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Big Changes Ahead for MX Linux 25
As the highly anticipated release of Debian 13 draws near (yes, only five more days), the MX Linux team has announced a lot of significant changes set to land with MX 25, marking a major turning point for this (almost) systemd-free desktop-focused Linux distro based on the Debian Stable branch.
One of the most notable shifts is the end of shipping both systemd and sysVinit on the same ISO. Up until now, MX Linux has relied on custom systemd-shim packages to offer users a choice between init systems at boot. But with the newer 6.12 kernels from Debian, that solution is no longer viable.
So, starting with MX Linux 25, users will need to pick their preferred init system—systemd or sysVinit—when downloading the ISO, not during installation or boot. For maximum compatibility with modern Debian software, the default Xfce, Fluxbox, and KDE editions will now use systemd, while sysVinit spins will still be available for Xfce and Fluxbox.
Liam:
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MX Linux 25 loses systemd toggling power as Debian 13 looms
Debian 13 "Trixie" is coming, closely followed by a new release of MX Linux, MX 25, which will lose some of its init-system switching abilities.
Debian 13 "Trixie" is scheduled for launch on August 9. Trixie will have the latest LTS release of the kernel, version 6.12, and will offer KDE Plasma 6.3.5 and GNOME 48.
After Debian 13 ships, various downstream Debian-based distros will follow with their own version updates. One of these is MX Linux, which is one of the most popular among the smaller and lesser-known distros. The team released MX Linux 23 back in August 2023, and the latest point release, MX Linux 23.6, back in April.
The developers have published a blog post, Changes coming with MX 25, which details some of the things users can expect from the forthcoming release, and the news isn't all good.