MX-15 a sweet os for older pc's.

[Abarbarian]

Recently inherited a Dell 4700 which is a 2005 era pc. I added more ram and popped in a more modern gfx card and gave it a dust out with the ol' fire extinguisher.
What to do next ? Install a os of course.
So I chose MX-15 as it runs on,

For an MX Linux system installed on a harddrive, you would normally need the following components. (See also LiveMedium options in Section 6.6.)
Minimum

• A CD/DVD drive (and BIOS capable of booting from that drive), or a live USB (and BIOS capable of booting from USB)
• A modern i486 Intel or AMD processor
• 512 MB of RAM memory
• 5 GB free hard drive space
• A SoundBlaster, AC97 or HDA-compatible sound card.

The install was easy peasy and MX-15 runs sweet and stable. So far touch wood everything has worked even after updating. If you have older kit this little gem should breath new life into it. All in all I would recommend this distro for its ease of install, the excellent manual and the way it has been set up to run. It may not be as flashy as distros for newer kit but it ain’t no ugly duckling either.

MX Linux Users Manual

MX Linux (home site)

MX Linux (antiX MX) is a special version of antiX developed in full collaboration with the MEPIS Community, using the best tools and talents from each distro and including work and ideas originally created by Warren Woodford for his MEPIS project. It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint.

Relying on the excellent upstream work by Linux, we deploy Xfce4 as Desktop Environment on top of a Debian Stable base. It also incorporates the independent development products smxi and inxi. Ongoing backports and outside additions to the Community Repos keep it current

MX-15 review - Highway to rad

My experience with sidux slash Mepis slash AntiX has been one of the more interesting road trips in the history of Linux. As they say in Latin, per contumelia ad laudem. At first, my honest opinion was ridiculed, but then people figured out I mean well, and they took my advice to heart, and MX got into the 2014 end of the year distro vote, and then kind of rose in popularity. And kept on rising.

The latest release I tested, version 14.3, was rather average, but there was a steady, promising incline of improvement. Now, we're about to embark on the test trek again, with some extra hurdles. Xfce against Lenovo G50, with UEFI, Secure Boot, GPT, 16 partitions, Windows and six or seven Linux distros - or in Latin, distra. Follow me.

Enjoy
http://www.mepiscommunity.org/user_manual_mx15/mxum.html

 

[Abarbarian]

MX-15 still running sweet. Done loads of updates and they all installed flawlessly.

 

[Ian]

It's been a while since I tried a Linux distro other than CentOS or Ubuntu (plus some RPi builds) - is this quite different to those two? I'm a real linux newbie and only know the bare minimum I need to get things running. Is MX-15 basically optimised to run on older PCs by making sure it's lightweight?

 

[Abarbarian]

It's been a while since I tried a Linux distro other than CentOS or Ubuntu (plus some RPi builds) - is this quite different to those two? I'm a real linux newbie and only know the bare minimum I need to get things running. Is MX-15 basically optimised to run on older PCs by making sure it's lightweight?

MX-15 is a variant of anti-x which is a variant of Mepis. Though I belive that MX-15 is the main distro in development at the moment. It is based on Debian Stable so will run on older hardware and fly on newer hardware. The distro has some variance to Debian Stable,

MX Linux combines packages from Debian Stable and antiX with MX packages in a dedicated repo that you can browse on the Community Repository page.

Debian Stable is a wonderful solid distribution that can be upgraded in place from version to version automatically as long as the Debian Stable repos are used exclusively. MX uses Debian Stable as a base, but updates a lot of the userland programs & libraries, and backports newer programs from testing by building them against the Stable base. That gives a better user experience but interferes with Debian's dist-upgrade path. Our current choice to stick with sysvinit instead of going to full systemd also interferes with that path.

So it's a trade-off: better desktop user experience at the expense of having to do a quick fresh install (which lets you save /home if desired) when the Debian base changes, typically every 2-3 years.

Centos is a Red Hat derivative so is quite different in some aspects. Ubuntu is Debian based but will have differences.

Linux distros have changed a lot in the last few years and there are quite a few distros that are very simple to install and use straight away. See my opening post, everything worked out of the box, install took half an hour or less and that includes a decent selection of ready to use programs. I have installed several additional programs as they are my favorites and I did not want to spend time on the small learning curve that you have to walk when trying out any new program.

I do wish folk would stop bleating on about how difficult linux distros are. They aught to try doing a completely fresh install of Windows 7 for instance. As to ease of going from one Windows, say XP to 7 or 7 to 10 well that is a load of baloney, the learning curve is pretty darn long and tedious.

Why not give MX-15 a try it is only a 708 MB download and will probably take up around 5 GB of hdd. My install with extra programs and tons of large picture files, vidoes, several distro iso's etc etc takes up around 55 GB that is probably less than a W7 install with matching programs and no personal stuff. Dual booting easy peasy.
Oh and trying a linux distro out in a VM does give you an idea of how the thing will perform but will not allow you to see the thing in its true colors.

 

[Ian]

Thanks @Abarbarian . I've got an UnRAID server which I can run VMs from, so although it's not full speed, perhaps that's where I'll try it. I've got loads of OSes on there already for testing things out on, so one more won't hurt.

 

[Abarbarian]

Thanks @Abarbarian . I've got an UnRAID server which I can run VMs from, so although it's not full speed, perhaps that's where I'll try it. I've got loads of OSes on there already for testing things out on, so one more won't hurt.

With modern hardware speed is not so much of an isssue. I have never tried a VM but my reading tells me folks have problems with graphics and internet connection problems.

My alternative way for trying new distros or it used to be. If dual booting with Windows I would pull the plug of the Windows drive and install Linux on its own on a different drive. Plug the Windows back in and neither os would interfere with the other. Drawback is you have to hit F8/11/2 or whatever at boot up to choose which os to use. The newer UEFI mobos make that a redunant exercise though.

I'll duck the flack and post again, Robolinux is slick to install and runs slicker than a penguin on an ice slide. I like the Mate version.
I also like the excellent GUI program for fiddling around with GPT partitions. I have a live version on cd that has been most helpful lately.
Yes I know you have to stump up ten dollars for it but for me ( I paid a about four quid back when) it was a good investment.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I do wish folk would stop bleating on about how difficult linux distros are.

Do they? I can't remember the last time I heard anybody, anywhere, say anything like that.
I certainly don't and most mainstream distros, especially Mint, are a piece of cake to use.

They ought to try doing a completely fresh install of Windows 7 for instance. As to ease of going from one Windows, say XP to 7 or 7 to 10 well that is a load of baloney, the learning curve is pretty darn long and tedious.

I disagree, It's dead easy to install any Windows OS and I've never had a problem adapting from one MS OS to another, it's easy and in my experience there is no long learning curve involved. Well, not unless you're as thick as two short planks.

I like the sound of this MX-15, I might well give it a try.

All this Microsoft Vs Linux squabbling tires me though tbh, each has it's bad points and merits. I first tried to install a Linux Distro in 1999, it was Mandrake as I recall (I failed miserably cos back then it was difficult).

As for Robolinux charging cash, they can get stuffed, if people start paying for a Linux Distro, they might set a precedent and Ubuntu will soon follow in their footsteps, I don't like their attitude in general much at all.

I like Linux, Mint and Suse are my faves and I use Mint a lot. Win 7 was my favourite Windows OS ever, I still prefer Win 7 to Win 10 and to roundoff my (probably worthless) opinions, I think MS take the Mick with what they charge for Office, that's just pure greed. If Libre Office and Open Office can survive making their software available for free then I'm sure MS could charge a lot less for their Office suite. I think, in fact, if MS charged £30 for Office they may even make more money in the long run.

Here endeth my waffling/rant

 

[Becky]

I think MS take the Mick with what they charge for Office, that's just pure greed. If Libre Office and Open Office can survive making their software available for free then I'm sure MS could charge a lot less for their Office suite. I think, in fact, if MS charged £30 for Office they may even make more money in the long run.

I'm with you on that

 

[bootneck02]

I have to agree with you Mr Flops I think that Windows 7 was the best of Microsoft offering, when Windows 8 came out it was a bit of a mess hence Windows 8.1, Windows 10 is two invasive on personnel information after all you ether bought your PC with it on or like me built your own PC and purchased the operating system. With Windows it is the on costs of software and protection good anti virus etc, I agree there are some good free software for or compatible software for Windows but not much, that was one of the reasons I converted to Mint. The other was I found Mint was easy to use, OK there is a learning curve but that is not beyond the average non techi if I can do it any idiot can do it and has the advantage that any software you may need is also free in fact over 3,000 applications that cover everybody's needs.
I have just had to replace my hard drive and it only took me 20 min to download and get Mint up and running and get onto Facebook and my emails. and less 5 mins to download all updates, and you get notified when they are there ready to be downloaded and no automatic downloads.

 

[Abarbarian]

I disagree, It's dead easy to install any Windows OS



I like the sound of this MX-15, I might well give it a try.

Well I ain't no Einstein but it took me forever to do a fresh install of W7 a couple of months ago. MS have made it very difficult to do a fresh install of 7 as they are doing everything they can to make folks use 10.
Why not try doing a fresh install of 7 on a spare hdd. It would be most interesting to read your comments on the exercise.

MX-15 seems to be a sweet fit for this old Dell I have it running on. Uses a Debian base same as Mint and the buntu's so the only differences in the os's are the way they are set up and tweaked. I'm not a fan of the buntu regime so I always look for alternatives.

XP was my fave windows as I had it nicely set up and looking great. I did make the change to 7 but only have a basic install as I only use it for gaming. Never had any inclination to try any of the 8's or 10 as I have, apart from gaming needs, abandoned windows altogether.

As to squabbling. Well that's what humans excel at. An you would soon get bored with the silence of total agreement.

 

[Abarbarian]

MX-15 has a small icon on the sidebar on the desktop and every now and again it shows a pop up that tell you how many updates there available for your system.

I have been putting of doing updates for a while as I have been pretty busy with other things. So the update notifications have gone from 7 new updates gradually increasing to 23 updates over a matter of weeks.
I thought it was about time I did some updating so I clicked on the icon and was up and running. On my slow connection it took 15 minutes to download and install all 23 updates. That was over a couple of hours ago and the pc is still running sweet so it looks like the updates were successful.

That is it folks. Pretty boring when you look at all the excitement over in the Windows 10 update threads but that is how life is in penguin land.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Pretty much the same method with Mint, place cursor over toolbar icon and it will either tell you how many updates available or say 'System up to date'. You can also configure what type of updates to install, there are three settings the highest being alterations to the kernel.

As for Windows 7, I done a fresh install of Ultimate about 3 months ago for a mate of mine and didn't encounter any problems at all. Having said that, it did seem to me there weren't so many updates to install as there used to be, but it could be some of those updates have been integrated into the service pack.

I still prefer Win 7 over Win 10, seems to me with Win 10 Microsoft have finally configured their operating system how they've been wanting to do it for years, namely gradually taking away choice and foisting upon us what they think is best, like that poxy Cortana, there should definitely have been an option to get shot of it. Plus they can look at just about anything they want to on your computer if they want to, Win 10 is really quite invasive. Still, it ain't all bad and I'm happy using it.

Win XP was ok at the time but as I recall it still corrupted and I had to do a fresh install every 18-24 months. I still run XP on one (swappable) hard disk, just to run a few XP-exclusive games, and tbh it seems a bit archaic now.

I have just burnt an OpenSuse DVD, version 42.2, Alpha III, which they say is just a gnat's whisker from being finished and runs stable. So should be quite interesting giving that a whirl. I will eventually get round to trying XL5 er, MX-15

 

[Abarbarian]

As for Windows 7, I done a fresh install of Ultimate about 3 months ago for a mate of mine and didn't encounter any problems at all. Having said that, it did seem to me there weren't so many updates to install as there used to be, but it could be some of those updates have been integrated into the service pack.

Now I am puzzled.

When I tried to install 7 the original disc installed great. The SP1 disc installed great. Then trying to update all the newest updates just did not work the pc seemed to do stuff but nothing happened.

The only way I could finish the install with all the latest updates was to use some alternative programs. This seems to be a common problem.

 

[Abarbarian]

During the first days of November, we reported that the antiX MX-16 "Metamorphosis" Linux operating system entered development and that it would be based on Debian GNU/Linux 8.6 "Jessie."

Today, November 24, 2016, we're happy to report that the first Release Candidate is available for public testing, bringing numerous enhancements since the Beta milestone. However, it looks like this might just be the last RC released for antiX MX-16, which could be promoted to the stable channel very soon after this announcement.

"We have quashed many bugs and added improvements since the first public-beta1. The dev team hopes that, with additional feedback, the final should be ready very soon. Please help us by testing and reporting any issues that crop up," reads the release notes on the distribution's website.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/anti...st-around-the-corner-rc1-out-now-510485.shtml

Looks like MX-16 is almost ready for daily use. I'll post me thoughts when I have had a chance to try it out.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Looking through this thread again, it's worth mentioning that Taffycat started a thread about Win 7 updates being problematic, confirming lots of points raised here. V_R then posted links to solutions in that thread, in the Windows section of the forum.

I never did get round to trying MX15, looks as though I should maybe wait for MX16 now although tbh I've run out of spare hard disks for the moment.

I mentioned earlier here I was going to install Suse, an OS I've installed successfully before with older versions but I failed to install their latest version. Not sure why but the install just confused the hell out of me and I couldn't make it work. So I gave up, I really don't have a lot of patience.