I’ve always used AntiX in a virtual machine, but yesterday I decided to take the plunge and install it on bare metal, challenging myself to use it as is without any major customizations.
After installation, I made a few changes to tailor the system to my preferences:
1. Switched the default browser to Firefox
2. Replaced the default file manager with Thunar
3. Changed the default text editor to Mousepad
4. Updated the wallpaper to something I liked
5. Installed the full PipeWire suite, including Jack and Pulse
6. Added Geoclue-2.0 and Redshift-GTK for better nighttime use
These are applications I rely on in most of my Linux setups, so I felt right at home.
What truly impressed me was the performance—AntiX is lightning fast. The default theming is solid and didn't leave me wanting to change a thing. One of the standout features is the excellent control panel that lets you configure nearly every aspect of the system. The in-house utilities are also great, with a nice bonus of a built-in radio player.
However, there are a few minor things missing for a fully polished desktop experience:
- A calculator
- A calendar
- A mail client
That said, all of these are easy to find and install via the very user-friendly software manager.
Performance-wise, I was pleasantly surprised. On my octacore AMD system with 8GB of RAM, AntiX made the machine feel even faster, almost like I was upgrading my hardware.
Overall, I can confidently recommend AntiX as a daily driver. It’s stable, reliable, easy to install, simple to use, and incredibly fast.
Version: 23.2 Rating: 9 Date: 2025-01-28 Votes: 6
the more i use it the more I like it because it is easy to use but still force me to learn. I have it on my Lenovo x130e old laptop but for some reason I find my self using that old pc more often than I should and perhaps because every time i use the Antix I learn something.
It is like a old-school version of an Mx Linux yet you get the feeling it is more powerful Os because it allows you the user to be more of in charge of your system.
one of the things I like about Antix is the fact that I can change the look and feel of the Os by choosing what type of window manager I use, and change the themes, as well having powerful tools to configure the system and use or choose different programs to do tasks.
the system is not modern but runs great and is stable.
If you try it you need to give yourself time to get to know it.
I use this OS on my 32bit Pentium 4 with 3 GB of RAM after Lubuntu ceased support for it, and honestly I don't miss Lubuntu that much. I found the ICE WM Gui to be clunky, but XFCE was in the software repository, and now it feels far more modern than before, even if the stock background is ripped streight off of debian. I had to download some stuff that I really should not have had to, like speaker volume control, which really should be standard for a modern OS. The sole choice of Firefox ESR works well enough as a web browser. The OS had wrong software repositories as standard, requiring some time in terminal to correct, as the devs couldn't patch it through a regular update. So, this isn't a OS where a first time user can use without knowing how to use Terminal. Nothing as intense as Arch, but using terminal is going to be needed.
It's great to know that the project is moving forward. Better distribution to reuse old hardware, which can provide the opportunity to access technology for a multitude of people. Excellent Debian stability and flexibility in choosing to boot with RUNIT or SYSTEMCTL, which allows you to customize embedded, server and end-user systems. To give you an idea, I managed to install it with reasonable performance on a netbook with 1GHz frequency and 1.3GB of RAM on HD SSD. Therefore, a rating of 10 for the user niche it is intended for.
Not bad - fast on very slow computers (laptop with Intel Celeron N3060 processor and 4GB of RAM) but it needs to be polished. I messed up wireless settings in system configuration manager and had to reinstall whole system. Also, setting proper time automatically doesn't work. You have to set time manually in config panel or choose to set time via NTP after reboot. System doesn't remember set time You won't mount NTFS partition with Windows by hand from file manager. Need to play with fstab via sudo or run disk manager and mount with this program. May be useful as system on USB stick or second - emergency system with minimal config...
Version: 23.1 Rating: 6 Date: 2024-08-02 Votes: 0
Not bad - fast on very slow computers (laptop with Intel Celeron N3060 processor and 4GB of RAM) but it needs to be polished. I messed up wireless settings in system configuration manager and had to reinstall whole system. Also, setting proper time automatically doesn't work. You have to set time manually in config panel or choose to set time via NTP after reboot. System doesn't remember set time You won't mount NTFS partition with Windows by hand from file manager. Need to play with fstab via sudo or run disk manager and mount with this program. May be useful as system on USB stick or second - emergency system with minimal config.
The most important things for me in a distribution that I want to use every day are stability and speed, as well as progressiveness and openness to new software, of course not without recognizing the critical points with a very watchful eye.It is equally important that the end user is consulted and that the distribution remains flexible so that the user has freedom of choice.antix fulfills all this in a grandiose way.
The antix community is very active and the developers are always willing to provide support to reasonable suggestions.
The latest highlight here, for example, was the antiX-23 "init-diversity" spin.In short, antiX is on an interesting track and for me beats the so-called big distributions by far.
The whole thing is rounded off by a perfectly thought-out live system.There is a lot to discover with antiX because antiX goes its own way in many areas,, yet it always remains a stable and super-fast (light) operating system.
This distro is amazing and light but when i installed this distro i always have a problem with GPG keys afret the use sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.Some of keys are out of date and when i choose basic version of this distro i can't change the repos ,because this version of distro doesn't have Repo Menagement out of the box in this system.Everything in this distribution works amazing and distro is ultra light and fast.I reccomended this distro every user ,who search a verry light and simple distro for old compueters and newer.
Pros:
This version of antiX is very nearly flawless. It fixes the problems present in 23 (that required being updated in order to be able to install on UEFI devices, had some problems with Pipewire audio server, a few other lesser inconveniences).
v.23.1 includes dedicated and exclusive apps to watch TV, hear radio, access or manage Samba Shared folders, mount Cloud drives in the default File Manager, etc.
It's still an extremely light OS, that uses "Desktops" (customized Floating Window Managers, like IceWM, Fluxbox or JWM, combined with customized GUI's that manage the most used features of those WM, mainly IceWM, and file managers) that can display desktop icons, to give users almost every single convenience they expect when using Desktop Environments.
NB: antiX does not update automatically, but users can click a toolbar icons to check and install available updates, whenever they feel like it. antiX also does not include system notifications (but users that miss that feature can just install Dunst from antiX's Package Manager).
The full version includes: ZzzFM (a modern and extremely light tabbed File Manager with almost every feature users may want, except bulk file renaming and video thumbnails); Firefox-esr; Libreoffice; Synaptic Package Manager; antiX's Package Installer (an "App Store" that offers access to a curated list of apps, including almost every single web browser in existence, but also to the Debian Repository); a very complete Control Centre (that offers GUI's to manage almost every possible feature), IceWM Control Centre (an exclusive GUI to customize the default Window Manager); App-select (a GUI that acts as app launcher, but that can also add/remove quick-launchers to the Toolbar, Desktop and the Personal Menu); Finder (a all in one app that allows simple and powerful file/app/web search), etc.
Since it keeps evolving and polishing small details, it's always advisable to update it before installing, or right after installing.
It's Debian based, but by default it allows access to the most recent versions of the Window Managers, Firefox-esr and LibreOffice, and some other important apps.
Has great support, on their forum.
Cons:
Because it's systemd free, it's light, but also incompatible with Snaps. Does not include, out of the box, support for flatpaks (but it can be easily installed).
Does require to be updated, in order to solve some not ideal configurations (but it's completely usable out of the box)
antiX is so much more that a 'lightweight' distro. It provides all the functionality (& much more) than any mainstream distro & carefully crafted & optimized to work on the majority of systems (including old).
Out of the box it comes with cloud integration (Google Drive - OneDrive), samba, a webserver, several window managers & still able to have a low memory footprint with all these running.
There is also plenty of original work happening there, if you want to see a multi-init system (sysvinit - runit - s6-rc - s6-66) running effectively & efficiently from the same image, give their 'init-diversity' development release a spin (uploaded on their official sourceforge testing area).
No major upstream distro have so far attempted something similar, which shows that the development there is original work.
Version: 22 Rating: 9 Date: 2024-02-27 Votes: 14
Very good distro for old, slow machines, not big size, fast boot and fast work, no systemd, booting in graphical mode from USB-stick w/o advanced installation and config, i386, etc.
It's like SliTaz, but for small-experience (newbie) users.
Some problems with some screen resolutions, not all wifi adapters work correctly (and BT too), but usually it works "from box", including some popular FN keys (sound, brightness..)
Sometimes non-critical problems with external devices (USB-flash, for example). At first - with some file systems (can't read, or incorrect extracting).
Conky, browser and other soft from box.
Use it sometimes with Asus EEE 701, Asus EEE 900, 1000H, Acer ZG6 etc... (and SliTaz too)
This distro can see maximum WIFI networks arownd me by default config (other distro's can't see all of this networks, which can see AntiX!)
Conman, of course, not super userfriendly and simply for newbies, but it's much simpler than console wpa_supplicant or some others (for newbies!), and you can config (on/off) BT too.
It is a good debian based Linux distribution for old computers. I installed the full version on my laptop with the following specifications, and I didn't hear the sound of the fan at all, and it ran without any problems:
CPU: Intel Celeron 1007u 2 core 1.5Ghz
Memory: 8GB ddr3
SSD: 128GB SATA
GPU: Intel HD Graphics
Connecting to the Internet was also an attractive thing, and even for dial-up Internet, there was a software for connection. But if possible, they should make it easier for everyone to connect to WIFI. This connman graphical program has some ugly user interface.
Version: 23 Rating: 3 Date: 2024-02-22 Votes: 0
Too much and confusing.
-Some of the GUI menus allow changing of over all displayed option but will leave you trapped without a way of getting back to the default menu.
- display not correct and impossible to increase resolution ( 1440x 900 by the screen , max 1024 in xrandr !! )
Essentially this is for those who use command lines as the GUIs are weak,the set-up is weak. In order to make antiX viable you need about the same knowledge as you need to simply step up Debian
It is better to choose something more user-friendly.
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-02-20 Votes: 17
Let's define old pc.
To my perspective pc
A. from 0 to 5 y are NEW
B. from 6 to 10, are USED, BUT STILL GOOD
C. from 11 to 18: are PLENTY OF LIFE
D. age > 18:THEY CAN STILL DO SOMETHING
I don't comment A: with antiX the pc simply flyes
pc cat. B: I can't perceive big differencies from A. PC(s) simply continues to fly
pc cat. C: in this categorie I have all my pc both for job and games. For my day by day I use a desktop core duo from 2008, with which I surf the web with FFox, I see Netflix movies, etc. With zero issues. Moreover with antiX on that pc I don't feel the necessity to install all my stuff on an HP i7 5 years younger. I'm a bit lazy and I feel fine in that way.
pc cat D: I have one that I use once a week when I go to referee chess tournaments. I don't need the internet, and the few times I surf I do it with Chromium instead of FFox. In this way I don' expect miracles, and that old machine does it's dirty job.
This distro is symply fantastic because with only 235 M ram used, when idle after boot, it works the miracle of achieving two opposing objectives: being light and being complete and friendly.
Wonderful job.
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-02-18 Votes: 15
This is the best distro tested on older computers. Just works. Dell1012 can play youtube videos flawlessly if using SMTube. The developers have tried hard to make this distro easy to install and work out of the box. I have always come back to this distro after trying others. I can now recycle old laptops and give them to people who can't ordinarily buy new stuff. If they break it physically, no problem, as another is waiting for them :-)
A review dated 2024-02-16 is worth reading as they have had a similar experience.
Go team Antix!
Version: 23 Rating: 3 Date: 2024-02-16 Votes: 0
TLDR: not user-friendly UI, not for that old PC.
So... distant relatives from a low-income family brought me old, but surprisingly fully working and in perfect condition computer from 2004. it had 512MB DDR1, Windows 7 and Chrome browser, and it worked at the limit of the word “worked”.
This Linux distribution claim the lowest RAM consumption and a general bias towards old hardware, so I chose it.
The problem show up when it turned out that the video card requires old Nvidia drivers(without them, everything jumping around the screen and glitching), which do not work on new versions of the Linux kernel(and digging around the Internet all day and figuring out how to roll back kernel versions while breaking a bunch of programs that may require a new version is a waste of time), so this is actually a distribution not for such old computers, but for relatively weak but relatively more modern ones, the problem is that they will clearly have more RAM than 512 megabytes(I remember my old computer from 2007 had 4 gigs), which means there is no need for such a compressed and inconvenient desktop environment(jeez its bad).
As a result, I think that for the vast majority it is better to choose something more user-friendly.
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-02-16 Votes: 4
I became acquainted with the distribution in 2023, when I was looking for something optimal for my parents’ old computer to watch YouTube and occasionally surf the Internet.
On an old AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ with 4Gb of memory and an ancient 128 Mb video card, I tried various lightweight Linux distributions (Lubuntu, Bodhi Linux, Puppy Linux,
Tiny Core and others) but settled on antiX-22 (soon updated it to antiX-23).
What I liked: Easy to install, perfect for beginners. lightweight, consumes little RAM and takes up little hard drive space. Many pre-installed programs (in full version). With SMTube you can comfortably browse YouTube without any problems.
Some browsers experience slowdowns and delays in video and audio when viewing YouTube. What I also liked was that I installed the hard drive with antiX-23 installed on it in other system cases with different hardware configurations and antiX ran on them without problems,
in contrast to the same manipulations with a hard drive with pre-installed Windows.
A week ago I installed antiX-23 on a Panasonic CF-T7 Core 2 DUO 1.06GHz.U7500 laptop with 2GB RAM. The system is fast. YouTube via SMTube is viewed comfortably. I also discovered
that it is also more or less comfortable to view YouTube through the Vivaldi browser.
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-01-30 Votes: 43
All my recent pc(s) after 2020 have antiX installed.
I did some distro hopping from 2003, starting with knoppix 3 or Ububtu 5. Always debian derivatives.
antiX 23 is light, super-fast, easy to use and very friendly.
I've just installed it on a pc from 2008 of a guy aged > 80. He was at his 1st experience without windows, and he started using the new (for him) layout, intuitively.
Cons: may be someone can find some cons. For me it is simply perfect. I didn't even change the background. I like it as is.
Pro: at first sight some people say that there are a lot of preinstalled programs.
I disagree. People that say this can install one of the other 3 version: base, light and naked.
Moreover I am a bit lazy, and with antiX I immediately find programs taylormade for low end computers. Choices that were done with years of passion and love for this light but at the meantime complete distro.
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-01-27 Votes: 10
Dell Chromebook ll 8120 running antiX 23.1 full runit on a internal 16 gig ssd for / , and /home sits on class 10 sd card .
Touchpad, Bluetooth, Wireless, Sound. All work out of the box when running live.
Just basically boot it up. Make a /esp partition of around 450mb. Make a swap file if you wish. It can be done in the install process as far as size needed. I have 4 gig ram so 1 gig is all I used.
Point grub install to esp partition and you are golden.
I know how much configuring is needed to install linux and run it on a chromebook.
Just mentioning this is the leanest and easiest install and no real hard configuring when it comes to installing.
You will have to turn on bluetooth in conman network manager and use antiX control center to add bluetooth to startup services. Just hit the add button.
Because all hardware just works. That is why I am posting this.
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-01-10 Votes: 35
The antiX distribution has evolved very well over the years. It has always been a very lean, efficient distribution, and it has always been available as an. installable Live distribution.
There are a number of features in antiX that are not common to many other distributions. One is the ability to create a Frugal persistent state. This is a feature that writes most of the functionality to a physical location that can be loaded into memory at boot time, resulting in a fast, flexible solution.
Another thing that many people do not realize is that, in spite of the tremendous flexibility and capability built into antiX, it's much easier to use than ever before. There have been a great number of lean, efficient tools added over the past 2-3 years to create a system that continues to run on old or new hardware, now reachable to almost anyone.
If you either download an image and install it to a USB Flash Drive or purchase one that has been created for convenience, all you have to do to gain access to antiX is to insert the Flash Drive on your system and allow the Flash Drive to be bootable on your system, and it's ready to use immediately. That's much simpler than any system, including Windows and other operating systems were in the past. Granted, other systems are more usable too, but antiX is among the most efficient distributions available with a familiar look and feel and I highly recommend it for the novice and the expert; it's simply a great way to run your software!
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-12-21 Votes: 37
Muy bien. En mi opinión esta es una de las mejores distribuciones ligeras de Linux. Esta distribución tiene programas sensibles preinstalados. El 'escritorio' predeterminado de IceWM está muy bien diseñado. El sistema funciona extremadamente bien. Tiene todo lo necesario para navegar por Internet y muchas otras actividades similares. En general, lo recomiendo. Es una distribución basada en Debian pero sin systemd ni siquiera elogind. Las herramientas de configuración gráfica están bien hechas. En mi opinión, es una buena distribución para usuarios principiantes de Linux.
Very good.In my opinion this is one of the best light linux distros. This distribution has sensible programs pre-installed. The default IceWM 'desktop' is nicely designed. The system works extremely well. It has everything needed for browsing the Internet and many other such activities. Overall, I recommend it. It is a distribution based on Debian but without systemd or even elogind. The graphical configuration tools are well made. In my opinion, it is a good distribution for beginner Linux users.
Version: 23 Rating: 8 Date: 2023-12-10 Votes: 17
I am a small business owner and needed a lightweight operating system for my computers.
I installed with no issues but did run into a few bugs after running updates. I recommend
this for anyone who wants a fast and lightweight operating system it works for us. I was never
a fan of Microsoft Windows as Linux is more secure and faster and much more lightweight.
If computer companies like HP and Dell would sell computers with Linux installed I am sure
Linux would become popular as most people do not want to install there own operating system.
Version: 23 Rating: 7 Date: 2023-12-07 Votes: 11
I installed on desktop and also my laptop today with no issues its a good lightweight operating system.
Version 23 is somewhat more buggy compared to previous version but I am sure they will fix the bugs.
New users should go with MX Linux or Linux Mint since most people are coming from Windows 10 or 11.
I have been using antiX since 2020 before that I was using Lubuntu and Bodhi Linux. My switch to Linux
was mostly do to my issues with Windows 10 not so much Windows 11. I have had several friends make
the switch to Linux and have been mostly happy with either MX Linux or Linux Mint this calendar year.
Version: 23 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-11-21 Votes: 36
Very good.In my opinion this is one of the best light linux distros. This distribution has sensible programs pre-installed. The default IceWM 'desktop' is nicely designed. The system works extremely well. It has everything needed for browsing the Internet and many other such activities. Overall, I recommend it. It is a distribution based on Debian but without systemd or even elogind. The graphical configuration tools are well made. In my opinion, it is a good distribution for beginner Linux users.
I chose the full runit version.
Version: 23 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-09-04 Votes: 78
I've been a long time antiX Linux Full user and I can say that this is the best looking, and easier to use version ever:
-It does not use a Desktop Environment, but it's default "Desktop": a mix of IceWM and zzzfm and several GUI tools does provide almost all the functionality users come to expect from DE's.
-It has a wonderful looking default window manager theme and wallpaper, making it look very modern and slick. The menu is a bit more stream lined and more intuitive, when compared to it's previous versions.
-It includes a revamped Control Centre (now with tool-tips, to help users know what each setting does), and also an IceWM Control Centre (that manages most settings related to that Window manager - like toolbar contents, menu organization, toolbar position, clock settings, etc.)
-It's default File Manager, zzzfm (a fork of a fork of Pcmanfm, meant to be as light as possible) now features the bookmarks most users expect, and also a Recicle bin (that previous versions of the OS lacked). GUI apps are provided, out of the box, to use the file manager to access android devices and Shared Folders.
-It includes LibreOffice and Firefox-esr, as Office Suite and default browser, and Pipewire as the default sound system
-It has it's own "App store"(called Package Installer) that now allows easy access to a curated list of apps (like most browsers available for Linux, except Edge) AND to almost all packages in the Debian repository, all in a simple to use, GUI, no terminal needed.
- It does not update automatically - but you can check for updates (and install them) just by clicking an icon on the toolbar...
- It's localization is almost perfect (for all you non English speakers)
-It's fast, light and incredible stable to use, with access to the very extensive Debian Repo, and the possibility to install off-line .deb files using a GUI, most apps you may require are easy to install. It's also pretty intuitive to use: you can't drag and drop application icons from the menu to the toolbar or the desktop, but you can use the menu's "search" application to also manage the applications on the toolbar and the desktop! That little trick should be explained to every user...
Why it's not 10/10?
- the final version has a problem installing to UEFI devices- it's easy solution is provided in the release notes, and the fix will be included out of the box in v. 23.1
- Pipewire, meant to solve once and for all the audio problems that Linux historically had in one for or another, can sometimes, unfortunately be problematic- but the devs thought about everything, and there's a GUI to disable Pipewire and have sound running only on pure Alsa.
- some of it's options: like the Window Manager Control Centre and the option to manage toolbar and desktop icons from the search GUI should be more intuitive.
Version: 23 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-09-01 Votes: 0
Just not installable. The Antix Team really has to take care of an urgent problem thet MX Linux does not have, and that is the failing Grub install.
I have no idea why Grub always fails to install while the Team is by all means very capable.
This problem is already since version 19 if I read the posts.
I did not manage either to perform a Grub repair as recommended, and actually that is bsht.
Grub should install without problems like is the case with all other distros.
No, if you have to choose, go for MX Linux. There is a Fluxbox version that is worth a look, and the xcfe and kde are just top.
So the team can do it. Just such a pity this problem is not yet solved.
Version: 19.5 Rating: 4 Date: 2023-08-29 Votes: 3
after antiX 22 (full-x86) install I had such big issues :
- update impossible ( even with fix-missing and others tests ) : broken packages and not possible to delete them ( impossible
- button stop without stop implementd : request shutdown -h now in the terminal !!!
- display not correct and impossible to increase resolution ( 1440x 900 by the screen , max 1024 in xrandr !! )
I decided to come back to 19-5 release and then no more issues ,
Then I lower ranking du to that matter : new releases are bugged !
on a old PC 32b ( Pentium 4 1 G RAM ) , there is no big choice , antiX remain a good possibility , but I regret bad evolution
Version: 22 Rating: 7 Date: 2023-08-23 Votes: 2
I liked and STILL like antiX; lightweight, boots off of USB, lotsa applets, etcetera.
Major problem with the v22 release is that dang txt-based, antiIntuitive partitioning tool.
Couldn't figure out how to effectively do partitioning, until someone else better explained how to do this manually.
Other dings still are:
- too many less-understandable window managers to select from
- clumsiness in ability to easily change wallpapers from the rather drab default
On the plus side, antiX versions up to and including v22 all run lean n' mean.
Since its slighly more resource-intensive "flagship" variant, MX Linux, was recently released as version 23, here's hoping that antiX v23 will be available soon and be even better than v22.
Version: 22 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-08-23 Votes: 5
I run this Linux on my two desktop, Tis my current distro, and works well for me.
I am looking forward to version 23 when released.
I have run both versions, sysVinit (default option) and the runit version. The runit version is notably faster on all of my AMD desktops. I have not built a Intel desktop system in several years, can not give an opinion which version might perform better on a Intel desktop system. I have used persistence to make both of my desktop systems very similar. I have enjoyed the forums, to receive rapid responses to any question I have ever had in the use of this distro.
JR Namida
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-08-16 Votes: 28
antiX is one of the best small distributions you can find.
Points in it's favor: able to run on either old or new distributions.
Particularly useful for really old hardware.
One of the few distributions supporting both 32 and 64 bit systems.
If you are looking to install a desktop environment, it's possible, but this is not the forte of antix, and desktop environments are not provided.
The next release intends to support newer hardware; antiX may not run on all hardware unless you are able to bring in a newer kernel from a system that does support it, then create an ISO snapshot with their tool and install on the other system. Still, that's a great way to accomplish something that may not appear to be available.
Version: 21 Rating: 6 Date: 2023-07-26 Votes: 1
This review is for Antix 21 "core" plus Xfce4, and I am mainly interested in comparing it with Debian/Xfce4. (I know this is effectively MX, but MX has too much pre-installed software for me.) In its native form on an old computer Antix might be worth a look for some. However, note that kernel upgrades are infrequent and must be installed by hand. OTOH, Antix still supports some old kernels that have lost, or are soon to lose, support from the Debian maintainers - so you might get a slightly longer life expectancy, before having to set about building a new system from scratch, as I don't think you would be able to upgrade it. Antix is built on Debian. Once you add Xfce4 to core Antix, the resulting installation is broadly indistinguishable from a standard Debian/xfce4 - apart from needing more tweaking. Antix takes up a little less space, but to call it "lean and mean" in comparison would be an exageration. Any Linux running Xfce4 is pretty lean anyway. One reason I went for Antix was because I had a project in mind that needed a means to build a small linux that could boot from a USB stick. Well, Antix supposedly has superior live-usb building scripts, but I couldn't get them to work. And then I discover Debian has it's own in-house "live-builder" - though I couldn't get that to work either! (I eventually found a solution, see below.) My conclusion, if you are not a beginner and have some experience tweaking a new install, unless Systemd bothers you terribly, I'd be sticking with Debian going forward. It will definitely be easier to upgrade a Debian system from one major version to the next; I've done it and it's fairly straightforward unless you have exotix components. But in the end it depends what you're looking for. If you want something that "just works" OOTB choose Mint. If you want to build it from the ground up, say Arch. Debian/Xfce4 sits somewhat between those two extremes - minimal included software and eminently customizable - but still not for beginners. Also Debian still does 32 bit, which might be just as useful as Antix on an old box. For building live systems I recommend the Slax Linux Live scripts.
Version: 22 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-07-17 Votes: 21
Been distro-hopping for months now. Looking at reviews led me to antiX 22 now. Running on my Toshiba 505D AMD Dual-Core M500,2200MHz, 2.67G RAM
Everything worked out of the box.
For a single OS install it was an easy install.
AntiX is clean & fast. Provides me with a welcome opportunity to learn enough linux to reduce my dependency on GUI for functionality, while having full simple attractive GUI access. It is fun for me accessing tiling for multi-tasking & learning Keyboard shortcuts to open, run & close apps. Hope I can learn enough to customize AntiX for what I would like to do which is centered around research,writing, photography, graphics, content creation communications. Playing 'Real world games' would be fun but it’s not a priority. Look forward to installing AntiX on a Ryzen5 3600 w/nvme and 2old hdds and a new production box. I'm confident that I can customize AntiX with whatever utility apps prefer as a stable OS vs. a rolling update version. AntiX can be run w/init.d, or sv, 32 or 64bit, pae or none-pae. Very happy I took the time to run antiX live & then tried it installed to hardware, there is plenty of clear guides & basic instruction for beginners. Customization is up to you to gather information that suits your personal needs.
Version: 21 Rating: 7 Date: 2023-06-25 Votes: 0
Too much and confusing. I was an MX Linux user but my MX19 was compromised, this year, with trojan and ransomware ( 0xxx virus) when I made updates. Something with samba and NAS and WD HDD. Since then, I've been looking for something similar to MX. AntiX is not that. It's fast, lightweight but difficult to use.
Too many DEs. I don't know how to deal with them. I had to install it 3 times for my power off button to work. The whisker menu is not arranged alphabetically and confuses me. I can't access other partitions. And the Antix blog requires that you first read everything to see if it has not already been discussed what interests you (and I have poor eyes)
Version: 22 Rating: 3 Date: 2023-06-16 Votes: 2
Pros:
Lightweight
good selection of apps but....
Cons:
too many preinstalled low quality apps that freeze and force a reboot
this is a distro for an experienced Linux user.It is what the user doesn't know that will hurt them with antiX
Take big brother MX Linux for example, it is slow and ponderous when compared to little brother antiX and equally filled with bloatware but at least its apps are of higher quality AND tellingly, MX has the decency to actively poll for updates and lets the user know there are updates available and let the user determine when you want to apply them. antiX on the other hand does nothing automatically,the user needs to know enough to address the many deficiencies in antiX.
Essentially this is for those who use command lines as the GUIs are weak,the set-up is weak. In order to make antiX viable you need about the same knowledge as you need to simply step up Debian, Why not just take Ubuntu and add some apps and get what you actually want vs this half baked one foot in the water the other foot on the ground distro?
antiX simply needs more refinement to be of service to novice users.
Sure antiX is light but in its weight class you can find superior distros like Q4OS or go lighter with Tiny or SliTaz.
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-06-14 Votes: 12
Medion akoya s4220 celeron 2gb ram 256ssd.
before it was not usable (windows ). now it runs like a charm. libreOffice/Firefox/Audacity.
looks nice and clean. Full weight OS!
It is ultra light weight. So some installations are a bit linux tricky.
for eg. Firefox no sound. pulse is missing (in my case)
less software in onboard installation. (Synaptic is missing).
wlan was a bit tricky because of the exotic hardware this cheap laptop is using.
So this is absolutely my favorite Linux, because if i want to blow it up to high end it is possible.
Otherwise i let it nice, clean and fast.
Installation is also very very easy.
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-04-01 Votes: 28
Review of antiX 23 x64 Runit Beta 1
Was running the A1 version the past month, tried 5 different computers and none had any major issues.
Now running the B1 version. Installed to SSD HD and install had no issues, either. Installed Dell laptop system also has Win/10 and 8 other distros booting from UEFI and all the distros are able to boot after the antiX install. Install was lightning fast, completed in less than 5 minutes from USB.
Booted very fast, no issues
Nice wallpaper!
Firefox had no sound after boot. Ran update and upgrade to get newest code and sound started working.
Wifi had no issues except on old Dell D620 when booted from USB. once installed to HD Wifi worked fine. All other computers tested Wifi worked without any issue.
Each version gets a little friendlier it seems. IceWM setups now controlled via GUI rather than editing config files. IceWM is very fast, and very flexible. Built in both floating and tiling windows at the same time with multiple desktop workspaces, both icon and menu driven.
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-03-23 Votes: 19
GREAT stable and lean, efficient Debian-based systemD free distribution. I particularly love the runit implementation.
Incidentally, antiX 23 Alpha 1 has completed, and antiX 23 Beta 1 is available; I'm running it now. Other than the Bookworm base software you'd never guess that I'm running TEST software; it's not complete, but what's here has been very good. I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming antiX 23 release!
Typical starting usage takes under 200 MB; usually 182 MB (for me), some users report even less initial memory use; in any case, very stable, very efficient, very clean!
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-02-06 Votes: 23
My review on antiX - I give it 10 from 10 for sure. First of all, antiX is a lightweight and systemd free Debian based linux distro, it's optimized for older systems as well as modern ones. It has been designed with the goal of providing users with an easy to use, fast and accessible OS.
The main reason why I give antiX 10 from 10 is the fact that it does not rely on systemd like other Linux distributions do. Systemd slows down your system by a lot due to its complexity and unnecessary software components that are running in the background all of time. As such, you can have a better performance when running antiX since there won't be any system process that you do not need or recognize. Another great thing about antiX is the fact that it comes with installation options for both full and minimal installations, so you can choose what works best for your requirements. Additionally, there are different versions of antiX available depending on your hardware such as 32-bit and 64 bit architectures which means that no matter what hardware platform you have - there will be a version suitable to run on it. Finally, its user interface makes navigation easy since all of the necessary applications are organized in categories making them easier to find thus increasing productivity when using the system.
Version: 22 Rating: 8 Date: 2022-12-08 Votes: 14
I've tried many light distros for a few years in order to bring my old 2GB RAM netbook alive. Almost all have shutdown (power down) problems but antiX worked perfectly on that. I observed some stability issues on wireless connection sometimes nevertheless they are very rare. Users can choose some alternative applications as console based or visual based for some system settings. As they advertised this distro is for both old and new machines compatible. Thus it does not always come with the lightest options like some tiny distros. For example it comes with Firefox esr by default.
Version: 22 Rating: 2 Date: 2022-12-03 Votes: 2
Good
-It supports 32 bit machines
Bad
-The GUI is very complicated
-repetitive apps installed like video apps it has 2 video apps preinstalled that is not required.
-Performing simple copy commands on the GUI results in 5 button options. Some of the options are confusing
-Selecting a default option using right click is not available so you must find the required menu to make your selected app the default
-Network functions very confusing as it has at least 2 apps to handle network and separate app to handle WIFI.
-Log in to the service requires you hit return to go to the next field for the password.
-Some of the GUI menus allow changing of over all displayed option but will leave you trapped without a way of getting back to the default menu.
-it supports UFW firewall and will allow you to install the GUI ufw but GUI ufw does not work at least on my 32 bit machine
Conclusion
If you intend to use this for command ine which is not likely its OK, But the GUI is so complicated and clumsy and bloated with uneed softwaare this makes it a horiblem O.S. as even removing the apps would take hours.
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-11-25 Votes: 19
cool this
like this os,litlle cool os...
- it's fast, the full version comes with a nice browser (Firefox-esr), LibreOffice, and a nice File Manager (but it's not the default one): ZZZfm, a fork from SpaceFM, that was a fork from PCManFM, It has a nice Control Center that allows users to use GUI's to perform management taks, like updating, installing new software, changing Wallpapers, adding printers, changing resolution, etc...
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-11-22 Votes: 9
I've been using antiX full for some 6 years now, and it's been my daily driver for most of that time.
On the plus side:
- it's the least resource hungry OS, that has all features a regular computer user requires (not as light as "Tiny", for example, but almost as feature rich as any regular OS).
- it's fast, the full version comes with a nice browser (Firefox-esr), LibreOffice, and a nice File Manager (but it's not the default one): ZZZfm, a fork from SpaceFM, that was a fork from PCManFM, It has a nice Control Center that allows users to use GUI's to perform management taks, like updating, installing new software, changing Wallpapers, adding printers, changing resolution, etc...
- It has many browsers and the latest version of some well known apps- like VLC, Gimp, etc, instalable from the Package Installer (a tiny "App store"), for all other apps available in the debian repository (that are non systemd dependent), you can use Synaptic, available out of the box
- It can be easily run from a usbstick, with or without persistence. If you run withou persistence. With persistence enabled, antiX "Live" works almost like any OS installed to a hard drive.
- You can "install" a frugal version of antiX- instead of running from an usb device, you can run the OS from a single files in your hard drive.
- It comes with very well configured Window Managers. The default one, IceWM has so many costumizations and helper apps that looks and feels almost like a full blown Desktop Environment (except for some minor quircks)
On the minus side:
- The default File Manager (rox-filer) may be too strange for regular computer users (thankfully it's easy to change the default File Manager to zzzfm)
- it lacks a real "App store" (Package Installer only offers some essential apps, for all the rest you depend on the not so newbie friendly Synaptic)
- It lacks support to "snaps", because snap depends on systemd and, to save resources, antiX is systemd free
- it lacks, out of the box, support to flatpaks - but you can install and configure flatpak- but running and managing flatpak applications can be tricky, without easy GUI's- so you should only use them if you are confortable around the terminal
- it's prone to have sound problems- since antiX does not include pulseaudio by default, some apps, like Firefox and Chromium derived apps may not have sound. As a workaround, you can launch those apps from the terminal with the perfix "apulse". To really solve those problems, simply install pulseaudio (available from the Package Installer)
- It lacks a menu search option, to find installed apps (but comes with an excellent program to locate and find applications: app-select, available from the pinned menu entries)
- It has many menu entries- that can make new users fell it's "too bloated".
Version: 22 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-11-07 Votes: 16
AntiX is now my daily driver dor 6 years.
I have been using linux since 2003 and since 2007 I have imposed it in the company where I worked, first with Ubuntu and then with * buntu derivatives.
Now I am retired and I still use some old pc.
I'm writing this review with a 2007 Toshiba 2Gram laptop, and I work excellently on it with Chromium, Thunderbird and Libre Office running at the same time.
When idle after boot it uses only 79 Mram on this 32 bit pc, on 64 bit pc it arrives to 160 Mbit.
No other so called light distributions arrive to such a fantastic result.
As far as so calles “bloat” is concerned, the enclosed programs are a carefully studied choices so as not to weigh down old PCs.
Finally antiX offers something unique in the panorama of distros, with the possibility of creating "persistence and remastering", or to create a new iso snapshot, whenever it is deemed appropriate.
AntiX is wonderful and it is unique
Version: 22 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-10-31 Votes: 0
I tried many light distro and Antix is one of them for old computers, but I found that Antix at the end is not light as others distro like Arclinux, Debian or even Slackware. This distro is not the faster or ligh as it seems from my many test. If you tweak others distributions you can have a very fast system on resources without preinstalled applications . For my point of view Antix is another unusefull Linux distribution. Even for a Linux novice Antix is a real disappointment. If you are a Linux novice, better choose Fedora or Ubuntu and twek them to be more light.
Version: 21 Rating: 8 Date: 2022-10-24 Votes: 14
antiX 21 is fantastic, but not for everyone!
I love antiX. It runs smoothly on every computer I've tried, including 20-year old 32-bit systems. Hardware support is generally good. Forum support is good, but do your research first! I recommend the full version, although the base version works great out of the box too.
But antiX is not for everyone. antiX does not use a mainstream desktop environment (such as KDE or GNOME). Instead, it uses a combination of file managers and window managers. The default setup is Rox file manager and IceWM window manager. This system is part of the reason antiX is lightweight. There are other file and window managers available, and over 10 preconfigured combinations of these, found in the Desktop menu. Sure, you can install Xfce and whatever desktop environment you want, but that kind of defeats the purpose. If you want that, use a mainstream distro. antiX is systemD free, which places some limits on what you can do, such as installing snap. If you want snap, try something else.
People who review antiX need to take it for what it is.
Version: 22 Rating: 3 Date: 2022-10-20 Votes: 2
If you're looking for something that is ultra light and functions, this is a tough one to beat for sure.
In my opinion, it is super ugly and way too overloaded with preinstalled applications. So light on resources, not on software. Kind of a conflicting message.
Tried the NET and CORE install but both failed. BASE and FULL are pretty much the same. Way too overloaded with preinstalled applications. Perhaps NET or CORE would have provided a bare bones install but no luck installing either.
Looking for a lighter alternative to Sparky and this doesn't do it for me. So I'll stick with Sparky LXQt with Openbox.
Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-10-20 Votes: 7
I plan to get version 22 soon, but this is based on 21.
This is a misunderstood Linux distro probably.
It is resource-light distro which, in its best versions, comes with a lot of pre-installed apps, many of which are rather nifty.
I found file management horrid. The key is to install a better file management app.
I hate the Firefox it comes with, so again, the key is to install Google Chrome (which I need for work and teaching, as I am on a Gsuite and Google Classroom setup for these).
This is a good system to run from a pendrive just for the preinstalled apps. But the file manager will leave you wondering.
If you have a somewhat older machine (like one bogged down in crappy MS Windows updates for 10, and unable to upgrade to Win 11), this distro is ideal for making a lean, mean, netbook machine out of it. Just remember to install a better file management app from the software management program.
One last issue that deserves attention. I found the app that comes installed for connecting to a WAN rather bewildering. Now I'm hooked into a LAN and just ignore that issue. But I think the latest versions give you more than one option, but if not, again install a better app from the software center for getting your WiFi to work.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-10-01 Votes: 22
Hello Linux world !
AntiX is the best distro i've seen so far.It's ultra-lightweight ( only 148M of RAM at start up !! )
It's rock solid, managing the system is as the other OS using the command lines.
It should be very good to have another AntiX based on Slackware as this one base on Debian.
The AntiX forum is very useful to learn more about this OS.
AntiX belongs to the PuppyLinux univers but with a better approch.In the same way there is also Doglinux and Fatdog,but
AntiX is better.
'I'm not an expert in linux, just curious.I've tested a lot of OSes
Keep up the good work !
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-09-29 Votes: 16
AntiX is describing itself as fast and lightweight. In my opinion, this is almost an understatement. This linux distro is exceeding all my expectations. Right now, my seven year old HP laptop ( with 4 GB of RAM ) is using only 720 MB of it. After starting the system, it stays idle at around 220 MB. With such low numbers, I consider the AntiX Dev Team deserve a perfect mark. Other excellent lightweight Linux distros ( Bodhi, Zorin, Sparky etc ) could not match this kind of low-resource performance.
It is impossible for me to forget the corresponding results of MS OS like Windows 8, 10 or 11. There is no word to describe the performance gap.
AntiX is a masterpiece in the remarkable collection of Linux distros.
Sorry, but I am not feeling like starting to look for some cons. The AntiX developpers only deserve thanks and congratulations for all the work they did for the community.
Thanks again from all of us who are using older laptops.
Best wishes for the continuation of this distro!





Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-09-13 Votes: 5
The 32-bit version runs incredibly well on a Single Core Centrino Pentium M PAE 686 CPU at 1.7GHz. I have 2GB of Ram but in IceWm it uses about 230MB. Incredible. SeaMonkey browses modern sites well for the minimal horsepower under the hood. I did have the issue with the Applications menu getting wiped out after installing some apps but using Menu Editor in Control Centre rewrites the config file, as a previous commenter so helpfully pointed out. This distro is "unixy" not "Windows-like" but that is a plus for me. Obviously, so much work went into this and it is MUCH appreciated because it allows us to keep rolling this old hardware just a little bit longer!! Thanks antiX team, and many kudos.
Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-08-21 Votes: 9
I used to be a Debian user. While this distro still hit the mark in many terms (shell, multimedia, office) It has also acquired a (too) weird behavior... Maybe because of the influence of Red Hat init system. Which makes no sense (in many ways) for Debian as it was supposed to be an "independent" distribution . But hey. Antix knows how to remain simple, fit, and yet powerful So for me it sticks more to the GNU/Linux values more than Debian.
Pro: Light - Easy install except maybe the partition step which is a bit unclear - The choice to encrypt from the beginning - The host file.
Con : JWM and ICEWM... too many sources.list... MTP Android devices hard to mount. But we all that Android sucks since the beginning.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-08-19 Votes: 22
Highly recommended. The most notable thing is that the operating system is very stable, and consumes very minimal resources. It looks so plain and simple, but but the simplicity hides a beast. I did not have to configure much, Wifi worked great out the box, usb drivers where there. Theres also a few lightweight window managers, like icewm with a variety of themes built in so you can customize your layout.
- Pros:
1. Stability and Resource usage
2. Great support on the anti x forum
3. Nice goodies, like Poor Mans Radio and SM Tube
4. Compatibility for old systems.
5. No crap installed, very lean and mean.
6. Minimal Install
- Cons:
1. File manager is terrible.
Version: 21 Rating: 5 Date: 2022-08-12 Votes: 3
I was impressed with the low RAM usage, only 230MB (version 21).
Another thing I liked was the agility and fluidity in opening applications.
Installation was quick and easy.
Came with many programs installed. Some people will find this great. On the other hand, others will want to uninstall most programs they don't use or switch to other programs they prefer.
The size of the distro is quite small, even in the full version.
The only cons was the delay to update. Even with a great internet connection, it took hours to complete the update.
Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-08-09 Votes: 1
I have been searching high and low for a 32-bit distro for my antiquated Asus EEE PC and AntiX was the best option! IceWM being the default gives a Windows-like experience for newcomers, and the built-in software from the "Full" option gives more than enough for the novice. Built-in encryption in the installer is also a huge bonus, though I did not take advantage of it this time around due to hardware limitations.
The only issue I had, was that on the 32-bit version of AntiX, sometimes installing or uninstalling applications causes the "Applications" menu to blank out. My workaround is to use the menu editor in the control centre, and enable or disable and option, which seems to refresh the config file. If this bug could be fixed (maybe also add a "Rebuild Menu option"?) then I would give this a 10/10 easily. This doesn't seem to happen on the 64-bit version of AntiX which I am using on a modern laptop.
Thanks for bringing new life to this little guy! 9.9/10!
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-07-29 Votes: 7
Tonight Thursday July 28th I installed the 32 bit version on my HP Desktop Computer was easy to install and then I spent some time removing several of the installed programs that I would never use and enabled UFW was easy to do for sure. Installed Firefox as it is my favorite browser and for most of us Linux Users! Installed Pulse Audio for Firefox. Debian not to much different from Ubuntu except Debian still supports 32 bit wish Ubuntu still did. I found two 32 bits computers in a closet that are now back in action thanks to antix team!
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-07-27 Votes: 22
It is compact, fast, cool...it is great!
Installing was quick and easy, some personal adjustment were quite intuitive to do.
All the program I use routinely are already available and easy to install through the package installer.
I have installed on an old CentrinovPro Intel Core2 Duo P8600, 4GB RAM it is stable, it keeps me focused and I love now working on this old laptop!
I think it is great having teh chance of creating your own ISO as backup or to install somewhere else!
My disro hopping is paused.......for now!
Thank you Team!
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-06-26 Votes: 7
I just installed version 21 on my HP Desktop Computer 32 Bit this will keep my computer working for a few more years!
I had no problems with install and was easy to set up just the way I wanted it with no problems great for this old computer!
I will also install this on both my work and personal computers cause makes then run even better and much faster too!
The only problem with antiX is that when you use it for a while, even if you don't really like everything about it then every other distribution seems sluggish for sure!
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-06-16 Votes: 44
Fantastic for keeping older (but also newer), but yet still capable hardware, current and fully usable.
Appreciate the systemd free simplicity.
Also, but not the least, fantastic USB bootable distro with excellent customizable features. With a little know-how (or patient reading and some effort on your part), it will boot most any computer to a simple, if not flashy, fully functional GUI and/or CLI.
You will even be able to install that special/missing program (yes, in Live mode), but MOST of the time everything is already there. Absolutely great admin tool.
Can/has/will save your day (most likely).
Read the comments below for some good details/descriptions.
Thanks anticapitalista!
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-05-10 Votes: 40
Tried it on a Celeron M (32bit) / Intel Xtreme Graphics 2 / 512MB RAM. It worked perfectly and the gui is very snappy and responsive. I was really impressed
Then I tried it on a HPMINI 311, Atom N270 (32bit) / NVIDIA Ion / 2GB RAM. This particular laptop has an obscure wifi card that is not supported even on the non-free Debian iso.. AntiX found and enabled the wifi card, no problem. Plus it still offers the legacy Nvidia-340 drivers and it was literally one click install from the settings. AMAZING.
I liked the control panel and tools it includes. The ability to create a bootable ISO from the current installation is life saving. This distro blows the competition away for old 32bit computers. I searched and tried and there is nothing as full-featured and robust as this.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-04-22 Votes: 12
Usable versions: 17.4 (Debian: stretch) & 21. (Debian: bullseye)
Grate stable, extrimaly light and very fast:
1. Light JWM (with clear and simple menu-configs): ~26 MB of RAM (RSS)
2. Light terminal urxvtd: ~36 MB of RAM for 3 window
3. Exclusively clear and legible fonts: [Tt]erminus
4. Fast, simple and easy configurable init-scripts for live version, so out of the box.
A lot of boot-string options (like disable=lxn...) from the box
5. Greate supported boot-managers: grub & syslinux/isolinux & uefi
6. Greate scripts in /usr/local/bin
7. The Set of light browsers: firefox, dillo, links2 out of the box
8. Easy remastering packages (like remaster-antix) for creating custom-system.
Preinstalled usb-makers.
9. Play (or extract) streams from internet-servers like YouTube out of the box
(Packages: mps-youtube, smtube, streamlink, youtube-dl)
10. Choice of kernels
11. Usable menu-driven X-window applications. Start out of the box.
12. Merged Antix-Debian repository with NOsystemd support !!!
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-04-14 Votes: 12
I always preferred antiX or MX Linux, for the simple reason is that i always liked window managers over desktop environments. Both have basically the same programs, and the software installers are the same. I always ike JWM, and IceWM. The thing I always hated was that hideous Wildflower background that MX Linux has, and I think MX Linux is highly overrated. I just recently installed Enlightenment on antiX, and it just looks awesome, I will never switch again, and i'm done with Distro Hopping.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-04-05 Votes: 18
A great, low-resources distro! It's very fast on my persistent live-usb. I removed the apps that I don't need, like games, claw mails, etc. The only programs that I installed were trash-cli, gufw, and gimp.
It took me a while to figure out how to change the fonts for the menu, popup, etc., on zzzfm and icewm. After that, it looks very nice and works great! Community supports are excellent. Even the devs took time to respond. Who does that! ; this sure beats those on certain shall-not-be-named distros that tend to tell people to read the manual.
Version: 21 Rating: 3 Date: 2022-03-27 Votes: 2
Like MX I rate 2 for the work + 1 for usage of ram which is very low. Otherwise this distro is completely bloated with antix apps (with copyrights????) and antix scripts. I'm not sure to like the spirit behind Antix (and MX) things. Also, to have an exhaustive (and misplaced set of tools) is not allways a way of efficiency.
The ergonomy is one the worst I saw among distros. I'm very disapointed because I was waiting for something much cleaner. I spent hours to remove apps, then I gave up cause of global ergonomy.
It seems to be a very good base and the low ram usage is here to proove it. On this base I hope that a team, one of these days, will build something clean and attractive. For the moment I walk away.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-03-21 Votes: 19
I installed antiX 21, 64bits "full" version on a single core, 1gb of RAM laptop (that previously had xubuntu, lubuntu and antix 19): if you are keeping partitions of you computer (ex: to store data or another OS to dual boot from), installation can be a bit tricky. When performing a full disk install, it's just a matter of clicking the options you want and you are done in some 5 - 10 minutes (if installing from USB), almost like installing a windows applications (click ok, ok... done)
It's the first time (since I started using antiX) that pulseaudio just works, after being installed from antiX's Package Installer (a GUI mini "app store).
You can install, from antiX's Package Installer the latest (or very new) versions of applications that are not in Debian 11 repositories (like the latest LibreOffice or Gimp).
Pros: the system works extremely fast, when performing normal tasks, like using a file manager, editing documents, etc. Using complex web pages can be taxing on old hardware, but antiX's Package Installer allows you to install many light browsers, even ungoogled-chromium.
Smtube (available out of the box) allows users to stream youtube videos even if a browser is too slow for that on your computer.
It seems pulseaudio support has improved by a lot!
Includes an application to improve localization of installed apps on the OS (like LibreOffice and firefox-esr, or any other app that you have installed, like firefox or vlc).
It has many themes and extra possibilities to change how your system looks (from the ft10-transformation pack to installing gnome or kde)
Cons: when not performing a full disk install, the installer can be way more complex than most OS installation procedures... If you are a non english speaking user you do need an extra step to fully localize your system.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-02-28 Votes: 19
I like to recover old pc (for my standars the new ones are 8 years old, while the old ones are >15 years old.
Usage objectives:
a. installation on old or very old computers,
b. support of office programs,
c. internet surfing,
d. possibility to play online live blitz chess on the internet,
e. wine,
f. other: mainly Skype, Zoom and remote / smart working programs.
Installation:
Very good, the fastest I know.
Post installation:
The new users need a learning curve.
The unique possible prob, may be setting the sound.
I went crazy for the microphone setting mainly because I’m not familiar with alsa-sound. Sound was mandatory for me in order to use skype (or zoom). After the installation of pulseaudio, I could make all working perfectly.
Plus:
Possible to tweak according to everyone's desire.
I like very much the MacOS look, so I learned how to change the settings of JWM, in order to get my goal
Windows look
It’s a month that I test the FT10 patch done by the staff of Antix, after the idea of PPC.
The install was with no probs at all, the look is win 10 like (familiar to a lot of people, not so much for me :-)).
This is a fantastic job that ease the switch to linux to all the people that at the moment is wondering whether to buy a new hw.
The attention to detail is good
So this is and will be my main distro for a long time
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-02-11 Votes: 22
With Debian11, antix now is THE ONLY complete distro for old pc and not only.
Pc from 2000 to 2012 can do their "dirty" job with no probs at all.
My problems were:
1. I need a leaning curve (because I'm a bit old)
2. at the very beginning I didn't know how to make the mic working properly, then, after the install of pulse audio, the system was perfect for my smart work
Version: 21 Rating: 4 Date: 2022-02-04 Votes: 0
With Antix, if you value your time, you should clearly stay away from this distro. In 19.3 - 19.4 it was fine, but its developers moved way too far away from Devuan or any other systemd - free distro. And it has created bug, antix - specific bugs. With Linux, you should firstly Google, check some Linux forums and only then post your questions. But with Antix you'll find that the majority of recipes isn't working and upgrading packages from debian backports (at least in 19.5) with quickly break your system: you won't be able to launch any web-browsers except for seamonkey. Another pain in the ass was pulseaudio. I've used it in many distros. e.g. Arch. Slackware. Ubuntu. But here it simply doesn't work. It loads, it kinda starts, but you need to switch profiles manually every time you start something, that works with audio, like audacious/mpv. Without that, you'll get silence after boot. And i did everything that was mentioned in forum posts, config files. Still no sound. I've switch (temporarily) to Arch. Install bare-bones ICEWM + pulse and everything works flawlessly. Zero problems whatsoever. There are a lot of broken dependencies, like in antix 21 x64 you'll not be able to install wine after upgrade. At least I wasn't able. And adding wine repo didn't help me. And these are only several of my fresh difficulties with it. I guess I'll migrate to Slackware. It's far more stable, secure and predictable.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-01-28 Votes: 27
I have AntiX Base on my 17 year old non-pae Dell laptop. CPU 1,4 GHz, 1 GB RAM.
This distro version was more straight forward to install than the former. A Linux newbie will manage it.
AntiX is the fastest of the actively developed distros I've tried. It is booting fast and is stable, lightweight and easily customized. I can even work on this laptop with Firefox and LibreOffice simultaneously without dipping into Swap. However, a lighter web browser than Firefox might be necessary when working for a longer time with several files and applications. (SeaMonkey is the default web browser.)
To keep it slim, I chose Base version, which installs with good app alternatives for almost all of the jobs I want to perform. But office packages were absent.
There is a repository of 165 GUI packs and 84 cmd-line packs. AbiWord, Gnumeric and others installed automatically with menus in my (non-English) language, but LibreOffice came in US-English with only my national settings installed. So I needed to reinstall LO with Synaptic.
I've chosen IceWM/Rox, which is quite pretty. So pretty that I will consider it when it's time for a new laptop.
Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-01-28 Votes: 8
The problem with antiX is that when you use it for a while, even if you don't really like everything about it, every other distrubition seems sluggish and viscous after that.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-01-24 Votes: 8
AntiX is the only distro I have found that loads onto my old and (even when new) low-end netbook computer with only 1 GB RAM. It was sluggish in its default setting, but replacing Firefox with Falkon and going with fluxbox/JWM as the environment made it pretty snappy. The default is IceWM/Rox, but besides being slow that setup was not always fitting onto my netbook screen (odd screen size, of course). AntiX fouind and set up my WiFi no problem. It provides a control center that is pretty clunky compared with KDE, but usable, I was able to reset menu programs with it which can be tricky with lightweight window managers, usually requiring finding/editing the configuration file. And as a Debian-based distro you do have access to the full repository of Debian. I also like that it sets up separate user and root passwords, a lot of Debian-based distros do not do that. I would highly recommend trying AntiX for older computers, and might even consider it for a higher end computer if I wanted maximum speed.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-01-14 Votes: 15
My number one distro requirement is no systemd so antiX is on my list. One of the fastest distros if not the fastest. Seems faster than v19.x . Installed on a SSD and selected defaults which formats the whole disk. Install was quick and easy. I like the rox-fluxbox desktop. Desktops can be quickly changed from the menu. The Conky is great too which is like a system heads up display on the upper right of the desktop.
Version: 21 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-01-04 Votes: 0
Damn thing cant install properly - so no installation - result in - no use of it - end result garbage - waste of nerves, time and electricity ! Majority of Distros failure !
I've used antiX 2-3 years on my ancient laptop (13 years old). It was the only Linux that made that machine usable. Perfect little distro!
Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2021-12-12 Votes: 2
My fav lightweight and all weight. I've tried many others over the years but AntiX does the best in most situations for me.
Version: 21 Rating: 8 Date: 2021-12-08 Votes: 4
1)its an amazing distro with a good enthusiastic antix-team to help when you registered an account with your email.
2)Though some short-comings on wifi-connman,one could just select NetworkManager from the synaptic package Manager and fired up nmtui to setup the wifi easily.
3) As Antix-21 still in beta, its may have quite number of tweaking needed and it would be a plus point if it comes with a gui trashcan to be add on from the synaptic package manager, not the trash-cli which newbie does not prefer.
4) With such an enthusiastic team, it would be soon on par with those mid-weight distro, but its systemd free which really attracted me keep using it.
newuser
Newmant1
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2021-11-28 Votes: 26
If you want a lightweight and stable debian based distro then Antix is the best choice.
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2021-11-24 Votes: 14
so great. is working fast and stable on very old asus inspire 1720
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2021-11-15 Votes: 16
I'm using the 21 base version with sysv init. It works great. It comes with a few window managers but of those I only use herbstluftwm. The base version is really lean for a Debian based system and it is really fast. It has some good exclusive antiX "apps" and features. My favorite feature is the ability to create a custom ISO image. This saves a lot of time if you want to install a copy of your personalized antiX system on another computer.
A few things I would change:
firefox-esr as the default browser.
Improve the slimski login manager. It was a little tricky to modify but I could've been my fault.
Version: 19.4 Rating: 1 Date: 2021-11-14 Votes: 0
Loaded live system. Desktop screen frozen. What a piece of garbage. Test over and out!
Version: 21 Rating: 1 Date: 2021-11-12 Votes: 0
Installation went fine on my Lenovo Thinkpad T420. But the instaler has been changed from previous versions and the change makes installation more complex. The real kicker is their convoluted wifi configuration which is a complete disaster and unbearable for a Linux novice. Documentation is OK leaves a lot to be desired. For a distro that has been in development for almost 12 years this version of antiX is a real disappointment I'll stick with MX Linux 18/19 or move back to Mint at some point.
Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2021-11-09 Votes: 1
Tend to 9.5,
Saved a Fujitsu P7935 with a dual core processor from the dump.
Installed an SSD as it had no drive.
Installed antiX in full disk mode, very easy job.
I found the installer custom partitioning tool a bit confusing but saw it for first time, just need to explore it.
Updated the system, no glitches. Installed Libreoffice and language pack along with Gimp and Ungoogled chromium using the package installer. Worked well, a lot of other packages are available for one click install. Nice.
My version is booting very fast, it makes the 12 year old machine very usable, even Libreoffice starts very quickly.
Looks are easily customised, I am using the default icewm but will try some other options.
Regarding Bloat, to me that is including useless applications, the ISO and installed size of antiX are way less than big distros. The included tools and applications are as far as I have tried them all useful, mostly lightweight too.
This is likely to stop my distro hopping.
Version: 21 Rating: 4 Date: 2021-11-09 Votes: 0
Version 19 is excellent, but I had the following problems with version 21 bullseye on my old 15 yrs old laptop:
- boot time too long (more than 3 minutes, compared to 45 seconds max with version 19).
- suspend / wakeup crashes each time, requires re boot the system.
- keeps directing back to default kernel 5.10 on each re-booting.
- Laptop temperature heating higher compared to version 19.
- More ram 2.5 GB /4 GB compared to version 19 1.25 GB/4 GB. I have also 6 GB swap.
- browsers keep crashing (chromium and Firefox ESR), not smooth surfing (slower).
- file managers rox, space fm , zzz fm keep crashing.
- periodically default rox-icewm freezes, requires re-boot. Restart session does not work.
So, I switched back to previous buster version antiX19, as usual everything works well for my old laptop:
Unfortunately, Antix is the only truly lightweight distro, and it's a mess:
Desktop: you've got a bunch of different options from friendly icewm + spacefm to the least user-friendly option - helbstluftwm. You can, theoretically, delete them, but even developers stress that there's no point in it. So why do you include them? Can't you generate several types of ISOs? It's better to have icewm edition only and then some spinoffs by community.
Bloat: You'll have some GUI applications, which is great for average pc user and beginners. And along them, you'll find something like rtorrent, that is great, but not user-friendly. Technically you can install transmission alongside and forget about rtorrent or even try to remove it completely, but there is no point of getting rid of preinstalled packages.
Unique glitches: Everything from fuzzy fonts or fonts with wrong sizes (absent in stock debian) up to particular loudness trouble with alsa (absent in every other distro out there) - you'll have everything.
Political agenda: why do you even try to bring this thing into linux? what's wrong with you?
Version: 21 Rating: 10 Date: 2021-11-06 Votes: 1
386 version works quite well on an old (2004) ASUS A3000, a centrino notebook with 1GB memory
If you want a GNU/Linux distribution that combines PERFORMANCE, VARIETY OF PACKAGES, COMMUNITY SUPPORT and FREEDOM FROM SYSTEMD, this is the easiest and best way to get started on the adventure of a lifetime.
Installs in under 2 minutes on my (5-year old) laptop, boots super fast, and uses just over 100Mb RAM with my setup (Minimal IceWM, no Conky, no Connman, no Desktop icons)
The devs have done a great job of providing all the software you DO want and helping you free yourself from the software (systemd, pulseaudio, etc.) that you DON'T want.
Bravo, brava, bravissimi
Version: 21 Rating: 9 Date: 2021-11-01 Votes: 5
Running antiX 21 with runit, Full version with ICEWM. It came looking pretty plain, added some applications,
like Libreoffice latest, Gimp latest. put starters on the toolbar, set it to autohide so I have maximum space on screen. Put on a pretty screen background.
The claim that customising results in loss of functionality is only true if the user lacks the knowledge needed to setup unsupported applications correctly. Claiming latest Firefox causes system to freeze is hogwash, I use it daily on Vers 19 and 21 without any issues. If using latest FF start with apulse prefix so sound will work.
No need for Claws Mail, that is a joke, it is the only prog I know that can really cope with really heavy usage, totally stable, exceptional mail filtering.
Version: 21 Rating: 3 Date: 2021-11-01 Votes: 0
It has screen tearing, and some parts. Kind of confusing in terms of the manual it has together with the system and the fact that support from community isn't helpful enough makes me lose interest in continuing this one. For me, its not hard to install the software from the terminal. Though some problems cannot answer by manuals and the community that affect the system is something for me.
MX at some point win this area. Though is it much resource hungry than AntiX but I don't want to fix a system problem all day.
The screen tearing really bothers me since it makes me dizzy so.
Version: 19.4 Rating: 8 Date: 2021-10-31 Votes: 0
I am running Antix on Pentium J-2900 series with 2GB DDR3L RAM. It idles under 200 MB RAM usage. First impression is really nice and unlike some other light distros it really looks good. Although I am a noob in linux world but I faced a bit of problems with this OS.
1) Low volume issue.
2) Any customization attempt had resulted in loosing some of the original functionality.
For ex: Installing Plank & compton resulted in loosing start menu. Installing thunar wrecked my fonts & sound. Installing Firefox latest instead & uninstalling FF ESR 78 resulted in screen freeze.
Even with these issues, I am really loving Antix because of its low RAM consumption and the way ICEWM is catered for it.
Some suggestions: No need of seamonkey & Claws mail agent.
I've been using it for ~2 years on my office pc where I do my accountability, and for some weeks in my htpc.
It gave me some problems in the beginning, but they were mostly performance-related (NTFS is really bad for anything other than very simple file reading and writing on Linux, blame Microsoft). Once I switched one of my hard drives to EXT4, games on Proton were a breeze! the system itself was so comfy to use, I even upgraded it to bullseye (since antiX 19.4 is based on debian buster, which is oldstable at this point), on both of my machines with no problems at all! I give it a 10/10 despite the issues I had at the beginning because it's the first time I use a distro that remains stable and fixable for me. Built my own iceWM from source, set it up for autologin and even that runs like a dream! highly recommended!
Version: 19.4 Rating: 9 Date: 2021-09-24 Votes: 7
I always had a problem trying/learning varying Linux distros. I usually gave up.
Then I tried Antix 17. I had a few things to figure out but it worked out of the box. I've been using it about 2 years now - upgraded to 19.4 and I've rescued 4 win 7 laptops, 2 win xp desktops. I've tried other lite systems and this is the one I'm sticking with.
Thanks
AntiX has become my goto lightweight distro. It is incredibly fast and efficient and runs well on quite little RAM. The choice of floating WMs is good and the themeing and integration across desktops is excellent. I just wish it also included a nice tiling WM prethemed like the floating WMs for mor efficient window handling. Antix gives you everything that is good about Debian and matches it with useful tools and good style. The tools for using it as a live distro from USB are excellent.
Someone brought me an old machine, not really 32bit but I had seen 32bit machines with more resources than this one. So I decided to try the 32bit variant with runit.
Within an hour the person couldn't believe their eyes, thought of having new internals with 4 times the power. Couldn't believe a modern browser would work on this.
I hadn't used antix for a little while, but I was sure it could deliver, it did. So I went back to my old trusty sid installation with antix+runit .... it took a while to download all upgrades, rebooted, it was better than ever.
I don't understand what more can anyone ask. New machine, old machine, antix makes them fly.
My only change to antix would be auto read and ability to format flash sticks larger than 64 gigs with exfat. I am looking forward to the bullseye release, maybe that will have that modern function added.
MS Teams, Zoom and Skype all work on mine. Brave, too. All were installed from the built in Package Installer.
Performance is top notch. IceWM is up to date, efficient, and not bad looking.
If you have problems with something, put a post on the forums and ask. The Devs hang out there too, and problems get solved.
Version: 19.4 Rating: 6 Date: 2021-07-21 Votes: 0
I have abandoned win in 2005 and starting from that moment I used Ubuntu derivate distros, or debian ones.
For 4 years I used Antix (mainly 17.x) with great satisfaction.
I had some difficulties in setting up the program according to my likes, and what on other distros (mainly Peppermint and Q4OS) was easy, with Antix was an headhace.
Par contre I was rewarded by a program very fast and stable, where I had no probs at all till the next "fresh" install. And this for me is a super premium advantage of this distro.
Now I want install Antix 19.4 on my main pc, unfortunately it's 3 month that I try to setup the microphone entry in order to use Skype and Zoom (in this Covid era the communication sw are mandatory) with no success at all.
On the same hw it works with no problems at all with all the other distros (included MX), but not with Antix.
Now I have thrown in the towel.
It still remains a very good Swiss Army knife for rescue situations, or for a very basic usage, but I cannot give my advice to use it as the main system.
Installed it without any knowledge in coding in decade+ old acer i3 4gb ram laptop. had to figure out the firmware for the wifi was missing, but after downloading it from synthetic package manager everything worked wonderfully. recognized the external screen, mouse, keyboard, and speakers right away. my techno-phobic mom use it now.
In response to my post below about not getting sound to work I found out it was a Firefox issue. I installed the Chromium browser and the sound works fine. Changing my rating from a 6 to a 10 :)
Couldn't get sound to work over HDMI no matter what I tried. Apparently this is a long standing issue with antix. Spent about 8 hours on it before I finally gave up. Learned a lot in the process which was still fun.
Asides from that I really like it. Hopefully they'll fix the sound issue sometime in the future.
AntiX 19.3/19.4 is the only distro that works for me without any problem on my old HP Q60 laptop with legacy C77 Nvidia 8200M G graphics card (using antix generic neveau video driver + kernel 4.19.184 LTS).
It took me some search to add icons on desktop (Rox-IceWm) by: Display-->turning 'on' rox panel -->once rox panel is on--> click on applications--> drag and drop icons from apps list onto desktop.
Trash can be added to desktop or into pcfm/spacefm home directory from ./usr/local/share/Trash (drag and drop).
Fiddled around a bit to get the proper repository libraries working for updates.
No problem to set wi-fi.
Very low on resources, very fast, no overheating issue (using from console 'sensors' command to check temp).
Thanks to Antix team for creating such great distro for older machines.
Thanks to the developers that the base version now fits on a CD again!
There are not much other distros anymore with a full Desktop that offer this.
Works fine so far...
I’ve always used AntiX in a virtual machine, but yesterday I decided to take the plunge and install it on bare metal, challenging myself to use it as is without any major customizations.
After installation, I made a few changes to tailor the system to my preferences:
1. Switched the default browser to Firefox
2. Replaced the default file manager with Thunar
3. Changed the default text editor to Mousepad
4. Updated the wallpaper to something I liked
5. Installed the full PipeWire suite, including Jack and Pulse
6. Added Geoclue-2.0 and Redshift-GTK for better nighttime use
These are applications I rely on in most of my Linux setups, so I felt right at home.
What truly impressed me was the performance—AntiX is lightning fast. The default theming is solid and didn't leave me wanting to change a thing. One of the standout features is the excellent control panel that lets you configure nearly every aspect of the system. The in-house utilities are also great, with a nice bonus of a built-in radio player.
However, there are a few minor things missing for a fully polished desktop experience:
- A calculator
- A calendar
- A mail client
That said, all of these are easy to find and install via the very user-friendly software manager.
Performance-wise, I was pleasantly surprised. On my octacore AMD system with 8GB of RAM, AntiX made the machine feel even faster, almost like I was upgrading my hardware.
Overall, I can confidently recommend AntiX as a daily driver. It’s stable, reliable, easy to install, simple to use, and incredibly fast.
the more i use it the more I like it because it is easy to use but still force me to learn. I have it on my Lenovo x130e old laptop but for some reason I find my self using that old pc more often than I should and perhaps because every time i use the Antix I learn something.
It is like a old-school version of an Mx Linux yet you get the feeling it is more powerful Os because it allows you the user to be more of in charge of your system.
one of the things I like about Antix is the fact that I can change the look and feel of the Os by choosing what type of window manager I use, and change the themes, as well having powerful tools to configure the system and use or choose different programs to do tasks.
the system is not modern but runs great and is stable.
If you try it you need to give yourself time to get to know it.
I use this OS on my 32bit Pentium 4 with 3 GB of RAM after Lubuntu ceased support for it, and honestly I don't miss Lubuntu that much. I found the ICE WM Gui to be clunky, but XFCE was in the software repository, and now it feels far more modern than before, even if the stock background is ripped streight off of debian. I had to download some stuff that I really should not have had to, like speaker volume control, which really should be standard for a modern OS. The sole choice of Firefox ESR works well enough as a web browser. The OS had wrong software repositories as standard, requiring some time in terminal to correct, as the devs couldn't patch it through a regular update. So, this isn't a OS where a first time user can use without knowing how to use Terminal. Nothing as intense as Arch, but using terminal is going to be needed.
It's great to know that the project is moving forward. Better distribution to reuse old hardware, which can provide the opportunity to access technology for a multitude of people. Excellent Debian stability and flexibility in choosing to boot with RUNIT or SYSTEMCTL, which allows you to customize embedded, server and end-user systems. To give you an idea, I managed to install it with reasonable performance on a netbook with 1GHz frequency and 1.3GB of RAM on HD SSD. Therefore, a rating of 10 for the user niche it is intended for.
Not bad - fast on very slow computers (laptop with Intel Celeron N3060 processor and 4GB of RAM) but it needs to be polished. I messed up wireless settings in system configuration manager and had to reinstall whole system. Also, setting proper time automatically doesn't work. You have to set time manually in config panel or choose to set time via NTP after reboot. System doesn't remember set time You won't mount NTFS partition with Windows by hand from file manager. Need to play with fstab via sudo or run disk manager and mount with this program. May be useful as system on USB stick or second - emergency system with minimal config...
Not bad - fast on very slow computers (laptop with Intel Celeron N3060 processor and 4GB of RAM) but it needs to be polished. I messed up wireless settings in system configuration manager and had to reinstall whole system. Also, setting proper time automatically doesn't work. You have to set time manually in config panel or choose to set time via NTP after reboot. System doesn't remember set time You won't mount NTFS partition with Windows by hand from file manager. Need to play with fstab via sudo or run disk manager and mount with this program. May be useful as system on USB stick or second - emergency system with minimal config.
The most important things for me in a distribution that I want to use every day are stability and speed, as well as progressiveness and openness to new software, of course not without recognizing the critical points with a very watchful eye.It is equally important that the end user is consulted and that the distribution remains flexible so that the user has freedom of choice.antix fulfills all this in a grandiose way.
The antix community is very active and the developers are always willing to provide support to reasonable suggestions.
The latest highlight here, for example, was the antiX-23 "init-diversity" spin.In short, antiX is on an interesting track and for me beats the so-called big distributions by far.
The whole thing is rounded off by a perfectly thought-out live system.There is a lot to discover with antiX because antiX goes its own way in many areas,, yet it always remains a stable and super-fast (light) operating system.
This distro is amazing and light but when i installed this distro i always have a problem with GPG keys afret the use sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.Some of keys are out of date and when i choose basic version of this distro i can't change the repos ,because this version of distro doesn't have Repo Menagement out of the box in this system.Everything in this distribution works amazing and distro is ultra light and fast.I reccomended this distro every user ,who search a verry light and simple distro for old compueters and newer.
Pros:
This version of antiX is very nearly flawless. It fixes the problems present in 23 (that required being updated in order to be able to install on UEFI devices, had some problems with Pipewire audio server, a few other lesser inconveniences).
v.23.1 includes dedicated and exclusive apps to watch TV, hear radio, access or manage Samba Shared folders, mount Cloud drives in the default File Manager, etc.
It's still an extremely light OS, that uses "Desktops" (customized Floating Window Managers, like IceWM, Fluxbox or JWM, combined with customized GUI's that manage the most used features of those WM, mainly IceWM, and file managers) that can display desktop icons, to give users almost every single convenience they expect when using Desktop Environments.
NB: antiX does not update automatically, but users can click a toolbar icons to check and install available updates, whenever they feel like it. antiX also does not include system notifications (but users that miss that feature can just install Dunst from antiX's Package Manager).
The full version includes: ZzzFM (a modern and extremely light tabbed File Manager with almost every feature users may want, except bulk file renaming and video thumbnails); Firefox-esr; Libreoffice; Synaptic Package Manager; antiX's Package Installer (an "App Store" that offers access to a curated list of apps, including almost every single web browser in existence, but also to the Debian Repository); a very complete Control Centre (that offers GUI's to manage almost every possible feature), IceWM Control Centre (an exclusive GUI to customize the default Window Manager); App-select (a GUI that acts as app launcher, but that can also add/remove quick-launchers to the Toolbar, Desktop and the Personal Menu); Finder (a all in one app that allows simple and powerful file/app/web search), etc.
Since it keeps evolving and polishing small details, it's always advisable to update it before installing, or right after installing.
It's Debian based, but by default it allows access to the most recent versions of the Window Managers, Firefox-esr and LibreOffice, and some other important apps.
Has great support, on their forum.
Cons:
Because it's systemd free, it's light, but also incompatible with Snaps. Does not include, out of the box, support for flatpaks (but it can be easily installed).
Does require to be updated, in order to solve some not ideal configurations (but it's completely usable out of the box)
antiX is so much more that a 'lightweight' distro. It provides all the functionality (& much more) than any mainstream distro & carefully crafted & optimized to work on the majority of systems (including old).
Out of the box it comes with cloud integration (Google Drive - OneDrive), samba, a webserver, several window managers & still able to have a low memory footprint with all these running.
There is also plenty of original work happening there, if you want to see a multi-init system (sysvinit - runit - s6-rc - s6-66) running effectively & efficiently from the same image, give their 'init-diversity' development release a spin (uploaded on their official sourceforge testing area).
No major upstream distro have so far attempted something similar, which shows that the development there is original work.
Very good distro for old, slow machines, not big size, fast boot and fast work, no systemd, booting in graphical mode from USB-stick w/o advanced installation and config, i386, etc.
It's like SliTaz, but for small-experience (newbie) users.
Some problems with some screen resolutions, not all wifi adapters work correctly (and BT too), but usually it works "from box", including some popular FN keys (sound, brightness..)
Sometimes non-critical problems with external devices (USB-flash, for example). At first - with some file systems (can't read, or incorrect extracting).
Conky, browser and other soft from box.
Use it sometimes with Asus EEE 701, Asus EEE 900, 1000H, Acer ZG6 etc... (and SliTaz too)
This distro can see maximum WIFI networks arownd me by default config (other distro's can't see all of this networks, which can see AntiX!)
Conman, of course, not super userfriendly and simply for newbies, but it's much simpler than console wpa_supplicant or some others (for newbies!), and you can config (on/off) BT too.
It is a good debian based Linux distribution for old computers. I installed the full version on my laptop with the following specifications, and I didn't hear the sound of the fan at all, and it ran without any problems:
CPU: Intel Celeron 1007u 2 core 1.5Ghz
Memory: 8GB ddr3
SSD: 128GB SATA
GPU: Intel HD Graphics
Connecting to the Internet was also an attractive thing, and even for dial-up Internet, there was a software for connection. But if possible, they should make it easier for everyone to connect to WIFI. This connman graphical program has some ugly user interface.
Too much and confusing.
-Some of the GUI menus allow changing of over all displayed option but will leave you trapped without a way of getting back to the default menu.
- display not correct and impossible to increase resolution ( 1440x 900 by the screen , max 1024 in xrandr !! )
Essentially this is for those who use command lines as the GUIs are weak,the set-up is weak. In order to make antiX viable you need about the same knowledge as you need to simply step up Debian
It is better to choose something more user-friendly.
To my perspective pc
A. from 0 to 5 y are NEW
B. from 6 to 10, are USED, BUT STILL GOOD
C. from 11 to 18: are PLENTY OF LIFE
D. age > 18:THEY CAN STILL DO SOMETHING
I don't comment A: with antiX the pc simply flyes
pc cat. B: I can't perceive big differencies from A. PC(s) simply continues to fly
pc cat. C: in this categorie I have all my pc both for job and games. For my day by day I use a desktop core duo from 2008, with which I surf the web with FFox, I see Netflix movies, etc. With zero issues. Moreover with antiX on that pc I don't feel the necessity to install all my stuff on an HP i7 5 years younger. I'm a bit lazy and I feel fine in that way.
pc cat D: I have one that I use once a week when I go to referee chess tournaments. I don't need the internet, and the few times I surf I do it with Chromium instead of FFox. In this way I don' expect miracles, and that old machine does it's dirty job.
This distro is symply fantastic because with only 235 M ram used, when idle after boot, it works the miracle of achieving two opposing objectives: being light and being complete and friendly.
This is the best distro tested on older computers. Just works. Dell1012 can play youtube videos flawlessly if using SMTube. The developers have tried hard to make this distro easy to install and work out of the box. I have always come back to this distro after trying others. I can now recycle old laptops and give them to people who can't ordinarily buy new stuff. If they break it physically, no problem, as another is waiting for them :-)
A review dated 2024-02-16 is worth reading as they have had a similar experience.
I became acquainted with the distribution in 2023, when I was looking for something optimal for my parents’ old computer to watch YouTube and occasionally surf the Internet.
On an old AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ with 4Gb of memory and an ancient 128 Mb video card, I tried various lightweight Linux distributions (Lubuntu, Bodhi Linux, Puppy Linux,
Tiny Core and others) but settled on antiX-22 (soon updated it to antiX-23).
What I liked: Easy to install, perfect for beginners. lightweight, consumes little RAM and takes up little hard drive space. Many pre-installed programs (in full version). With SMTube you can comfortably browse YouTube without any problems.
Some browsers experience slowdowns and delays in video and audio when viewing YouTube. What I also liked was that I installed the hard drive with antiX-23 installed on it in other system cases with different hardware configurations and antiX ran on them without problems,
in contrast to the same manipulations with a hard drive with pre-installed Windows.
A week ago I installed antiX-23 on a Panasonic CF-T7 Core 2 DUO 1.06GHz.U7500 laptop with 2GB RAM. The system is fast. YouTube via SMTube is viewed comfortably. I also discovered
that it is also more or less comfortable to view YouTube through the Vivaldi browser.
TLDR: not user-friendly UI, not for that old PC.
So... distant relatives from a low-income family brought me old, but surprisingly fully working and in perfect condition computer from 2004. it had 512MB DDR1, Windows 7 and Chrome browser, and it worked at the limit of the word “worked”.
This Linux distribution claim the lowest RAM consumption and a general bias towards old hardware, so I chose it.
The problem show up when it turned out that the video card requires old Nvidia drivers(without them, everything jumping around the screen and glitching), which do not work on new versions of the Linux kernel(and digging around the Internet all day and figuring out how to roll back kernel versions while breaking a bunch of programs that may require a new version is a waste of time), so this is actually a distribution not for such old computers, but for relatively weak but relatively more modern ones, the problem is that they will clearly have more RAM than 512 megabytes(I remember my old computer from 2007 had 4 gigs), which means there is no need for such a compressed and inconvenient desktop environment(jeez its bad).
As a result, I think that for the vast majority it is better to choose something more user-friendly.
All my recent pc(s) after 2020 have antiX installed.
I did some distro hopping from 2003, starting with knoppix 3 or Ububtu 5. Always debian derivatives.
antiX 23 is light, super-fast, easy to use and very friendly.
I've just installed it on a pc from 2008 of a guy aged > 80. He was at his 1st experience without windows, and he started using the new (for him) layout, intuitively.
Cons: may be someone can find some cons. For me it is simply perfect. I didn't even change the background. I like it as is.
Pro: at first sight some people say that there are a lot of preinstalled programs.
I disagree. People that say this can install one of the other 3 version: base, light and naked.
Moreover I am a bit lazy, and with antiX I immediately find programs taylormade for low end computers. Choices that were done with years of passion and love for this light but at the meantime complete distro.
Dell Chromebook ll 8120 running antiX 23.1 full runit on a internal 16 gig ssd for / , and /home sits on class 10 sd card .
Touchpad, Bluetooth, Wireless, Sound. All work out of the box when running live.
Just basically boot it up. Make a /esp partition of around 450mb. Make a swap file if you wish. It can be done in the install process as far as size needed. I have 4 gig ram so 1 gig is all I used.
Point grub install to esp partition and you are golden.
I know how much configuring is needed to install linux and run it on a chromebook.
Just mentioning this is the leanest and easiest install and no real hard configuring when it comes to installing.
You will have to turn on bluetooth in conman network manager and use antiX control center to add bluetooth to startup services. Just hit the add button.
Because all hardware just works. That is why I am posting this.
The antiX distribution has evolved very well over the years. It has always been a very lean, efficient distribution, and it has always been available as an. installable Live distribution.
There are a number of features in antiX that are not common to many other distributions. One is the ability to create a Frugal persistent state. This is a feature that writes most of the functionality to a physical location that can be loaded into memory at boot time, resulting in a fast, flexible solution.
Another thing that many people do not realize is that, in spite of the tremendous flexibility and capability built into antiX, it's much easier to use than ever before. There have been a great number of lean, efficient tools added over the past 2-3 years to create a system that continues to run on old or new hardware, now reachable to almost anyone.
If you either download an image and install it to a USB Flash Drive or purchase one that has been created for convenience, all you have to do to gain access to antiX is to insert the Flash Drive on your system and allow the Flash Drive to be bootable on your system, and it's ready to use immediately. That's much simpler than any system, including Windows and other operating systems were in the past. Granted, other systems are more usable too, but antiX is among the most efficient distributions available with a familiar look and feel and I highly recommend it for the novice and the expert; it's simply a great way to run your software!
Muy bien. En mi opinión esta es una de las mejores distribuciones ligeras de Linux. Esta distribución tiene programas sensibles preinstalados. El 'escritorio' predeterminado de IceWM está muy bien diseñado. El sistema funciona extremadamente bien. Tiene todo lo necesario para navegar por Internet y muchas otras actividades similares. En general, lo recomiendo. Es una distribución basada en Debian pero sin systemd ni siquiera elogind. Las herramientas de configuración gráfica están bien hechas. En mi opinión, es una buena distribución para usuarios principiantes de Linux.
Very good.In my opinion this is one of the best light linux distros. This distribution has sensible programs pre-installed. The default IceWM 'desktop' is nicely designed. The system works extremely well. It has everything needed for browsing the Internet and many other such activities. Overall, I recommend it. It is a distribution based on Debian but without systemd or even elogind. The graphical configuration tools are well made. In my opinion, it is a good distribution for beginner Linux users.
I am a small business owner and needed a lightweight operating system for my computers.
I installed with no issues but did run into a few bugs after running updates. I recommend
this for anyone who wants a fast and lightweight operating system it works for us. I was never
a fan of Microsoft Windows as Linux is more secure and faster and much more lightweight.
If computer companies like HP and Dell would sell computers with Linux installed I am sure
Linux would become popular as most people do not want to install there own operating system.
I installed on desktop and also my laptop today with no issues its a good lightweight operating system.
Version 23 is somewhat more buggy compared to previous version but I am sure they will fix the bugs.
New users should go with MX Linux or Linux Mint since most people are coming from Windows 10 or 11.
I have been using antiX since 2020 before that I was using Lubuntu and Bodhi Linux. My switch to Linux
was mostly do to my issues with Windows 10 not so much Windows 11. I have had several friends make
the switch to Linux and have been mostly happy with either MX Linux or Linux Mint this calendar year.
Very good.In my opinion this is one of the best light linux distros. This distribution has sensible programs pre-installed. The default IceWM 'desktop' is nicely designed. The system works extremely well. It has everything needed for browsing the Internet and many other such activities. Overall, I recommend it. It is a distribution based on Debian but without systemd or even elogind. The graphical configuration tools are well made. In my opinion, it is a good distribution for beginner Linux users.
I chose the full runit version.
I've been a long time antiX Linux Full user and I can say that this is the best looking, and easier to use version ever:
-It does not use a Desktop Environment, but it's default "Desktop": a mix of IceWM and zzzfm and several GUI tools does provide almost all the functionality users come to expect from DE's.
-It has a wonderful looking default window manager theme and wallpaper, making it look very modern and slick. The menu is a bit more stream lined and more intuitive, when compared to it's previous versions.
-It includes a revamped Control Centre (now with tool-tips, to help users know what each setting does), and also an IceWM Control Centre (that manages most settings related to that Window manager - like toolbar contents, menu organization, toolbar position, clock settings, etc.)
-It's default File Manager, zzzfm (a fork of a fork of Pcmanfm, meant to be as light as possible) now features the bookmarks most users expect, and also a Recicle bin (that previous versions of the OS lacked). GUI apps are provided, out of the box, to use the file manager to access android devices and Shared Folders.
-It includes LibreOffice and Firefox-esr, as Office Suite and default browser, and Pipewire as the default sound system
-It has it's own "App store"(called Package Installer) that now allows easy access to a curated list of apps (like most browsers available for Linux, except Edge) AND to almost all packages in the Debian repository, all in a simple to use, GUI, no terminal needed.
- It does not update automatically - but you can check for updates (and install them) just by clicking an icon on the toolbar...
- It's localization is almost perfect (for all you non English speakers)
-It's fast, light and incredible stable to use, with access to the very extensive Debian Repo, and the possibility to install off-line .deb files using a GUI, most apps you may require are easy to install. It's also pretty intuitive to use: you can't drag and drop application icons from the menu to the toolbar or the desktop, but you can use the menu's "search" application to also manage the applications on the toolbar and the desktop! That little trick should be explained to every user...
Why it's not 10/10?
- the final version has a problem installing to UEFI devices- it's easy solution is provided in the release notes, and the fix will be included out of the box in v. 23.1
- Pipewire, meant to solve once and for all the audio problems that Linux historically had in one for or another, can sometimes, unfortunately be problematic- but the devs thought about everything, and there's a GUI to disable Pipewire and have sound running only on pure Alsa.
- some of it's options: like the Window Manager Control Centre and the option to manage toolbar and desktop icons from the search GUI should be more intuitive.
Just not installable. The Antix Team really has to take care of an urgent problem thet MX Linux does not have, and that is the failing Grub install.
I have no idea why Grub always fails to install while the Team is by all means very capable.
This problem is already since version 19 if I read the posts.
I did not manage either to perform a Grub repair as recommended, and actually that is bsht.
Grub should install without problems like is the case with all other distros.
No, if you have to choose, go for MX Linux. There is a Fluxbox version that is worth a look, and the xcfe and kde are just top.
So the team can do it. Just such a pity this problem is not yet solved.
after antiX 22 (full-x86) install I had such big issues :
- update impossible ( even with fix-missing and others tests ) : broken packages and not possible to delete them ( impossible
- button stop without stop implementd : request shutdown -h now in the terminal !!!
- display not correct and impossible to increase resolution ( 1440x 900 by the screen , max 1024 in xrandr !! )
I decided to come back to 19-5 release and then no more issues ,
Then I lower ranking du to that matter : new releases are bugged !
on a old PC 32b ( Pentium 4 1 G RAM ) , there is no big choice , antiX remain a good possibility , but I regret bad evolution
I run this Linux on my two desktop, Tis my current distro, and works well for me.
I am looking forward to version 23 when released.
I have run both versions, sysVinit (default option) and the runit version. The runit version is notably faster on all of my AMD desktops. I have not built a Intel desktop system in several years, can not give an opinion which version might perform better on a Intel desktop system. I have used persistence to make both of my desktop systems very similar. I have enjoyed the forums, to receive rapid responses to any question I have ever had in the use of this distro.
I liked and STILL like antiX; lightweight, boots off of USB, lotsa applets, etcetera.
Major problem with the v22 release is that dang txt-based, antiIntuitive partitioning tool.
Couldn't figure out how to effectively do partitioning, until someone else better explained how to do this manually.
Other dings still are:
- too many less-understandable window managers to select from
- clumsiness in ability to easily change wallpapers from the rather drab default
On the plus side, antiX versions up to and including v22 all run lean n' mean.
Since its slighly more resource-intensive "flagship" variant, MX Linux, was recently released as version 23, here's hoping that antiX v23 will be available soon and be even better than v22.
antiX is one of the best small distributions you can find.
Points in it's favor: able to run on either old or new distributions.
Particularly useful for really old hardware.
One of the few distributions supporting both 32 and 64 bit systems.
If you are looking to install a desktop environment, it's possible, but this is not the forte of antix, and desktop environments are not provided.
The next release intends to support newer hardware; antiX may not run on all hardware unless you are able to bring in a newer kernel from a system that does support it, then create an ISO snapshot with their tool and install on the other system. Still, that's a great way to accomplish something that may not appear to be available.
This review is for Antix 21 "core" plus Xfce4, and I am mainly interested in comparing it with Debian/Xfce4. (I know this is effectively MX, but MX has too much pre-installed software for me.) In its native form on an old computer Antix might be worth a look for some. However, note that kernel upgrades are infrequent and must be installed by hand. OTOH, Antix still supports some old kernels that have lost, or are soon to lose, support from the Debian maintainers - so you might get a slightly longer life expectancy, before having to set about building a new system from scratch, as I don't think you would be able to upgrade it. Antix is built on Debian. Once you add Xfce4 to core Antix, the resulting installation is broadly indistinguishable from a standard Debian/xfce4 - apart from needing more tweaking. Antix takes up a little less space, but to call it "lean and mean" in comparison would be an exageration. Any Linux running Xfce4 is pretty lean anyway. One reason I went for Antix was because I had a project in mind that needed a means to build a small linux that could boot from a USB stick. Well, Antix supposedly has superior live-usb building scripts, but I couldn't get them to work. And then I discover Debian has it's own in-house "live-builder" - though I couldn't get that to work either! (I eventually found a solution, see below.) My conclusion, if you are not a beginner and have some experience tweaking a new install, unless Systemd bothers you terribly, I'd be sticking with Debian going forward. It will definitely be easier to upgrade a Debian system from one major version to the next; I've done it and it's fairly straightforward unless you have exotix components. But in the end it depends what you're looking for. If you want something that "just works" OOTB choose Mint. If you want to build it from the ground up, say Arch. Debian/Xfce4 sits somewhat between those two extremes - minimal included software and eminently customizable - but still not for beginners. Also Debian still does 32 bit, which might be just as useful as Antix on an old box. For building live systems I recommend the Slax Linux Live scripts.
Been distro-hopping for months now. Looking at reviews led me to antiX 22 now. Running on my Toshiba 505D AMD Dual-Core M500,2200MHz, 2.67G RAM
Everything worked out of the box.
For a single OS install it was an easy install.
AntiX is clean & fast. Provides me with a welcome opportunity to learn enough linux to reduce my dependency on GUI for functionality, while having full simple attractive GUI access. It is fun for me accessing tiling for multi-tasking & learning Keyboard shortcuts to open, run & close apps. Hope I can learn enough to customize AntiX for what I would like to do which is centered around research,writing, photography, graphics, content creation communications. Playing 'Real world games' would be fun but it’s not a priority. Look forward to installing AntiX on a Ryzen5 3600 w/nvme and 2old hdds and a new production box. I'm confident that I can customize AntiX with whatever utility apps prefer as a stable OS vs. a rolling update version. AntiX can be run w/init.d, or sv, 32 or 64bit, pae or none-pae. Very happy I took the time to run antiX live & then tried it installed to hardware, there is plenty of clear guides & basic instruction for beginners. Customization is up to you to gather information that suits your personal needs.
Too much and confusing. I was an MX Linux user but my MX19 was compromised, this year, with trojan and ransomware ( 0xxx virus) when I made updates. Something with samba and NAS and WD HDD. Since then, I've been looking for something similar to MX. AntiX is not that. It's fast, lightweight but difficult to use.
Too many DEs. I don't know how to deal with them. I had to install it 3 times for my power off button to work. The whisker menu is not arranged alphabetically and confuses me. I can't access other partitions. And the Antix blog requires that you first read everything to see if it has not already been discussed what interests you (and I have poor eyes)
too many preinstalled low quality apps that freeze and force a reboot
this is a distro for an experienced Linux user.It is what the user doesn't know that will hurt them with antiX
Take big brother MX Linux for example, it is slow and ponderous when compared to little brother antiX and equally filled with bloatware but at least its apps are of higher quality AND tellingly, MX has the decency to actively poll for updates and lets the user know there are updates available and let the user determine when you want to apply them. antiX on the other hand does nothing automatically,the user needs to know enough to address the many deficiencies in antiX.
Essentially this is for those who use command lines as the GUIs are weak,the set-up is weak. In order to make antiX viable you need about the same knowledge as you need to simply step up Debian, Why not just take Ubuntu and add some apps and get what you actually want vs this half baked one foot in the water the other foot on the ground distro?
antiX simply needs more refinement to be of service to novice users.
Sure antiX is light but in its weight class you can find superior distros like Q4OS or go lighter with Tiny or SliTaz.
before it was not usable (windows ). now it runs like a charm. libreOffice/Firefox/Audacity.
looks nice and clean. Full weight OS!
It is ultra light weight. So some installations are a bit linux tricky.
for eg. Firefox no sound. pulse is missing (in my case)
less software in onboard installation. (Synaptic is missing).
wlan was a bit tricky because of the exotic hardware this cheap laptop is using.
So this is absolutely my favorite Linux, because if i want to blow it up to high end it is possible.
Otherwise i let it nice, clean and fast.
Was running the A1 version the past month, tried 5 different computers and none had any major issues.
Now running the B1 version. Installed to SSD HD and install had no issues, either. Installed Dell laptop system also has Win/10 and 8 other distros booting from UEFI and all the distros are able to boot after the antiX install. Install was lightning fast, completed in less than 5 minutes from USB.
Booted very fast, no issues
Nice wallpaper!
Firefox had no sound after boot. Ran update and upgrade to get newest code and sound started working.
Wifi had no issues except on old Dell D620 when booted from USB. once installed to HD Wifi worked fine. All other computers tested Wifi worked without any issue.
Each version gets a little friendlier it seems. IceWM setups now controlled via GUI rather than editing config files. IceWM is very fast, and very flexible. Built in both floating and tiling windows at the same time with multiple desktop workspaces, both icon and menu driven.
GREAT stable and lean, efficient Debian-based systemD free distribution. I particularly love the runit implementation.
Incidentally, antiX 23 Alpha 1 has completed, and antiX 23 Beta 1 is available; I'm running it now. Other than the Bookworm base software you'd never guess that I'm running TEST software; it's not complete, but what's here has been very good. I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming antiX 23 release!
Typical starting usage takes under 200 MB; usually 182 MB (for me), some users report even less initial memory use; in any case, very stable, very efficient, very clean!
My review on antiX - I give it 10 from 10 for sure. First of all, antiX is a lightweight and systemd free Debian based linux distro, it's optimized for older systems as well as modern ones. It has been designed with the goal of providing users with an easy to use, fast and accessible OS.
The main reason why I give antiX 10 from 10 is the fact that it does not rely on systemd like other Linux distributions do. Systemd slows down your system by a lot due to its complexity and unnecessary software components that are running in the background all of time. As such, you can have a better performance when running antiX since there won't be any system process that you do not need or recognize. Another great thing about antiX is the fact that it comes with installation options for both full and minimal installations, so you can choose what works best for your requirements. Additionally, there are different versions of antiX available depending on your hardware such as 32-bit and 64 bit architectures which means that no matter what hardware platform you have - there will be a version suitable to run on it. Finally, its user interface makes navigation easy since all of the necessary applications are organized in categories making them easier to find thus increasing productivity when using the system.
I've tried many light distros for a few years in order to bring my old 2GB RAM netbook alive. Almost all have shutdown (power down) problems but antiX worked perfectly on that. I observed some stability issues on wireless connection sometimes nevertheless they are very rare. Users can choose some alternative applications as console based or visual based for some system settings. As they advertised this distro is for both old and new machines compatible. Thus it does not always come with the lightest options like some tiny distros. For example it comes with Firefox esr by default.
Bad
-The GUI is very complicated
-repetitive apps installed like video apps it has 2 video apps preinstalled that is not required.
-Performing simple copy commands on the GUI results in 5 button options. Some of the options are confusing
-Selecting a default option using right click is not available so you must find the required menu to make your selected app the default
-Network functions very confusing as it has at least 2 apps to handle network and separate app to handle WIFI.
-Log in to the service requires you hit return to go to the next field for the password.
-Some of the GUI menus allow changing of over all displayed option but will leave you trapped without a way of getting back to the default menu.
-it supports UFW firewall and will allow you to install the GUI ufw but GUI ufw does not work at least on my 32 bit machine
Conclusion
If you intend to use this for command ine which is not likely its OK, But the GUI is so complicated and clumsy and bloated with uneed softwaare this makes it a horiblem O.S. as even removing the apps would take hours.
- it's fast, the full version comes with a nice browser (Firefox-esr), LibreOffice, and a nice File Manager (but it's not the default one): ZZZfm, a fork from SpaceFM, that was a fork from PCManFM, It has a nice Control Center that allows users to use GUI's to perform management taks, like updating, installing new software, changing Wallpapers, adding printers, changing resolution, etc...
I've been using antiX full for some 6 years now, and it's been my daily driver for most of that time.
On the plus side:
- it's the least resource hungry OS, that has all features a regular computer user requires (not as light as "Tiny", for example, but almost as feature rich as any regular OS).
- it's fast, the full version comes with a nice browser (Firefox-esr), LibreOffice, and a nice File Manager (but it's not the default one): ZZZfm, a fork from SpaceFM, that was a fork from PCManFM, It has a nice Control Center that allows users to use GUI's to perform management taks, like updating, installing new software, changing Wallpapers, adding printers, changing resolution, etc...
- It has many browsers and the latest version of some well known apps- like VLC, Gimp, etc, instalable from the Package Installer (a tiny "App store"), for all other apps available in the debian repository (that are non systemd dependent), you can use Synaptic, available out of the box
- It can be easily run from a usbstick, with or without persistence. If you run withou persistence. With persistence enabled, antiX "Live" works almost like any OS installed to a hard drive.
- You can "install" a frugal version of antiX- instead of running from an usb device, you can run the OS from a single files in your hard drive.
- It comes with very well configured Window Managers. The default one, IceWM has so many costumizations and helper apps that looks and feels almost like a full blown Desktop Environment (except for some minor quircks)
On the minus side:
- The default File Manager (rox-filer) may be too strange for regular computer users (thankfully it's easy to change the default File Manager to zzzfm)
- it lacks a real "App store" (Package Installer only offers some essential apps, for all the rest you depend on the not so newbie friendly Synaptic)
- It lacks support to "snaps", because snap depends on systemd and, to save resources, antiX is systemd free
- it lacks, out of the box, support to flatpaks - but you can install and configure flatpak- but running and managing flatpak applications can be tricky, without easy GUI's- so you should only use them if you are confortable around the terminal
- it's prone to have sound problems- since antiX does not include pulseaudio by default, some apps, like Firefox and Chromium derived apps may not have sound. As a workaround, you can launch those apps from the terminal with the perfix "apulse". To really solve those problems, simply install pulseaudio (available from the Package Installer)
- It lacks a menu search option, to find installed apps (but comes with an excellent program to locate and find applications: app-select, available from the pinned menu entries)
- It has many menu entries- that can make new users fell it's "too bloated".
AntiX is now my daily driver dor 6 years.
I have been using linux since 2003 and since 2007 I have imposed it in the company where I worked, first with Ubuntu and then with * buntu derivatives.
Now I am retired and I still use some old pc.
I'm writing this review with a 2007 Toshiba 2Gram laptop, and I work excellently on it with Chromium, Thunderbird and Libre Office running at the same time.
When idle after boot it uses only 79 Mram on this 32 bit pc, on 64 bit pc it arrives to 160 Mbit.
No other so called light distributions arrive to such a fantastic result.
As far as so calles “bloat” is concerned, the enclosed programs are a carefully studied choices so as not to weigh down old PCs.
Finally antiX offers something unique in the panorama of distros, with the possibility of creating "persistence and remastering", or to create a new iso snapshot, whenever it is deemed appropriate.
I tried many light distro and Antix is one of them for old computers, but I found that Antix at the end is not light as others distro like Arclinux, Debian or even Slackware. This distro is not the faster or ligh as it seems from my many test. If you tweak others distributions you can have a very fast system on resources without preinstalled applications . For my point of view Antix is another unusefull Linux distribution. Even for a Linux novice Antix is a real disappointment. If you are a Linux novice, better choose Fedora or Ubuntu and twek them to be more light.
I love antiX. It runs smoothly on every computer I've tried, including 20-year old 32-bit systems. Hardware support is generally good. Forum support is good, but do your research first! I recommend the full version, although the base version works great out of the box too.
But antiX is not for everyone. antiX does not use a mainstream desktop environment (such as KDE or GNOME). Instead, it uses a combination of file managers and window managers. The default setup is Rox file manager and IceWM window manager. This system is part of the reason antiX is lightweight. There are other file and window managers available, and over 10 preconfigured combinations of these, found in the Desktop menu. Sure, you can install Xfce and whatever desktop environment you want, but that kind of defeats the purpose. If you want that, use a mainstream distro. antiX is systemD free, which places some limits on what you can do, such as installing snap. If you want snap, try something else.
People who review antiX need to take it for what it is.
I plan to get version 22 soon, but this is based on 21.
This is a misunderstood Linux distro probably.
It is resource-light distro which, in its best versions, comes with a lot of pre-installed apps, many of which are rather nifty.
I found file management horrid. The key is to install a better file management app.
I hate the Firefox it comes with, so again, the key is to install Google Chrome (which I need for work and teaching, as I am on a Gsuite and Google Classroom setup for these).
This is a good system to run from a pendrive just for the preinstalled apps. But the file manager will leave you wondering.
If you have a somewhat older machine (like one bogged down in crappy MS Windows updates for 10, and unable to upgrade to Win 11), this distro is ideal for making a lean, mean, netbook machine out of it. Just remember to install a better file management app from the software management program.
One last issue that deserves attention. I found the app that comes installed for connecting to a WAN rather bewildering. Now I'm hooked into a LAN and just ignore that issue. But I think the latest versions give you more than one option, but if not, again install a better app from the software center for getting your WiFi to work.
If you're looking for something that is ultra light and functions, this is a tough one to beat for sure.
In my opinion, it is super ugly and way too overloaded with preinstalled applications. So light on resources, not on software. Kind of a conflicting message.
Tried the NET and CORE install but both failed. BASE and FULL are pretty much the same. Way too overloaded with preinstalled applications. Perhaps NET or CORE would have provided a bare bones install but no luck installing either.
Looking for a lighter alternative to Sparky and this doesn't do it for me. So I'll stick with Sparky LXQt with Openbox.
AntiX is describing itself as fast and lightweight. In my opinion, this is almost an understatement. This linux distro is exceeding all my expectations. Right now, my seven year old HP laptop ( with 4 GB of RAM ) is using only 720 MB of it. After starting the system, it stays idle at around 220 MB. With such low numbers, I consider the AntiX Dev Team deserve a perfect mark. Other excellent lightweight Linux distros ( Bodhi, Zorin, Sparky etc ) could not match this kind of low-resource performance.
It is impossible for me to forget the corresponding results of MS OS like Windows 8, 10 or 11. There is no word to describe the performance gap.
AntiX is a masterpiece in the remarkable collection of Linux distros.
Sorry, but I am not feeling like starting to look for some cons. The AntiX developpers only deserve thanks and congratulations for all the work they did for the community.
Thanks again from all of us who are using older laptops.
Best wishes for the continuation of this distro!


The 32-bit version runs incredibly well on a Single Core Centrino Pentium M PAE 686 CPU at 1.7GHz. I have 2GB of Ram but in IceWm it uses about 230MB. Incredible. SeaMonkey browses modern sites well for the minimal horsepower under the hood. I did have the issue with the Applications menu getting wiped out after installing some apps but using Menu Editor in Control Centre rewrites the config file, as a previous commenter so helpfully pointed out. This distro is "unixy" not "Windows-like" but that is a plus for me. Obviously, so much work went into this and it is MUCH appreciated because it allows us to keep rolling this old hardware just a little bit longer!! Thanks antiX team, and many kudos.
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