How widespread is antiX26 in actual day-to-day use?

[olsztynMember]

I have been using antiX 26 since day1 as my new day-to-day system (along with MX 25) and I have not run into an issue that would change this.
This has not changed even after implementation of XLibre, replacing the old Xorg. Still no issue to challenge day-to-day mode.

Looking at the forum there are a few issues reported but nothing of any serious consequence. What does this mean? All antiX users have migrated to antiX 26 from their respective previous versions and very few issues experienced or this means not many users are actually in antiX 26 day-to-day mode yet?
If the latter is the case then I would be curious of what would make such difference from previous antiX versions, which as I remember were embraced almost instantly and lots of users voiced their impressions or raised some specific to their implementations issues…
This time such relatively quiet forum (modula antiX26, not other miscellaneous topics) is actually puzzling…
I hope all is fine and most if not all users migrated to antiX 26 with no issues worth mentioning…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
http://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[RobinMember]

olsztyn wrote:

I would be curious of what would make such difference from previous antiX versions, which as I remember were embraced almost instantly and lots of users voiced their impressions or raised some specific to their implementations issues…

Hi Olsztyn, simple short answer: Sheer lack of time here. There’s a “real life”.

I’m running antiX 26 meanwhile as everyday driver on my 32 bit notebook. But I had still no time to migrate the 64 bit desktop PC also.

The good thing is: antiX always comes up to desktop out of the box on my devices, and wifi works fine. Still, I ran into several issues on 32 bit antiX 26, but it will need more time for investigating whether these rise from the fact that 32 bit support is eroding from upstream debian, from possibly incomplete graphics device support in the 5.x kernel series (nouveau), an issue in antiX kernel configuration (in the past debian kernels have fixed things sometimes, but there are none any longer), from upstream changes in audio handling in trixie or antiX (no sound at all in pipewire mode while this had worked perfectly before here on 32 bit), from whatever python scripts not completely fixed for the changes from python3 to python3 (python constantly breaking things with each next minor version instead of providing backward compatibility within a major version, again and again). There are that much possible external factors this time, that it will take a long time to completely evaluate the migration to antiX 26, before coming up with a full review. Some of these positions I’m working on are:

– Graphics drivers do work basically, and even MPV has no longer the pink screen issue. But this is merely running on CPU fallback rendering instead of using GPU. The hardware acceleration is lacking still. Which slows down working in browsers and other graphic intensive applications which ran fast and fluent on antiX 17 (!), restricts Video playback to low resolutions, and so on. Worst thing is: Switching to console by Ctrl+Alt+F2/3/4 fails completely, instead screen freezes. Also parts of startup shows black screen for a while before desktop shows up, and also system shutdown/reboot shows black screen before, after shorter or longer time of waiting, it shuts down or reboots finally. So all in all, graphics behaviour has improved and aggravated the same time.

– Audio works basically, but only in plain ALSA mode, and in contrast to former antiX versions, there seems no parallel audio playback from several sources possible (not completely tested, sorry, this is why I didn’t mention that before). And audio via Bluetooth still fails to produce any output.

– Virtualbox not available in a recent version on 32 bit, not from oracle, not from the default antiX or debian repos, and also building from sources fails for me with errors I can’t resolve as I’m not a programmer (honestly, I even don’t understand what they could mean).

So all in all, antiX 26 works on my device, but not as good as former antiX versions (in particular antiX 17) did. The impact of harsh dropping 32 bit support and optimising things for 64 bit in upstream debian is feelable already. All this goes for 32 bit. Still had no time to inspect antiX 26 on 64 bit in-depth.

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Brian MasinickModerator]

@olsztyn
I have been using antiX 26 throughout 2025 AND 2026 testing and I use it every day.

There’s one application, Ungoogled Chromium, that does one thing better in antiX 23.2, and that’s audio/video IN the browser. It’s not a show stopper because it works for other browsers; I think that it’s because I ran one of the audio fixing efforts; maybe it was something you or someone who was tweaking with audio did. In any case that’s the only thing other than slightly higher memory consumption (no surprise) in antiX 26, so my conclusion is that antiX 26 is 100% fine for every day use.

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[olsztynMember]

Robin wrote:

Worst thing is: Switching to console by Ctrl+Alt+F2/3/4 fails completely, instead screen freezes. Also parts of startup shows black screen for a while before desktop shows up, and also system shutdown/reboot shows black screen before, after shorter or longer time of waiting, it shuts down or reboots finally. So all in all, graphics behaviour has improved and aggravated the same time.

– Audio works basically, but only in plain ALSA mode, and in contrast to former antiX versions, there seems no parallel audio playback from several sources possible (not completely tested, sorry, this is why I didn’t mention that before). And audio via Bluetooth still fails to produce any output.

Thank you @Robin for this outline of your experience. This is very interesting…

Intrigued by the the quoted section of your extensive overview I should say that I am using antiX 26 32 version continuously on one very low end laptop with a dual core Pentium T4400, with external hi-res monitor sitting on closed lid, with the sole role of playing my darling app aCSTV, which ones you put together for antiX, or some music stations playing continuously. This instance of 32 bit antiX 26 is optimized for video/audio use and by default I am using pure ALSA but it has Pipewire as it comes as well.
So intrigued by your experience I just performed some testing, to make sure I did not miss something previously, and I must mention that in my case:

– Switching to VT2 or VT3 works fine for me, no freezing of system.
– Audio works fine for me whether in pure ALSA mode or after switching to Pipewire, although in Pipewire mode I experience slightly lower volume than in ALSA, which is fine.
– Simultaneous playback from multiple sources appears to work fine in my case, such as running an aCSTV transmission in one window and audio station in a different window, although on continuous use (meaning not this test) I keep the aCSTV muted while my wife listens to her favorite music. I am not sure such simultaneous playback is what you refer to as ‘Parallel’ though.
– Since the default setup of 32 bit antiX 26 on this machine is ALSA only, I am not able to comment on playing audio through Bluetooth.

I am also running by default Runit, still experimenting with other inits, so if you are running any other init then my experience may not apply.
Thanks again for your comments…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
http://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[olsztynMember]

Brian Masinick wrote:

There’s one application, Ungoogled Chromium, that does one thing better in antiX 23.2, and that’s audio/video IN the browser.

Thanks @Brian… What would be an example of such inferior performance in antiX 26? Such as Youtube?

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
http://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Brian MasinickModerator]

@olsztyn I don’t believe that it’s “inferior performance”, I believe it’s from quite a bit of “extra tuning” personally performed in antiX 23.2 which has not been personally performed in antiX 26. I will probably do it at some point just to see if it’s possible, and yes, YouTube video sound would be one example. However, all I have to do is open our default Firefox ESR Web browser and that provides full capabilities.

When I have some “extra time” I may apply some of the same tuning tips, creating a few scripts to allow either Pipewire or ALSA sound; that’s basically one of the things done on 23.2 that I’ve not done on 26, so honing in on that one instance is not a fair comparison; only after I’ve done equivalent tweaks everywhere is the comparison “fair”. I could go the “other way” and say that without the @ProwlerGr “init-diversity tweaks”, antiX 23.2 can’t do MANY things that antiX 26 CAN do, and that’s not “fair” either; both releases can do either thing; they just have to be appropriately configured to do them.

I can run some newer things on 26 that are not available on 23.2, but conversely 23.2 is slightly leaner; all of these observations are expected and reasonable to me; the day to day impact is negligible, especially on my main system, which is capable of easily running resource heavy GNOME or KDE Plasma loads; I just don’t like using them because they are unnecessary for what I do, and that’s why I use antiX – it’s all I really need. I try out other distributions as a hobby, NOT as a NEED.

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[anticapitalistaForum Admin]

Although I have installed antiX-26 to hard drive on this old laptop (Thinkpad L412) and run both 64 and 32 bit frugal installs, I still mostly use antiX-23 version, s6-rc init. Like @Robin , lack of time is the main reason.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Brian MasinickModerator]

anticapitalista wrote:

Although I have installed antiX-26 to hard drive on this old laptop (Thinkpad L412) and run both 64 and 32 bit frugal installs, I still mostly use antiX-23 version, s6-rc init. Like @Robin , lack of time is the main reason.

I have both antiX 23.2 and antiX 26. Over time, I’ll eventually have everything fine-tuned on antiX 26; meanwhile I keep both going; because of the way I update my multiple distributions, I happen to be running antiX 23.2 right now; later in the day I’ll end up at antiX 26 and run it for the remainder of the day.

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[rokytnjiForum Admin]

I have 3 laptops with antiX 26 running successfully. Trimmed em down to runit .
Only the chromebook is MX with no sound,
I work with what I know in a limited way under my current condition

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
Motorcycle racing is rocket science.

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How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[olsztynMember]

rokytnji wrote:

I have 3 laptops with antiX 26 running successfully. Trimmed em down to runit .

Thank you @rokytnji… Just curious, by trimming down to runit you mean you removed other inits?

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
http://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[El TangasMember]

Yes, I use antiX 26 day to day. Was the migration from 23 easy? Not really, I always manage to break the whole thing when updating and need a fresh install. But knowing this will probably happen, I’m always prepared with lots of notes to bring the new system up to speed and a full backup of the old one.
Build back better. Actually it’s part of the whole experience for me 😛

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by El Tangas.

[Brian MasinickModerator]

olsztyn wrote:

Brian Masinick wrote:

There’s one application, Ungoogled Chromium, that does one thing better in antiX 23.2, and that’s audio/video IN the browser.

Thanks @Brian, What would be an example of such inferior performance in antiX 26? Such as Youtube?

The procedure was called asound.bash and it was written by @CalciumSodium and I adapted it to my system.
Sure enough, I fixed one little detail and ran it today on antiX 26 and now Ungoogled Chromium DOES work with audio, so it’s EXACTLY as I claimed. Now at least for my purposes both distributions can do anything I happen to do on a regular basis with no exceptions for me; so my claim was correct – once I finish my custom configurations they BOTH work perfectly!

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[rokytnjiForum Admin]

Yes.
I have enough confusion currently in my life. Every install runs the 6.6 kernel also as primary boot.
So far smoothness is paramount in my day to day situation .
I ran beta release also for a while also.
Which made things easier except for upgrading to antiX 26 from there

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
Motorcycle racing is rocket science.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[olsztynMember]

Brian Masinick wrote:

I can run some newer things on 26 that are not available on 23.2, but conversely 23.2 is slightly leaner

Also I found antiX 26 is so much simpler to adapt to my Apple Macbooks with high resolution screens 2880×1800. On antiX 23 I had to change configuration in multiple places and keep track of what and where. I had to keep and maintain a separate image for Macbooks due to this complexity. On antiX 26 it is way simpler – just change dpi in the Control Centre. Using the same image for Macs and non-Macs now. Perhaps it is Trixie more than antiX that made it possible, but regardless, this simplified scaling capability is amazing…

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by olsztyn.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
http://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Brian MasinickModerator]

rokytnji wrote:

Every install runs the 6.6 kernel also as primary boot.

@rokytnji Don’t know if you’ve been watching everything going on.
There is a new 6.6 kernel, 6.6.137, superceding 6.6.119; if you don’t yet have it, this kernel is available in the kernel section of the Software Installer / Package installer; a fairly serious issue that affects modern browsers and Linux kernels surfaced in the past week; all major recent vintage Web Browsers got the fix; the Liquorix kernel got it, and we put it in our V6.6 kernel in 6.6.137.

Same goes for anyone else using the V6 antiX kernel; make sure it’s 6.6.137

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