Distrowatch review grumbles

[Stevo]

This latest one's Con is just plain wrong for 18.1, unless the configuration carried over from a previous install. I like the Pros, though.

Version: 18.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-03-14
Votes: 5


I've been using MX for about 6 months now. So far it has shown itself to be an excellent distro with excellent tools but with some rough edges.

Pros:
- Clean desktop environment. Memory usage and boot times are acceptable.
- Reopening applications automatically after a shutdown works quite well but doesn't work for Visual Studio Code though that may not be the fault of MX.
- Tools. MX provides a number of tools out of the box ranging from driver installers to extensive desktop tweaks. My current favorite is MX Snapshot which creates a bootable clone of the system while running. This is particularly useful when you want to try out a temporary or risky change to your system, simply booting up the image in a VM provides a throwaway copy of your machine.

Cons:
- Some components feel rough around the edges. The default lockscreen is XScreensaver despite a beautiful alternative already being present in the form of the lightdm greeter.

[Adrian]

We don't have xscreensaver installed on MX-18.1

[Stevo]

Yes, but he said he's been running MX for 6 months, so must have upgraded from 17, and still has xscreensaver. Unfortunately, there's no way we can correct these mistakes in the reviews with comments.

[aledie]

Version: 18.1
Rating: 4
Date: 2019-03-17
Votes: 0

Generally works out of the box UNTIL you get updates or try to make any user changes.

I tried both 17.1 and 18.1.
Each works fairly well at first. Then comes the problems like GPG keys being bad, taking 2 minutes to detect an external drive, inability to customize folder icons even WITH gnome icon theme (you are stuck using the 'emblems' they provide or you do without), and other aggravating issues.

The do NOT want you to use PPA's and initially disable them (but you can re-enable them if you choose).
It does not support multisystem like other distro's do (multisystem ppa).

Now on a good note:
[...]

I would give it a solid 7 or 8 if I only had one minor problem. But I can't due to all the combined problems.

I doubt any OS could earn a 10 from me. Most are still too 'geeky' and not enough decent or any gui's to get things done.

If you get it, get the 17.1 and do NOT auto update. PICK AND CHOOSE the updates.

There were also quite some positives, reducted above in [...], See on DW.

[Richard]

Version: 18.1
Rating: 4
Date: 2019-03-17
Votes: 0

Sounds like a recent poster who created a FrankenMX in short order.

Hope he finds his ideal distro someday.

[JayM]

Version: 18.1
Rating: 4
Date: 2019-03-17
Votes: 0

Sounds like a recent poster who created a FrankenMX in short order.

Hope he finds his ideal distro someday.

Yep, this sounds familiar:

Generally works out of the box UNTIL you get updates or try to make any user changes.

I tried both 17.1 and 18.1.
Each works fairly well at first. Then comes the problems like GPG keys being bad, taking 2 minutes to detect an external drive, inability to customize folder icons even WITH gnome icon theme (you are stuck using the 'emblems' they provide or you do without), and other aggravating issues.

The do NOT want you to use PPA's and initially disable them (but you can re-enable them if you choose).
It does not support multisystem like other distro's do (multisystem ppa).

Now on a good note: Both do work out of the box. Little or no jitter when watching movies, very clear picture and great colors (hats off to whomever worked on the graphic drivers there).. File work (transfers and such) are pretty fast compared to other *buntu distro's and derivatives.

About their forum. Only a very SMALL percentage are hard core 'haters' like may forums have (ya know those stuck on themselves kinda people and think YOU owe them something just for asking for help -pclos gave me that experience years ago),

MX forum people are pretty darned nice. A pleasant change from what I have dealt with over the years.

They have their own updater like others do. And their own software repository of sorts.

I would give it a solid 7 or 8 if I only had one minor problem. But I can't due to all the combined problems.

I doubt any OS could earn a 10 from me. Most are still too 'geeky' and not enough decent or any gui's to get things done.

If you get it, get the 17.1 and do NOT auto update. PICK AND CHOOSE the updates.

If he had issues with the people in the PCLOS forum, he's the one with the issues. They're some of the friendliest, most helpful bunch I've encountered along with here and the Mint forum. He probably did what he did, blitzkreiging his installation with whatever gotten from wherever, not taking time to learn how that distro works with its peculiarities, flooding the support board with nonsense, ignoring the advice he was given, and breaking his installation in short order then blaming the distro.

MX doesn't support adding PPAs and recommends against doing so for a very good reason. The philosophy behind MX is to give people a good, stable, quality, works-out-of-the-box, easy for newbs, light- to mid-weight OS that runs on most computers. That's why it's based on Debian Stable, not Debian Testing, and why other than in the MX Modified board FrankenMXes aren't supported.

[Stevo]

Can I review Manjaro and Slackware and downrate them because they can't use my favorite PPA, too?
Hopefully people can see past this nonsense.

Our own software repository "of sorts"? Grrrrr--them's fightin' words, mister. You know squirrel brains are a delicacy in some parts of the South, right? https://boingboing.net/2018/10/18/man-e ... -gets.html

[figueroa]

Yes, but he said he's been running MX for 6 months, so must have upgraded from 17, and still has xscreensaver. Unfortunately, there's no way we can correct these mistakes in the reviews with comments.

I think the crummy reviews for most distros near the to will continue, and sadly will continue to mislead the readers.

Those of us who upgraded along the way still have xscreensaver, so true enough, and nothing wrong with it in my opinion. But if any user doesn't want it, disable it or remove it -- good grief. Poster thinks lightdm is a screensaver. I supose it sort of is if one isn't logged in.

[colin_b]

Version: 18.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-03-22
Votes: 0

I really like MX Linux. The way it is set up, it is so easy to access tools and settings.
The only reason I can't stay with it, is that it only partially supports setting up my 3840 x 2160 laptop monitor. Everthing is so small. I did scale it up, but then the main menu becomes unusable. Until it supports hi-resolution screens better, I have to abandon it. Too bad, because it was my favourite distro.

[Stevo]

Version: 18.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-03-22
Votes: 0

I really like MX Linux. The way it is set up, it is so easy to access tools and settings.
The only reason I can't stay with it, is that it only partially supports setting up my 3840 x 2160 laptop monitor. Everthing is so small. I did scale it up, but then the main menu becomes unusable. Until it supports hi-resolution screens better, I have to abandon it. Too bad, because it was my favourite distro.

Does he mean Whiskermenu by "main menu?" As far as I know, at least the test repo version supports larger icons and follows the system font dpi.

I wish these users would at least file a bug report so we could investigate it instead of a vague "unusable" in a review.