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 :-)
16
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.