includes programs for creating scheduled (cron) jobs and can show us a preview of when the jobs will run in the future. There is a tool for repairing and re-installing the boot loader. One tool cleans up temporary files and cache. One of my favourite tools in the collection creates bootable ISO snapshots of the running system, making it possible for us to transfer our running operating system to a thumb drive to be booted on another computer.
There is a utility for creating and managing Samba network shares and another for managing system services, making it possible start/stop background services. There are tools to manage the sound system, set up networking, check for software updates, and change the date and time. One tool manages user accounts and groups while another helps us customize the desktop panel. Another tool helps us customize the window manager, tweaking compositing, themes, and scaling.
MX Linux 25 -- A tool to repair and re-install GRUB
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I think the MX Tools collection is one of the better elements of the distribution. It is a rarely-hyped collection of useful tools that help customize and manage the operating system.
Other observations
Something I have mentioned in the past about running other distributions is that Linux projects often feel as though they are a collection of separate parts which have been piled together. Some Linux distributions do not appear to have their own personality, but rather are the result of bolting together separate components, made by separate developers with minimal coordination. Debian and Fedora are good examples of distributions which display this generic feeling. On the other hand, some projects (especially small ones with a single developer), have a strong personality. Smaller projects often directly reflect the interests of their developer, focusing on a particular style, theme, or category of applications.
MX Linux 25 -- Adjusting the appearance and behaviour of the desktop
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
MX Linux is in a rare third category. The project has been around, in one form or another, for over two decades. While its base, Debian, represents a huge number of software packages contributed by hundreds of developers, MX Linux has a smaller community that refines and builds upon this foundation. (It would be more accurate to say "foundations", since MX Linux borrows from antiX and a MEPIS heritage as well as pulling packages from Debian.) The result is an unusual project which shows all the signs of having grown organically to meet the needs of its community. Nothing about MX Linux is generic - it has a unique style, a strange collection of software, its own system installer, and a distinct approach to solving problems. However, it also isn't overly opinionated. The project doesn't appear to have a specific theme or styling or singular vision. It's not the result of one person putting forward their specific solution for how an operating system should function.
What MX Linux feels like is the result of years of people contributing specific tools, tweaks, and applications they found useful. The distribution feels like a well stocked toolbox, one that is filled with not with the hyped commercial solutions of the day, but with well worn tools of the trade. The layout, the custom MX Tools collection, and the applications are there because they work, they are battle tested, they have proved useful to multiple people, possibly for decades. MX Linux isn't trendy or generic, it's practical - organically, weirdly, efficiently practical.
Conclusions
Something which stood out about my time with MX Linux was that, twice, people saw my computer's screen while I was running the distribution and asked why my system looked odd. I asked what they meant and they basically said, "You're a professional computer techie, but your system looks old. I thought you'd have something more modern." I explained to them that my operating system might not look modern, but it was new and I was enjoying it because it was practical.
MX Linux may not look pretty and its icons are not using the latest fad in design, but it is incredibly fast, it's relatively light on resources (even for a desktop Linux distribution), it stays out of my way, the desktop is unusually responsive, and it has a collection of useful tools that handle almost any administrative function I want. My being a professional is exactly why I do not want my desktop to look flashy and pretty. I might end up looking at a screen 12 hours a day; I want the system to be responsive, not taking up my time with animations or burning my retinas with the colourful theme du jour. I want my system to be practical and easy to navigate, the exact theme and layout isn't all that important.
I think that sums up my feelings about MX Linux. It feels like a distribution which has grown organically, created by a team of professionals for professionals. It's tech by techies, for techies. It doesn't use the latest packages, it has stable ones; it doesn't use cute themes, it uses efficient visual defaults; it doesn't have flashy notifications and step-by-step wizards, it has a toolbox of flexible utilities. The hardware support is great, the defaults are useful, massive software repositories are available, the system is pleasantly efficient. The documentation is available locally and contains useful information instead of hype and buzzwords. I don't think I encountered a bug or error during the entire week. For someone like me, someone who sits down in front of a computer to work, this is an ideal distribution.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
MX Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8/10 from 767 review(s).
Have you used MX Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
systemd experiments with musl libc support, Debian Libre Live publishes media for Trixie, Xubuntu reviews website hack
Since its debut, the systemd software has been tied to one operating system kernel (Linux) and one system library implementation (glibc). This is about to change as the systemd project is introducing support for an alternative system library, musl libc. Linuxiac reports: "systemd has merged experimental support for musl libc, an implementation of the C standard library built on top of the Linux system call API, marking a notable shift in compatibility across the Linux landscape. And if you're wondering why this is so important, let me explain.
For years, systemd and musl occupied separate worlds: systemd required glibc, while musl-based distributions relied on alternative init systems and service managers.
In other words, distros using musl libc could not run systemd without extensive patching - or at all. So, all musl-based distros were effectively systemd-free (they used OpenRC, s6, runit, dinit, etc.). With this change, however, things have the potential to change." Yu Watanabe, a developer from Red Hat, has merged the musl support and testing is underway.
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People who like the Debian distribution, but who do not want any non-free software components (such as firmware) included in their operating system, now have a solution via the Debian Libre Live project. "The Debian Libre Live Images allows you to run and install Debian GNU/Linux without non-free software. The general goal is to provide a way to use Debian without reliance on non-free software, to the extent possible within the Debian project. One challenge [is] the official Debian live and installer images. Since the 2022 decision on non-free firmware, the official images for Bookworm and Trixie contain non-free software." Install media for x86_64 machines can be downloaded from the Debian Libre Live website.
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Last month we reported the download page for Xubuntu had been taken off-line, following a successful hacking attempt which had replaced a download link with a malicious Zip file. The project has restored the download page and is making plans to move to a less vulnerable web hosting solution. "The biggest announcement is that we've decided to switch to Hugo, a static site generator which will completely eliminate the type of attack vector taken advantage of. This migration to a static site generator has actually been in the works for some time as our reliance upon the dynamic features of WordPress naturally reduced, but this situation compelled the team to get it completed." A complete overview of the incident, what was affected, and the team's plan can be found in this mailing list post.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Why are video drivers special?
Driving-to-the-point asks: Why do we need to install/update video drivers, but not other types of drivers (eg. CPU, network)? What makes a video driver special?
DistroWatch answers: From a low-level, technical perspective there isn't really anything that makes one driver all that different from another in terms of how it is handled. All of the hardware components inside (and attached to) a computer require drivers so the kernel knows how to talk to the devices. Your keyboard, your mouse, your hard drive, your printer, and your network card all need to have drivers associated with them in order for the kernel to talk with them properly. Your computer's video card also needs a driver so the kernel can find out its capabilities and send it information to display on the screen.
This raises the obvious question: if there isn't any difference in principle between video card drivers and other types of drivers, why do we treat video drivers differently?
If you are accustomed to managing your video drivers then it may surprise you to learn that many people don't treat video drivers differently. If you are using a video card that is supported by good, open source drivers then you never need to think about your video card or your video drivers. Your graphics card will just automatically work - the same way your keyboard, mouse, Ethernet port, and audio do. Open source drivers which have been merged into the kernel should work automatically and receive updates whenever your kernel package is updated with no further effort from the person using the computer.
Typically there are just a few scenarios in which a person needs to think about, or interact with, their computer's video driver. One is when the driver is not open source and therefore cannot be merged into the Linux kernel. Proprietary drivers (or drivers which are open source, but incompatible with the kernel's license) cannot be included in the kernel and are handled as a separate package. Since the driver is distributed separately from the kernel it needs to be updated separately.
The other situation where we might end up managing our video driver in a hands-on fashion is if we want a newer version of the video driver than the one our distribution provides. This tends to happen with people who are trying to get the most gaming performance or new AI features out of their video card and want to run the latest driver rather than the one which was provided with their operating system.
In most other situations - ones where our video card has workable, open source drivers and we do not need special new features - we can use the open source drivers which are included with our distribution's kernel.
From a practical point of view, what all of this means is you will probably never need to think about your computer's video driver, unless you are running an NVIDIA video card and want to run the company's official, proprietary driver in order to get the most features/performance out of your video card. People running Intel cards, AMD cards, and people who use NVIDIA cards for non-gaming tasks can typically use the driver which their distribution provides and not think about it.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Finnix 251
Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux distribution for system administrators, based on Debian's "Testing" branch. The project's latest version, Finnix 251, introduces OCI container images: "Finnix 251 is the first release to distribute official OCI container images. The official Finnix container contains all the same software as the ISO release, and may be launched from Podman, Docker, Kubernetes, etc. This is particularly useful for Kubernetes users, giving you a quick utility shell in the namespace of your choice. The finnix/finnix:latest container currently includes architecture support for amd64, arm64 and riscv64. Otherwise, Finnix 251 is a regular semiannual utility release: Linux kernel 6.16 (Debian 6.16.12); added package - dc3dd; upstream Debian package updates; many minor fixes and improvements. Finnix is a Linux-based utility live distribution. Write it to a USB flash drive or burn it to a CD, boot it, and you're seconds from a root prompt with hundreds of utilities available for recovery, maintenance, testing and more." Additional details can be found in the release announcement.
Aurora 43
Juha Uotila has announced the release of Aurora 43, an important update of the project's Fedora-based immutable Linux distribution made for general desktop use. This version updates the underlying system to Fedora 43 and the KDE Plasma desktop to version 6.5: "Aurora 'Stable' has been updated and is now based on Fedora 43. Unfortunately this time the update took a little longer than we would have hoped, but we had to wait for ZFS to get support for the new 6.17 kernel series. Fedora 43 is a minor update and doesn't bring many big updates in itself, but we have still done some backend work on the Aurora side. Changes are mostly non-invasive, it was just to make our sources lighter and easier to manage. KDE Plasma 6.5 also finally reached our stable images. People on daily images have already been enjoying Plasma 6.5 for the past few weeks. As we mentioned in our last update, one of the biggest changes regards Bazaar, the Flathub appstore. We have now fully moved to the Flatpak version of Bazaar, which provides more frequent updates. Furthermore, it is now easier to help upstream to get issues fixed. This brings some changes how Bazaar is integrated into the system." Continue to the release announcement for more information.
Promox 9.1 "Virtual Environment"
Proxmox Virtual Environment is an open-source virtualisation platform for running virtual appliances and virtual machines. The company's latest release, version 9.1, continues to refine the 9.x branch, which is based on Debian 13 "Trixie". The release announcement reports: "We're proud to present the next iteration of our Proxmox Virtual Environment platform. This new version 9.1 is the first point release since our major update and is dedicated to refinement. This release is based on Debian 13.2 'Trixie' but we're using the newer Linux kernel 6.17.2 as new stable default. In addition to the main system enhancements, this update incorporates the latest versions of core technologies, including QEMU 10.1.2, LXC 6.0.5, ZFS 2.3.4, and Ceph Squid 19.2.3, all fully tested and integrated. Please review the key highlights below, and thank you, as always, for your invaluable support. Here are some of the highlights in Proxmox VE 9.1: Create LXC containers from OCI images; support for TPM state in qcow2 format; new vCPU flag for fine-grained control of nested virtualization; enhanced SDN status reporting." The release notes offer additional details.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,334
- Total data uploaded: 48.6TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you manage your computer's video drivers?
In this week's Questions and Answers section we talked about video drivers and why, in some cases, people end up managing them while most other device drivers are handled automatically. This week we would like to hear whether our readers tend to let the operating system manage their video drivers or if they swap out the default for a specific driver.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using a sandbox in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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| Website News |
Donations and Sponsors
Each month we receive support and kindness from our readers in the form of donations. These donations help us keep the web server running, pay contributors, and keep infrastructure like our torrent seed box running. We'd like to thank our generous readers and acknowledge how much their contributions mean to us.
This month we're grateful for the $230 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| J S | $50 |
| Kevin W | $30 |
| John S | $20 |
| John T | $19 |
| Používateľ P | $21 |
| Jacek J | $10 |
| Jonathon B | $10 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Joshua B | $7 |
| George E | $6 |
| Scott S | $5 |
| Brian59 | $5 |
| Chris S | $5 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| Joe Football | $5 |
| John B | $5 |
| TaiKedz | $5 |
| Keith S | $2 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| aRubes | $1 |
| Colton D | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| Kai D | $1 |
| Lars N | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 1 December 2025. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Video drivers (by Big Mike on 2025-11-24 01:36:41 GMT from United States)
After a bad experience with Nvidia drivers some years back, I only buy laptops with integrated Intel graphics. I have never had any problems using the stock video drivers in Linux and BSD with Intel graphics processors.
I'm looking forward to FreeBSD 15.0 at the end of this week!
2 • MX Linux 25 (by Keith S on 2025-11-24 02:51:11 GMT from United States)
Great review of a great distro. I just migrated from 23.6 to 25 today (finally got the time to do it). I installed over the the old version and all went smoothly. The utility to save a list of all user-installed packages on the old version and then download them in the new version worked perfectly. Some packages aren't available, but the utility makes it easy to save that list so they can be added again from other repos.
I agree with the assessment that MX Linux is "an unusual project which shows all the signs of having grown organically to meet the needs of its community." It really is just right for me, and the collection of tools and utilities really should be included in every other distro. It's incredibly stable; I've only had one time in six years when I had a problem, and even then it was easy to fix.
3 • Video drivers are special... especially Nvidia (by Jimbob on 2025-11-24 03:05:24 GMT from United States)
Linus Torvalds gave Nvidia the middle finger because they are the worst company to deal with for video drivers
4 • MX Tools (by InvisibleInk on 2025-11-24 03:13:44 GMT from United States)
Is it possible to add those MX Tool to another distribution, e.g., generic Debian oor Xubuntu?
5 • MX Linux (by Bert on 2025-11-24 03:45:45 GMT from Belgium)
@Jesse
Some review.
But you're right: MX Linux is a great distribution. (I can only speak for the XFCE distro.)
Fast and reliable.
And we share the same thoughts about the looks of a distro. When I install a distro, one of the first things I do, is to do away with all the animations and system sounds. A computer desktop should be practical, usable and workable. Animations and eye candy disturb and annoy me.
Ask me if I care about a desktop looking old?
Not at all.
My Win10 still looks like a WinXP (using Openshell).
My XFCE desktops also look more as a WinXP because I do not use the Whisker Menu but just the old Menu Application.
On my main Linux systems, I run the MATE desktop. Also with the Classic Menu applet.
I never use desktop pictures; I use an easy colour instead.
I just want my desktops to be practical.
Boring? Not at all.
6 • MX Linux tools availability (by Chris Whelan on 2025-11-24 04:12:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
@#4 InvisibleInk
All the 165 MX Tools are open source, and the code is available on GitHub.
https://github.com/orgs/MX-Linux/repositories
7 • Musl on systemD (by Voiding-daily on 2025-11-24 05:34:43 GMT from Denmark)
Been using musl with runit on my void laptop for almost a decade at this point, I'm glad to see it finally being adapted by systemd as well. Although I learned to find all kinds of workarounds I sure would have appreciated it back when I started and 90% tips online would be geared primarily to the systemd distributions
8 • systemd on musl (by Ghost on 2025-11-24 06:49:11 GMT from Sweden)
@7 I've also been running Void musl since 2016 but, our feelings diverge. It's sad to see that the virus is mutating and infecting another species. Nothing to celebrate here.
The day Void adopts systemd is the day I'll need to do a new installation.
9 • musl and systemd (by always_curious_about_FOSS on 2025-11-24 08:24:28 GMT from Germany)
@7 @8 On one of my Laptops i have installed Alpine Linux with musl openrc init and a JWM desktop.
This is so the greatest Distro of all I have used ever. I tested a lot of distros in many years.
Postmarked OS ( based on Alpine )going to change to Systemd init. Why ? Because Gnome Desktop will not work without systemd in future.
In my humble opinion, the logical step would have been to give the Gome Desktop a kick in the butt.
So would the Alpine Linux team doing now ?
So I hope to have in future still to chance to run alpine linux without systemd.
10 • MX Linux (by Lawrence on 2025-11-24 08:28:45 GMT from New Zealand)
MX Linux is my much preferred distro and is installed on three devices at home. It works well nearly all of the time and, as stated, has a wide range of tools to cover nearly everything.
11 • Video driver poll (by Kazlu on 2025-11-24 09:41:52 GMT from France)
I selected "I use an alternative driver from default repositories" because that's what I did on my daily driver with a specific graphics card and specific requirements. Bon on every other instance (laptop, relatives computer, etc.), I just go with the default option.
12 • Debian Libre or not? (by Kazlu on 2025-11-24 09:46:58 GMT from France)
Debian Libre: "The general goal is to provide a way to use Debian without reliance on non-free software, to the extent possible within the Debian project."
What extent? Either it is 100% libre for philosophical reasons, or it is not for practical reasons. Either path has its merits, as long as it is clearly stated. Calling a project "Libre" as a libre version of another but allowing some exceptions defeats the purpose.
13 • Video drivers (by Rufus T Firefly on 2025-11-24 11:34:23 GMT from United States)
I switched to all AMD several years ago, so now use the AMD free driver which installs automatically at installation.
I wouldn't have had this problem with nVidia video for 10 years if nouveau had added an option to turn off 3d acceleration years before they did.
And if Torvalds had approached nVidia like a professional rather than a 6 year old, maybe nVidia would have been more accommodating.
14 • Sorting OSs by average review (by Josh Smith on 2025-11-24 11:43:10 GMT from Australia)
As a distrohopper, I often come to DistroWatch to get some ideas as to which distro I should try next. I often read these weekly issues for ideas on this and perform searches as part of this. I thought it'd be great if the search page had an option of ordering results by average review. Or specifying allowed ranges for average reviews for the search results. Might even be great if we could specify a minimum number of reviews we want the operating systems in our search results to have (as an average rating of 9/10 based on 1 review seems substantially less reliable and credible than such a score based on 100 reviews).
15 • Wine (by silent on 2025-11-24 12:18:58 GMT from Hungary)
WineHQ provides customizable reports for wine bugs. So the devs could even automate rolling back if the new version has critical bugs. The downgrade script in AUR is really great, but is it really the KISS solution?
16 • Graphics Drivers (by Slappy McGee on 2025-11-24 13:13:54 GMT from United States)
Many distros offer those choices. I go with the listed repos for current drivers. I've learned to shy away from non-default repos.
17 • Sorting (by Jesse on 2025-11-24 13:18:51 GMT from Canada)
@14: "I thought it'd be great if the search page had an option of ordering results by average review. "
I think I understand the ideal here, having distributions with a lot of positive reviews show up near the top of search results. However, this won't work in practise. Widely used, popular distributions tend to get poor and mixed reviews while super obscure and lesser know distributions tend to get perfect scores exclusively.
In other words, commonly used projects like Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE will always end up near the bottom and OpenBSD, Void, and Slackware will always end up at the top. Which would make the results unsuitable for the type of person who needs to use the search page in the first place.
18 • Alpine and systemd (by Patrick on 2025-11-24 13:19:26 GMT from Luxembourg)
@10 according to the devs there are systemd artefacts in Alpine Linux because of postmarketOS (both distros collaborate quite a lot). There is no plan to go systemd and openRC will remain the reference init.
19 • "looks old" (by BluPhenix316 on 2025-11-24 13:38:15 GMT from United States)
I get it that sometimes interfaces can look old. I just don't get why people think it has to change. If something is not broke then why try and fix it?
I like the older look in some circumstances. I don't need to change for the sake of change.
20 • @2 • MX Linux (by Geo. on 2025-11-24 13:56:48 GMT from Canada)
MX is like a dangerous game rifle - simple, tough, and reliable. I've loved it since Mepis. 💓
21 • Video Drivers (by John on 2025-11-24 14:03:01 GMT from Canada)
As @1 said, I avoid everything Nvidia and will continue to do so until their Drivers get the "seal of approval" from the OpenBSD folks. Selecting hardware that works with OpenBSD guarantees a very good experience with Linux and other Operating Systems.
22 • MX Linux (by Saif on 2025-11-24 14:46:48 GMT from Tunisia)
If Linux Mint give me the nostalgic vibe of Windows 7, MX Linux gave me the older nostalgic vibe of Windows XP: the looks are pleasant enough to the eye, practicallity is prioritized over everything, and the UI is designed to be simple and useful. MX Linux has always been my recommandation for my friends or relatives with older PCs.
23 • Sorting (by Josh Smith on 2025-11-24 14:51:49 GMT from Australia)
@14 Jesse, I'm not suggesting you make this the default behaviour, as I definitely acknowledge it's not for everyone. I'm suggesting it be an optional behaviour the users can opt for, if they want to. Naturally, hits per day should be the default sorting criterion, as it tends to favour more mainstream distros but this could be a second option for sorting that users can opt for. You could also add a sorting criterion of how recent the most recent release was, which would be useful for users looking for fixed released distros that get regular new releases. As for how such a search would handle rolling release distros, I guess you could categorize them as having new releases whenever a package in your database gets updated for the rolling release distro in question.
But hey, I'm not the one that'd have to implement this, so I shan't cast stones if you still don't want to add it to the site. Just thought I'd pitch the idea.
24 • MX Linux (by blzfam on 2025-11-24 14:52:13 GMT from United States)
Since MX Linux 19 the distro has been one disappointment after another. I tried their latest release MX 25 and it did not perform the way I had hoped. The following distros on my Dell Latitude are performing very well: Ubuntu 24.04 MATE with 15 years of support; Linux Mint, LMDE and openSUSE Tumbleweed. Perhaps when the MX developers get all the bugs out of MX and offer a new installer, then I will try it again. Until then I am a happy camper with the above mentioned distros.
25 • MX Linux on Laptops (by Slappy McGee on 2025-11-24 15:46:04 GMT from United States)
@24 This is an example of how varied user experiences can be with Linux distros, even on the same family of machines. Every listed distro in those examples given there by bizfam is less responsive and often even clunky on my Dell laptops, while MX Linux is quick and very much as noted point for point in this week's (spectacularly well written) review of MX Linux 25.
MX has always been quite the project with quite the pedigree: antix/Mepis. The very best on my machines beginning back when all I had was an old HP with pretty low specs.
26 • MX Tools (by InvisibleInk on 2025-11-24 16:01:07 GMT from United States)
@ 6 - Chris Whelen
So, if I add the mx.list file (from https://github.com/MX-Linux/mx-sources/blob/mx23/mx.list) to my Debian 12 configuration, then apt update, I should be able to install any or all of the various tools?
I'd prefer to download them as binaries, rather than compile each one from source....
27 • MX and XFCE x Beginners guide (by tomas on 2025-11-24 16:55:30 GMT from Czechia)
I came to Linux some years after end of support for Windows XP.
At the time I did not know which DE to choose, so I selected some distros that offered more DEs out of the box.
Luckily Linux Mint offered KDE, Mate, Xfce and Cinnamon, and I name them in the order of my preferences.
When Mint quit support for KDE I had to switch to other distros, openSUSE Tumbleweed or Artix to name the better ones.
Later I have found Q4OS with Trinity desktop.
With the move to Qt6, Plasma6 and Wayland came many bugs, so my today's preferences changed to Mate, KDE and Trinity (I still have Xfce installed but almost never use it).
Recently I have installed some distros running Plasma on Wayland as default with bad results, only to find out I have to switch to X11 to get a working system.
This is not good for anyone coming from Windows.
It would be very useful if the reviewed distros (MX) that offer also Plasma out of the box would get a look at this problem.
Do you have any idea what causes such problems (apart from saying "it is a new tech in development" or "the developers did not sufficiently test it") ?
28 • old look (by tomas on 2025-11-24 17:02:43 GMT from Czechia)
Forgot to mention my Mate settings.
I used XP in the standard (classical) setting and configured Mate as close as that.
Maybe someone would describe it as Windows 95 look (so very old looking, like me :-))).
I like it that way, everything is easy to see and navigate.
29 • MX Linux (by Quiet, Piggy on 2025-11-24 17:33:28 GMT from United States)
You did a good review of MXLinux, Jesse.
After learning MXLinux KDE is going to systemd, I am going distrohopping. I like kde over xfce and all the other DE's. I do NOT want systemd on my boxes. I have used MXLinux for the last year, and for the 20 years before that I used primarily PCLinuxOS for 15 of the 20 years and the other 5 I was hopping around...Manjaro, Slackware, FreeBSD, Gentoo. I have the latest versions of Slackware, Gentoo, Void, Devuan, and am waiting for the FreeBSD final release so I can try them all, on separate hard drives of course.
30 • MX-Linux just works, in all weather! (by SAMO on 2025-11-24 18:18:44 GMT from Sweden)
Thanks Jesse,
Great review of a distro that really works in all weather!
I have used MX and its MX-Tools which I love. You can do a lot with this Tool selection.
What is not modern look? I always auto-hide panel weather is on top, bottom or left side (as it is on MX), and I have a beautiful minimal desktop background either a solid beautiful shade of blue with minimal (or not at all) icons or clutters
MX-Tools has saved me valuable time to repair damaged boot part of my computer/laptop. It can fix bootloader problems or just start up any distro installed on the system.
Actually I like the idea of Antix handling low resource pc/laptops but it is too text-oriented-config stuff which I do not like! That's where MX comes to rescue.
Conky is great too.
I just Love MX.
31 • MX Linux (by excollier on 2025-11-24 20:44:58 GMT from Ireland)
Been on MX Linux since 17.x, still on 23.6 and will wait for 27, rather than move to 25.
Have to say I really like it and can see no reason to use anything else
32 • Debian libre (by Keith S on 2025-11-24 22:01:56 GMT from United States)
@12 You described the problem of the libre philosophy perfectly. The truth is, no distro works without some non-free software, usually binary blob drivers for hardware that is included on 99.9% of all PCs and laptops. Years ago when Debian took the position that they would not include any non-free software, I discovered Mint, which happily included the drivers with their ISO.
Funnily enough, OpenBSD has a similar stance, so if you don't install it with an Ethernet connection, you have to download the non-free drivers for your WiFi card and possibly your graphics card and then add them once you're set up.
The truly dedicated real purists like Stallman ender up using Chinese open-source hardware that was way overpriced and nearly impossible to get. Of course, again, that was years ago so maybe neither of those statements is true, or maybe there is no longer any open-source hardware to be had.
I expect the Debian libre project to die a quiet death when there is very little uptake. We all would like everything to be open-source, but even Risc-V will soon be or already is proprietary in practice. The people who have the money to develop serious hardware will always choose to protect their investment.
33 • Screenshot issues in MX review (by AdrienM on 2025-11-25 07:20:20 GMT from United States)
Jesse,
I noticed in every screenshot except one (the Whisker Menu), there are pixel artifacts around the left, bottom, and right sides of every MX drawn window. (There is a different type of window for the game shown, which does not have this problem)
Is that video problem shown on original hardware, or is this some flaw in the screenshot software? (or were these taken in a VM and the bare metal was fine?)
Also, you mentioned a Conky panel in the top right, but not a single screenshot depicts it. (no big deal to me, but new readers might be curious as to what you are describing if they can't see it.)
I tried MX a few years ago, each DE, and it was a disaster that would barely run. I'll give it another shot as maybe it is a bit more stable. Thanks for the review!
34 • Drivers (by Just4fun on 2025-11-25 11:57:05 GMT from Sweden)
My 20+ years of experience with Linux has taught me that if you want to avoid problems with drivers, stick to hardware that supports 100% open source. Therefore, when purchasing a new computer, you ensure that it does NOT contain hardware from primarily Nvidia or Broadcom, then it will work worry-free with Linux without requiring any extra measures.
35 • @33 window manager borders (by dolphin oracle on 2025-11-25 12:11:20 GMT from United States)
sharp eye!
those artifacts usually only show up on virtual machines without graphics acceleration enabled. virtualbox is one example. this is due to improper rendering of a transparent border around the windows, which helps give more border for windows for resizing efforts rather than have either huge pixel size border lines or tremendously small grab areas. gtk3/4 apps with client side directions, like the game shown, don't uses those borders. on the vast majority of hardware, those artifacts won't show up, even with a compositor disabled.
we picked this up in testing, but decided the usability of larger grab bars was worth it. if a user does need to use MX without graphics acceleration, there are other window manager borders available on disk that don't use the effect.
36 • @34 drivers (by Keith S on 2025-11-25 13:03:25 GMT from United States)
I agree with the sentiment and have avoided Nvidia and Broadcom for a long time. I forgot to mention though another major category of non-free software, which is media codecs. Back when Debian had their hardcore stance against non-free software, the other major reason to use Linux Mint was that audio and video just worked. It might be less of a problem now since Adobe flash has been mostly abandoned.
37 • Window borders (by Jesse on 2025-11-25 13:47:59 GMT from Canada)
@33: "Is that video problem shown on original hardware, or is this some flaw in the screenshot software? (or were these taken in a VM and the bare metal was fine?)"
I had no idea what you meant until I went back and zoomed in on a couple of the screenshots. I think I see what you mean, a little jaggedness to the window borders? I hadn't noticed, probably because I mostly used the distro on my laptop.
I checked and this seems to show up in the virtual machine only (where these screenshots were taken).
@35: "those artifacts usually only show up on virtual machines without graphics acceleration enabled"
It happens with and without compositing and it happens whether hardware acceleration is enabled or not. Acceleration doesn't make any difference to the artifacts in a virtual machine.
38 • Debian libre (by Sven on 2025-11-25 18:55:22 GMT from France)
@32: "The truth is, no distro works without some non-free software, usually binary blob drivers for hardware that is included on 99.9% of all PCs and laptops."
No, all the FSF-endorsed distros don't contain non-free software, and they work just fine on PCs with integrated Intel graphics or with old enough Nvidia cards.
39 • @38 Debian libre (by Keith S on 2025-11-25 20:37:03 GMT from United States)
I did some research and admit that I was wrong about no distros working without binary blobs. Here's what I found from the Distrowatch database, using the list of approved distros from the FSF website.
Dragora -- dormant
Dynebolic -- beta released 3/24, last release before that was 2008
Guix -- great reviews from true believers though they admit it is for very advanced users and requires some programming knowledge in Guile (a variant of Scheme). Also mentioned that the IRC channel is great but warned not to mention unfree software. Still actively maintained.
Hyperbola -- last release January 2024. Most recent review from 2022 indicated that pacman keys had expired. Based on Arch.
Parabola -- also Arch based, most recent update February 2024, one review mentions that he installed Gnome Web to read pages that don't work on IceCat (the browser that ships with this distro and also Guix).
PureOS -- dormant. Reviews seem to indicate that it is not very useful because of the extreme restrictions based on their libre guidelines. Also apparently this company sells very expensive hardware, presumably libre. Based on Debian.
Trisquel -- has the most reviews, recently updated release in August 2025. Based on Debian.
UtutoOS -- discontinued, last release was in 2011.
Two that are designed for embedded systems, libreCMC and ProteanOS, are not in the Distrowatch database.
So, of the list from the FSF, three look like maybe they might work as daily drivers, Trisquel, Parabola, and Guix, though Trisquel seems like the only one with real possibilities to me. I am sympathetic to the idea of free (as in freedom, as the adherents always insist must be stated) software. I wish the Debian libre people the best in creating what they want.
40 • Systemd plus Musl libc (by Nate on 2025-11-26 00:02:17 GMT from United States)
I've been running Void for quite a while, and I have also been maintaining a hobby Linux distro based around Musl libc. I see the move to support Musl by the Systemd devs as a good thing for the following reasons:
1. If you're worried that Alpine or Void are going to switch to Systemd, forget it. Not happening.
2. The amount of effort required to port software so that it will run when compiled against Musl libc (let alone compiling successfully in the first place) is going to go down because of this. That can only be a good thing for Musl and Musl-based distros.
Without casting shade on anyone in particular, your average software developed for Linux contains so many unnecessary GNUisms that it provides a serious impediment towards the large scale adoption of Musl (or other alternative software, such as alternative coreutils causing configure scripts to fail because various tests rely on GNU coreutils extensions beyobnd POSIX). It's bad enough that NetBSD's Pkgsrc maintainers consider Linux with Musl to be an entirely different compilation target than Linux with Glibc, and an unsupported target at that. This from what is supposed to be a "universal" packaging system. Ask me how I know, LOL.
Anyway, don't spread FUD. This is good. Portability is good.
41 • @38 • Debian libre, Intel (by Tasio on 2025-11-26 00:25:30 GMT from Philippines)
"they work just fine on PCs with integrated Intel graphics" My problem with Debian and Intel, albeit minor, has not been graphics, but WiFi. I still have the Intel WiFi driver in a USB stick for when the Debian installer asks for it. Otherwise it would be Ethernet only until the driver is installed.
42 • MX Linux (by Hank on 2025-11-26 09:31:42 GMT from Germany)
Re negative comments with older versions supposedly slow or nor running well.
In a school setting it performed near perfectly on a multitude of different devices.
Reason that systemd is only option with some MX Desktops.
Breakage of alternatibve init support by systemd evangelist devs despite a
Debian Vote to support alternative inits.
Present Debian Leader does not, lead that is, and that allows bone headed persons to fsck up downstream distros and alternative init support, they wish to force a systemd only world..
43 • @39, Free is not gratis (by Tasio on 2025-11-26 00:40:36 GMT from Philippines)
@39 "I am sympathetic to the idea of free (as in freedom, as the adherents always insist must be stated) software." There's a point to the "free as in freedom" phrase. I use and enjoy free software, but I'm not a zealot about it. Just last week there was someone here claiming that because the first letter of FOSS stands for "free", no one should charge money for it. In Spanish, there are two words for "free": "libre" as with no restraints, and "gratis" as in no charge. Thus: "Free as in freedom, not as in beer." And the reason for the word "libre" being used for clarity.
44 • @43 Freedom (by Keith S on 2025-11-26 15:24:25 GMT from United States)
I understand. It's an old argument. I've generally leaned toward the MIT/2-clause/3-clause/ISC license "free as in beer" side. Libre does not mean there are no restraints. The GPL has restrictions (many, sometimes, depending on which version of the GPL), but as a practical matter the billionaires take what they want and use it anyway. At least when they take BSD code there's less dishonesty involved.
45 • Debian Libre (by Kazlu on 2025-11-26 15:42:07 GMT from France)
@32: Well there are 100% libre distros out there. Look at the ones listed as free by the FSF (some are discontinued though): https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
These do not include the binary blobs you mention bacause they target users that are ready to do the sacrifice of this functionnality. It usually means no Wi-Fi and standard graphics for example. But it is possible, especially if this is important enough for people ready to chose their hardware so that it will be compatible with a free distro instead of looking for a distro that works with their hardware.
In this context, I think it is not right to call this project Debian Libre if it is Libre "to an extent".
46 • @43 Freedom revisited (by Keith S on 2025-11-26 17:07:08 GMT from United States)
Having said that I generally lean toward "free as in beer" licenses, I have been reading up on NixOS because it sounds interesting and I was thinking of trying it out. I just spent an hour reading about the serious controversies within the NixOS community and have to say that there may be very good reasons to use GPL licenses -- like keeping defense contractors from taking over your open-source, free software project and injecting proprietary code into the release without disclosing that fact to everyday hobbyists like myself.
47 • @40 systemd + musl (by Ghost on 2025-11-26 19:38:44 GMT from Sweden)
"Ask me how I know, LOL."
Are you the person behind Oasis Linux? Then I don't need to ask, LOL.
48 • @47 Oasis Linux and Musl (by picamanic on 2025-11-27 11:56:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
@47 I liked the ideas in Oasis Linux: Static Linking, Sinit, MUSL, BearSSL, but also Wayland and Netsurf. Maybe it was too radical to survive.
49 • Debian Libre (by dragonmouth on 2025-11-27 12:03:41 GMT from United States)
"Libre" in this context is like being pregnant - either you are or you aren't. There is no being "pregnant to an extent." There is also no "Libre to an extent."
50 • MX and KDE (by tomas on 2025-11-27 13:29:51 GMT from Czechia)
I have downloaded the KDE Plasma ISO of MX to try it and hit a problem.
I cannot even boot from it.
51 • @50 MX and KDE (by Chris Whelan on 2025-11-27 14:28:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
Please ask for help on the MX Linux forum. You will find them friendly and helpful.
52 • Debian Libre (by Sven on 2025-11-27 14:56:49 GMT from Sweden)
@49:
I disagree. Freedom is comparable, it has degrees. Real life imposes certain tradeoffs and constraints. However, Debian Libre images don't contain any non-free software whatsoever. They may not qualify for FSF endorsement because they may contain references to or suggestions for non-free software, making it possible to inadvertently install such software.
@50:
Did you try booting in UEFI or legacy BIOS mode?
53 • MX Linux Screenshot (by Tyler on 2025-11-28 07:08:12 GMT from Canada)
The MX Linux screenshot captioned "A tool to repair and re-install GRUB" is pretty funny. It makes it look like solving a puzzle is a part of repairing the boot loader.
54 • Debian Libre (by Kazlu on 2025-11-28 13:24:05 GMT from France)
Wait a minute... Reading the messages from @52 Sven, @49 dragonmouth and myself, I realize we don't have the same interpretation of the words in the Debian Libre announcement. I went to read it again and... I find it not very clear.
"The general goal is to provide a way to use Debian without reliance on non-free software, to the extent possible within the Debian project."
I thought "to the extent possible within the Debian project." applied to "without reliance on non-free software", but maybe it applied to "use Debian"... In other words, I am now unsure if they meant "we try to use Debian without non-free software, but when there is no choice we include some non-free software" or "we use non-free software and we try to be as close as possible to the standard Debian usage". Non native english speaker here, maybe I hit my limits...
55 • Choice Leader Artix and systemd in Void (by Carl on 2025-11-29 00:01:51 GMT from United States)
@8 The init choice leader is Artix, which decouples apps from init scripts. It's good seeing antiX copy this approach. Of course, Artix does not support systemd, but systemd is more OS than init.
RedHat's musl push may aim at Alpine for its sway in Docker world and the orbiting Internet-cloud businesses. Alpine runs on musl.
Void runs on musl and glibc. It has a history with systemd. I am already planning an exit strategy around Artix. Artix supports runit, but dinit is probably the new shiny for me.
Void began with systemd, but dropped it over musl. Every Void package must build in both glibc and musl. While systemd refugees use Void, the core team shouts them down. So when musl systemd happens, I expect Void will package it. In other words, Void devs *like* systemd. The users don't.
Expect hard dependency of Void's GNOME suite on systemd in the long run. Void ported GNOME to runit. Yet just as it did with LibreSSL, Void will dump its unique porting effort. Void has lost its way in repo upkeep, too. A large fraction of packages are out of date and/or unmaintained.
@32 The real hope is open-source hardware along the lines of Pi boards with newer, open chipsets.
Number of Comments: 55
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Revenge OS
Revenge OS (previously called OBRevenge OS) was a desktop operating system that was based on the Arch Linux distribution. Revenge OS features a live DVD and offers users the Openbox window manager and Xfce panel with the Whisker menu as the default login session. The distribution includes a welcome window and the Pamac graphical software manager to help users get set up with the software and drivers they need. The distribution can be installed using the Calamares system installer.
Status: Discontinued
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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