Ey, the lightweight 'heavyweight' antiX released version 26 a few weeks back with some nice ease of use improvements and a lot of options available as standard. You can see the release notes on their website, where it lists the included five init systems, the four window managers, and all the pre-installed apps of the 'Full' version. The alternative init systems and use of window managers consume a lot less system resources than most other distros (using systemd and a full desktop), which is why it is such a solid choice for older hardware (or newer stuff if you don't want the system 'in the way'). They also continue to support 32-bit ISOs on a Debian 13/Trixie base, one of the very few distros doing so. More rambling below...

*I'm not covering every new thing or interesting feature, just stuff that has stood out to me personally ;)


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My Install Base

Ease of Use

Options

Bugs


My Install Base

I now have antiX 26 installed on two of my older laptops; the Toshiba Satellite C660 from 2010, and the HP Pavillion 15-n008tx from 2014-ish. The default (and most robust) setup is the Full version with runit + IceWM, so that's what I have been using along with the more modern 6.6 kernel (this is the standard setup it will automatically boot into, no configuring required outside of hardware issues)


Ease of Use

There's been some solid improvements with antiX 26, adding to useful tools already present;

Control Centre Additions: Control Centre is antiX's graphical settings/configuration manager. There have been some additions and improvements made, with certain apps moved from the menu into this interface now. Specifically I noticed ARandR ('Set Screen Resolution (ARandR)' in the Session menu) and Synaptic (the second 'Manage Packages' button in the Software menu) have made the move since antiX 23.2, but there may be more. Even though I was a little annoyed at first (ma muscle memory) this makes the menu less busy with stuff that isn't often used, and I think adds a more beginner friendly barrier to tools that can easily screw with the system. Each entry in the Control Centre menus has an appropriately descriptive context pop-out when you hover over them though. It's worth going through and reading them all at least once to get to know what tools are available and what may have moved from previous versions (if you are coming from an older antiX). And at the end of the day you can get to an app you know quicker with the 'Run...' app menu option, or add it to your 'Personal' submenu with the editor there.

Updater + Software Installer: These are low resource graphical software managers. 'Updater' is essentially a 'sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade' button, which is nice to have standard in a lightweight distro (absent from base Xfce, LXQt, MATE). 'Software Manager' is like a more beginner friendly Synaptic, drops you into 'Popular Applications' but also allows searching all repos (Repo Management is a separate button in the Control Centre though). I think these are simple to use, and provide a soft barrier preventing a beginner from damaging the system, while also not sitting in the background using resources like PackageKit software managers.

Wingrid: Not new or altered in any way (afaik), but a custom script antiX makes to tile windows. So Alt+Ctrl+ 1-8 on the number row will tile the current window in a specific grid location, 9 will fullscreen, 0 will close. Their FAQ has pictures that demonstrate this, it is a good alternative to baked in tiling/snapping of other desktop environments.

Themes: Also not new or altered afaik, but in the IceWM menu there is the option to change themes on the fly without needing to open the IceWM Control Centre. I frequently plug this laptop into a monitor, and most themes come in different sizes (Small-Med-Large-Huge), so I can quickly open the Menu>Settings>Themes and choose the 'Huge' variant of my current theme for better readibility. If anything is busted while changing themes or background (sometimes the conky system monitor will not adjust properly), you can just hit the Menu>Logout and click Restart Session.


Options

The Full install of antiX provides a lot of options and interesting features as standard;

The Inits: This isn't something I normally interact with, I have just always used the default with antiX which was sysVinit and is now runit. Init system initialises the system... and manages/supervises while it is running. antiX 26 is the first to offer the choice of five 'alternative' inits, as in alternative to the most popular; systemd. As I mentioned earlier, these inits all run leaner on resources than systemd, which is helpful for older hardware, and snappier performance on newer stuff. The antiX devs do a lot of work repackaging and handling repositories so that essential software will work without systemd (which Debian defaults with). Although there is software that relies on systemd which will not be able to function under antiX, including all Flatpaks and Snaps, and I think some desktops like GNOME and KDE (at the very least there would be problems). Not having heavy DEs and Flatpaks/Snaps fits with antiX's low resource goal anyway, and using system packages will take a lot less storage space than Flatpaks of the same thing. You can experiment with these other and learn a bit more about how Linux works, or you can just use the default runit and remove the rest if wanted.

The Window Managers: I have only been talking about IceWM as it's what I use. It is styled to look like a regular desktop and be familiar to any computer user, while being far lighter/faster than a traditional desktop. antiX 26 also offers and styles the even lighter window managers fluxbox and jwm, along with the tiling window manager herbsluftwm (requires setup and configuration to personal preference). You are able to switch between them from the login screen and try them all out if desired.

Configuration: There are a few graphical configuration tools throughout antiX (IceWM Control Centre, Personal Menu Editor) but some of the configuration options in the Control Centre will simply open the relevant config text files and allow you to edit them directly. I've learned a lot more about config stuff since using antiX, I feel it allows you to see how things work a bit clearer. It isn't always intuitive, but there is a really solid video guide by StaempunkTV embedded on the antiX homepage that covers just about everything. It's two hours long, but labelled with chapters so it's useful to come back to and check how to change a specific thing.

Installation: antiX provides tools and options for a variety of install methods. Most prominent is their live USB persistence, which allows you to install to an external USB stick/drive that can be plugged into any computer. The system will run in RAM and use storage from the USB stick, so initial boot and shutdown takes a bit longer (moving GBs into or out of RAM). I have messed around with this before and it still functions as a standard antiX ISO too, allowing regular installs to be made. This can be used to have a portable system set up how you like on a keyring, it's also good for devices with very limited storage space (USB sticks are a lot cheaper than harddrives). There's also 'frugal' harddisk installs which put the essential system stuff on an internal disk, but use storage from a USB (kind of in-between live and traditional installs).

Snapshots/Remasters: Another key feature is their snapshot and remaster tools. Snapshot takes a snapshot of the system as is which can be used as a backup or written out into a 'Remaster'. So essentially you can set up/theme your system exactly how you like it and burn it onto an installable ISO, allowing it to be installed on other devices without doing all the configuration again. This is how 'respins' are made; using antiX as a base for customizing your own personal distro that can be shared with others too. These tools have graphical interfaces and allow for much easier and safer experimentation (adding/subtracting features and configs) because you can reinstall a working version if something breaks.


Bugs

*these may already be fixed, it's just what was around when I installed a couple weeks ago.*

antiX has a well frequented, publicly accessible forum that I often scroll through to pick up on potential problems and fixes. A few issues I read about or experienced with antiX 26 were;


Anyway, that's all that comes to mind for now. I obviously really like antiX, but it's not for everyone or every use case. I just wanted to share some of the stuff about it that stands out to me :)

Thanks for reading!