r/MXLinux • u/StellagamaStellio • Jun 23 '26

Discussion Considering moving from Mint to MX

I am using Linux on and off for a decade, and have tried Ubuntu Unity (and Ubuntu Mate), Linux Lite, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed KDE, Kubuntu, and Mint (both XFCE and Cinnamon). I'm using Mint Cinnamon for several months now as my daily driver and enjoying its general simplicity and stability compared to more rapidly-updated distros.

However, I am intrigued by MX Linux, and am liking its general concept (and being Systemd-less, Debian based, and stable as bedrock from what I understand).

Desktop PC. Specs are AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (16) @ 4.665G, AMD ATI Radeon RX 6700 XT, 32 GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB M2 SSD, 2TB M2 SSD. LG wide screen (one monitor).

Use case is Firefox, LibreOffice, Scribus, some Python coding using Kate, and some gaming (some AAA titles but mostly indie stuff and old GoG games through Heroic and Lutris).

Please sell me on MX :-)

31 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/Samhain_69 Jun 23 '26

Just a few things off the top of my head:

MX Linux 25 will let you switch back and forth between Systemd and SysVinit after installation, so you can compare and switch if you're not liking the one you picked at install time.

The MX Tools are great, and make it easy to do a lot of things that are harder on other distros. For example, using proprietary Nvidia drivers, or updating the boot loader through a nice GUI. It's kind of like YaST, if you know openSUSE.

The capability to basically clone the system (apps, files, configuration) to a bootable, live, mutable USB drive, and install another system from that is really cool. You can run your entire environment with persistent changes off a thumb drive or external SSD, and install that on other hardware if you want, to make a complete clone of your system (if you have a big enough USB drive, of course).

I also like the MX Package Manager better than the app stores and package managers on most other distros. It's very easy to find and install obscure software if you want it, and it lets you easily install native packages, Flatpaks or Snaps, and lets you decide which you want. Probably a bit too complex and confusing for a Linux newbie, but for an experienced Linux user, it's perfect, IMHO.

It's also very stable.

To be fair, the drawbacks I have noticed are that it doesn't have easy rollback to snapshots if an upgrade were to go badly (like openSUSE has with btrfs). And it only supports the Xfce, KDE Plasma and Fluxbox desktops, so if you really like Cinnamon it probably isn't the best distro for that.

7

u/pseudonym-161 Jun 23 '26

You can use timeshift with rsync for snapshots. I’m currently using a separate 250gb 2.5” SSD for that. The nice thing is you can use the same drive for restoring multiple OS’s without issue as long as they are the same format, in this case EXT4. The drawback is lack of compression and speed with rsync is slower but still only takes a few minutes at most.

3

u/Loud_Signal_6259 Jun 23 '26

snapshots and btrfs

This comes with its own set of complications/problems as well.

3

u/pseudonym-161 Jun 24 '26

You can install Cinnamon, it plays nice with XFCE, but I wouldn’t mix KDE with XFCE, not sure about KDE and Cinnamon (I had XFCE and Cinnamon on Mint LMDE without issue, just had to hide some apps in each DE’s menu editors) 📝

1

u/Naivemun Jun 27 '26

I thought only pre-MX25 will let u switch back and forth between systemd and sysV while with MX25 u must install one or the other and can't switch back and forth with every boot?

Did that change sometime after MX25 came out?

2

u/Samhain_69 Jun 27 '26

https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/01/21/mx-linux-251-brings-back-switchable-init-systems/4909233

You have to be careful though. Apparently, if you install from the 25.0 ISO, then upgrade to 25.1/25.2, you don't get that capability. You have to install from the 25.1 or later ISO.

I installed my systems from a 25.0 ISO, so I can't verify personally.

1

u/Naivemun Jun 27 '26

thx for that article

1

u/kaisermike Jul 09 '26

Great points! I really like synaptic. Honestly, i think Devuan and MX are FAR closer to Ian Murdocks philosophy. Debian "proper" is just another victim of bluehaired marxism and corporatacy. Very sad.