MX-17 a very very useful Distro.

[Abarbarian]

This is another chapter of the excellent MX Linux distro. See the previous chapters here,

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/mx-15-a-sweet-os-for-older-pcs.4070294/

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/mx-16-well-worth-a-try.4071706/

I have just downloaded the latest .iso's for 32 and 64 bit pc's and will post further when I have had a chance to try them out. Meanwhile here are some reviews on this latest offering,

My real enthusiasm for using MX Linux is due to its greater flexibility in installing the entire system to a USB stick. That by itself is not unique -- other Linux distros allow that option to varying degrees. MX Linux, however, took the concept of persistent memory in a live or portable environment that already existed in antiX Linux and expanded the concept.

https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/84956.html

MX Linux is a mid-weight operating system having Xfce as the desktop environment. The latest release MX Linux 17 has been released on Friday 15h December 17, 2017. MX Linux 17 is based on Debian 9.3 (Stretch) with Linux kernel version 4.13.0-1 and brings lot many changes when compared to its predecessor MX 16.1. Let us dig into further into MX Linux 17 (here onwards referred as MX 17) and see what its latest release offers to the Linux community.

http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/mx-linux-17-an-easy-to-use-linux-distro-for-noobs

Further review links including many video links from here,

Here are the substantive reviews of which we are aware. If we have missed any, please let us know on the MX Forum.

MX-17

• MX Linux MX-17 Horizon - Shaping up beautifully. Review by Dedoimedo, updated January 13, 2018. Very detailed and very positive look at MX-17. Tests it Live and installed on older and newer hardware. Makes a number of useful suggestions, and concludes: "it's an excellent choice for Linux folks looking for a hassle-free, fun-ready system. 9.9/10."

https://mxlinux.org/reviews

Happy New Year to you all.

 

[Abarbarian]

Above is a screen shot of MX-17 the 64 bit variety running on a 16 GB Patriot USB. As you can see from the inxi-F running in the terminal I am using a pretty darn old pc as a host. Despite the almost obsolete host MX-17 is running very sweetly and its performance would be perfectly acceptable as a daily runner for most folk.
The host has a meager 2 GB of ram and could benefit from a upgrade to 4 or 6 GB's.

I used a program called RUFUS to install MX on to the usb as I only have a couple of Windows pc's running at present. I do have a copy of MX-16 on a usb stick but can not find it at the moment so I had to go the Windows route.
Rufus is a very easy and quick tool and is well worth investigating for any Windows user who wants try out penguins on sticks.

 

[Abarbarian]

So far me MX-17 on a stick is working well.
I have added a few programs and made some tweaks. Most importantly changing the root password, installing KeePassX and a couple of other things. Then I ran the Remaster tool which was a success. So I now have an up to date os on a stick to use when traveling or in the rare event of me borking my main pc.
To give myself double safety I ran the SnapShot tool to make a .iso of the running usb install. This went well and I used the .iso to make a second MX-17-tweaked on a stick.
I would have preferred to have had a stick with persistence as this would make life much easier but I could not get persistence to work and gave up trying. I may try again at some future date.

 

[Ian]

Do you know why persistence didn't work? It would be really handy to be able to customise it and have all of your tweaks/installs saved. I had a bit of a Google and it looks like it's a common problem - but they may have fixed some problems in the very latest versions (released a couple of days ago).

 

[Abarbarian]

Do you know why persistence didn't work? It would be really handy to be able to customise it and have all of your tweaks/installs saved. I had a bit of a Google and it looks like it's a common problem - but they may have fixed some problems in the very latest versions (released a couple of days ago).

No idea really why it don't work for me. I read in the forums about problems, got the impression that installing the latest up dates would fix the problem. Did that but still no go.
I may have got the problems as I initially formatted and wrote the usb from Windows and had to use Fat32. When I tried to do persistence the system seemed to try adding the persistence files as ext4.Tried doing persistence from the boot screen and also when the system had loaded. I had a fair few goes but got sick of trying in the end. The starting from Windows may be why the Live USB Maker tool did not fully work either. I am just stabbing in the dark with these ideas as I do know what the problem was. Might be operator error or some other type of gremlin lol.
I have finished fiddling with the usb install on me old pc, did not want to chance borking me gaming pc, and will now be using the MX-17 on a stick with me posh rig.
It really flies along on this rig and after making changes and adding tweaks I am remastering the usb install on the fly. It only takes four minutes so the time factor is no issue, remembering to remaster may be. However once set up I will only need to remaster after system updates. I use Xmarks for keeping me FireFox browser bookmarks in sync across all systems and they are really the only items that will change normally.

I will have another look at the persistence thing another day.

 

[Abarbarian]

I did finally get persistence sorted out btu it was so long ago I have forgotten what I did. Suffice to say MX-17 has been working just fine of my usb stick for the last six months. Also I have installed MX-17 to a Tough Book 19 for my sister who is using teh Tough Book as a recipe store/reader whilst cooking and also as a starter pc for my grand niece, 4 years old. The little lass loves the TUX TYPE and TUX RACER programs and is happily working her way through the fifty or so games I installed along with the several hundred free animated shorts I installed for her.

Any way here is another good article on this luverly distro.

MX Linux 17: An upgraded distro made for beginners

There are tons of operating systems coming out all the time, from free laptop systems like EasyPeasy to Manjaro, Mandriva, and Kubuntu. But all of them have their share of kinks.

Naturally, many of us are scared of change, and not everyone is an early adopter when it comes to these kinds of things. While operating systems like MacOS and Chrome OS still claim larger market shares in 2018, it bears mentioning that newer operating systems have a lot to offer.

By us, for us
The first thing that should be acknowledged about MX Linux 17 is the people behind it. MX Linux is a cooperative venture between the former MEPIS Linux and antiX communities. That's where the MX of the name comes from.

For this reason, it's been called the “best of both worlds” by tech reviewers. And that's about as accurate as you can get because the system is based on Debian 9.3 with an upgraded version 4.13.0-1 Linux kernel and Firefox.

The developers clearly care about the preferences of the community and are committed to giving noobs a new distro that won't leave them scratching their heads.

 

[Abarbarian]

Hands-on with MX Linux: A pleasant, easy-to-install Linux distribution

So far I have installed MX17 Linux on four of my systems -- my Acer All-In-One desktop and Acer Aspire V laptop, both of which are UEFI firmware systems, and my Lenovo T-400 laptop and Samsung N150+ netbook, both of which are Legacy Boot (MBR) systems. I had no real issues with either installing or running MX17 on any of them (except for the irritating problem with the keyboard layout selection). Installation time ranged from a total of less than 10 minutes on the two Acer systems, to a bit more than 20 minutes on the older (slower) Lenovo and Samsung systems.

Using MX17 Linux is very pleasant. It reminds me a lot of MEPIS, in that it just all works, and everything fits together nicely.

Image: J.A. Watson

I am still using MX-17 on my back up pc and as the author says it is a very nice distro to use.