MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

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esbeeb
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:09 am

MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#1 Post by esbeeb »

I've been a Linux user since about 1998 (Redhat 4.2 was my first distro), and I've tried many other distros in the past (Debian, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Elementary, etc).

Although I wouldn't recommend MX Linux as a "complete-noob" distro, I'm really liking it for the following reasons:
  • First of all, the community is excellent, and any help I asked for in this forum was answered very quickly! Thank you everyone! This one point alone makes all the little nitpicks easy to overcome.
  • XFCE is blazing fast.
  • My video driver for hardware acceleration was easy to install. It was an all-graphical process, and this installation tool was included with the default install.
  • I did have to spend a good 2-3 hours tweaking it, poring through all the MX tools, and various desktop preferences and settings to get it all nice. A few key takeaways:
    • I have a HiDPI screen. To globally scale the font sizes up and down to match my DPI, I found where to do that in Settings -> Appearance -> "Fonts" tab -> DPI -> Check the "Custom DPI" checkbox, then scale up and down.
    • For nice window shadows and semitransparent windows (when not focused), I found that in Settings -> MX tools -> Tweak -> "Compositor" tab -> pick "Compton" -> "Compton Settings" button -> Check "Enabled client-side shadows on windows", then in the "Opacity" Tab, I made the "Default opacity of inactive windows" 0.85, and the "Opacity of window titlebars and borders" 0.90. I also checked "Blur background of transparent windows".
    • For the theme, on the "Theme" tab (still in the "MX Tweak" tool), I chose "MX Dark", and also checked "Firefox Dark theme tweak", which is important so that you don't have light-colored text being typed into textboxes (in Firefox), whose background is also light-colored! It's really great when a dark theme actually works well in all the places where you need it to! (...and it's actually surprisingly hard to get a dark theme right).
  • Nice recent kernels, which can be installed graphically.
  • I really like the "MX Snapshot" utility. I make full system backups to an external SSD drive, and they are tiny when done, like only 4 or 5 GB! Well Done!!
  • In order to allow installation of snaps, I did have to set up the default of booting to systemd, which was done using the MX "Boot Options" tool. Once snapd was installed and working, I installed several snaps, such as obs-studio, wire, ffmpeg, mattermost (client) and electron-mail.
I would say that intermediate-to-advanced Linux users will really like MX Linux, as I feel it's geared to power users.
Last edited by esbeeb on Sat Apr 20, 2019 12:33 am, edited 7 times in total.
Esbeeb
MX 21

Eggnog
Posts: 72
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2018 2:40 am

Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#2 Post by Eggnog »

Among the things I like about MX is that it has something for users of all experience levels. I'm not sure where I fall on the spectrum but it's certainly somewhere between intermediate and advanced. I can get around most any distro just fine after a while. But that doesn't really mean anything. There are quite a number of folks who think MX is just fine for linux beginners. It may very well be. Not all beginners are alike. It's definitely easy to use, and most definitely easy to install. MX Tools is just awesome.

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vancouver
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2019 11:35 pm

Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#3 Post by vancouver »

esbeeb wrote: Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:15 pm I've been a Linux user since about 1998 (Redhat 4.2 was my first distro), and I've tried many other distros in the past (Debian, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Elementary, etc).
Hello esbeeb,
we have something in common. I discovered RedHat in 1999 as I combed trough a "On Special" display which included an old release on a CD for $9.99. I dual-booted for the next 10 years until I bought an iMac in 2009. If Apple had released their new Mac Mini in good time, I would have stayed with Apple but eventually I lost hope and bought a Dell workstation.
Linux has come a long way since then and I am in awe of what we have now. Live USB boots, Blender 2.8, Timeshift and so much more. Amazing!

The other day I booted into Fedora but for some reason, I can no longer relate to Gnome. MX Linux switched me from KDE to Xfce which just clicks with me. Enjoy. - v
Creative Children Compose Music https://www.littlecomposers.com

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seaken64
Posts: 819
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:43 pm

Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#4 Post by seaken64 »

I'm not convinced any Linux distro will be newbie friendly. I agree that there is a wide range of newbies. I think MX is relatively newbie friendly IF the newbie is willing to do some of the work themselves. If they aren't inclined to follow directions and read the manual them MX will only get them so far. But if there is someone else setting up the computer for some other user, then MX is great. The mid-level or advanced user can can work out the details and then the user just steps in and uses the system.

Seaken64
MX21-64 XFCE & W11 on Lenovo 330S LT. MX21-KDE & MX21-XFCE on Live USB.
MX18-64 & W7, Fedora on HP Core2 DT
MX21-32 XFCE w/ MX-Fluxbox on P4HT DT w/ antiX21, SUSE Tumbleweed, Q4OS, WXP
antiX21 on Compaq PIII 1 Ghz DT, w/ Debian, MX18FB, W2K

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KBD
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Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#5 Post by KBD »

MEPIS was my first experience with Linux, and I was a complete newbie. But some of the same people who are here today got me started back then. Today MX is easier to use than MEPIS was 8 years ago. MX Package Installer is great and has the majority of apps newbs are looking for. Installing codecs is another plus. I remember 8 years ago installing everything I could find in synaptic that looked like a codec to me trying to get my music to play :)
It takes a few minutes of reading to install MX. If they are willing to do that, newbies will do great with MX.

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Artim
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Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:04 am

Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#6 Post by Artim »

A responsible newbie who is willing to do a little reading can easily use MX. For total newbies who are not ready (or willing) to read and study up a little before diving in, I probably recommend Linux Lite, in spite of the Ubuntu base, for the following reasons:

Apps are named for their function, rather than their strange real names. A newbie wouldn't know that Thunar is a file manager, for example, so in Linux Lite it's called "Home Folder."

The Welcome Screen offers all the "best practices" info and links that actually perform the tasks: Updating, installing drivers if needed, etc.

Cool tools, very much like MX.

The installer, of course, is Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer, super-duper newbie-friendly.

Irresponsible newbies can probably use Linux Lite. Responsible newbies who care about stability and reliability should use MX, because it's free of those dangerous beta-software upstream updates that have made Ubuntu famous for "stuff broken after updates."

Welcome to a great distro and a great community!

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esbeeb
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Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#7 Post by esbeeb »

seaken64 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:43 pm I'm not convinced any Linux distro will be newbie friendly.
Well, from my own experience, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Elementary OS were about as newbie-friendly as it gets. So many distros are competing fiercely these days to be as user-friendly as possible, that it's hard to even make a concise list. There's lots of hullabaloo around Pop_OS! as well, for gamers (and a big innovation there is that you download an .iso specific to your graphics chip, and then the hardware acceleration is set up for you, automatically, no questions asked).
seaken64 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:43 pm I agree that there is a wide range of newbies.
I agree, and would add that if you are the kind of person who likes Star Trek, then you are also the kind of person who is probably going to love MX Linux. MX Linux is a tweaker's delight. XFCE is perhaps a little too low-key in its appearance, by default, but once you take the time to "sex it up" just the way you like (I just added a few suggestions for appearance-related tweaks in the OP), then it's really impressive, even when compared to other Linux distros who take excruciating pains to get the look and feel as appealing as possible (by default, with no need to tweak, and in fact they might even discourage tweaking, as it will probably introduce subtle problems as side effects).

So in conclusion, I would suggest that before you offer to introduce someone else to MX Linux, maybe just ask yourself: "would this person enjoy Star Trek"?
Last edited by esbeeb on Sat Apr 20, 2019 12:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Esbeeb
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esbeeb
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Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#8 Post by esbeeb »

vancouver wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:49 am Hello esbeeb,
we have something in common. I discovered RedHat in 1999
That's great! Are you from Vancouver, BC, Canada? I lived there 3 years myself...
vancouver wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:49 am I can no longer relate to Gnome.
Ditto.
Esbeeb
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AK-47
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Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#9 Post by AK-47 »

MX Linux is to Linux what Windows 2000 was to Windows. Easy to use, but leaves plenty of options open to advanced users as it doesn't automatically assume the user is an idiot. (hello Windows 8, hello Windows 10)

Perhaps the biggest gap in usability is because Windows is pre-installed on the PC with drivers already there, plus hardware and software support from the PC vendors themselves, and the newbie doesn't have to do anything other than use the operating system. Microsoft put a lot of effort into the out-of-box experience in all versions of Windows prior to Windows 8 (and that's when the fun really began). In reality, installing MX Linux is as easy as installing Windows. With Linux, you're basically installing it all from scratch and this is quite stressful to a newbie.

Connotations have a lot to do with it as well; Windows 8 and 10 aren't brilliant, but people use it because it's Windows and everybody knows Windows and Microsoft Word/Excel/Outlook which runs on Windows.

Although I'm technically a "newbie" (using MX since January/February 2019), my technical experience makes me a lot more tolerant to technical difficulties than a typical newbie, which is something experienced users often take for granted.

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seaken64
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Re: MX Linux is very good; it took some time, but now I'm settled in and happy

#10 Post by seaken64 »

esbeeb wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:43 pm So in conclusion, I would suggest that before you offer to introduce someone else to MX Linux, maybe just ask yourself: "would this person enjoy Star Trek"?
Yes, but which version of Star Trek? ST Original Series requires lots of imagination. STNG and Voyager are laid out for you. DS9 is a whole different paradigm! :p
MX21-64 XFCE & W11 on Lenovo 330S LT. MX21-KDE & MX21-XFCE on Live USB.
MX18-64 & W7, Fedora on HP Core2 DT
MX21-32 XFCE w/ MX-Fluxbox on P4HT DT w/ antiX21, SUSE Tumbleweed, Q4OS, WXP
antiX21 on Compaq PIII 1 Ghz DT, w/ Debian, MX18FB, W2K

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