antiX 26.1 has been released as the latest update to the lightweight, systemd-free Linux distribution, bringing bug fixes while maintaining a broad choice of init systems.
The release is based on Debian 13 “Trixie” and ships with five init options: runit, SysVinit, dinit, s6-rc, and s6-66, with runit remaining the default. As usual for antiX, systemd and libsystemd0 are absent, as are elogind and libelogind0, while eudev is used instead of udev.
antiX 26.1 is primarily a bug-fix release, so users running antiX 26 do not need to reinstall. The developers note there may still be an issue with some Bluetooth mice not being detected.
On the kernel side, the release includes a customized Linux 5.10.256 kernel across the lineup, while the 64-bit Full edition also provides a customized Linux 6.6.139 kernel.
Rather than shipping a full desktop environment, antiX continues to rely on lightweight window managers. IceWM is the default, with Fluxbox, JWM, and the tiling herbstluftwm also available.
The distribution comes in two main flavors. Full images are about 2 GB and include a ready-to-use collection of desktop applications. Core images are around 660 MB for users who prefer building a more minimal system themselves.
Both are available for 64-bit and 32-bit hardware, keeping antiX among the few modern Linux distributions still providing official 32-bit images.
The Full edition comes with LibreOffice 25.2.3, Firefox ESR 140.16, Claws Mail 4.3.1, CUPS 2.4.10, and a selection of multimedia applications including Celluloid 0.28, MPV 0.40, Xine, and XMMS. gtk-pipe-viewer is also included for watching YouTube videos without using a web browser.
For audio, the 64-bit Full image defaults to PipeWire and WirePlumber, while the 32-bit version continues to use ALSA by default.
Several smaller usability changes have landed as well. The application menu has been reorganized, and the antiX Control Center now includes more entries. The distro also includes its usual collection of homegrown utilities covering system administration, networking, backups, remastering, media playback, Samba shares, and other everyday tasks.
Among the included tools are zzzFM and ROX-Filer for file management, Geany and Leafpad for editing, Transmission for torrents, LuckyBackup for backups, and Xfburn for optical media. Command-line users will also find familiar utilities such as nano, vim-tiny, Newsboat, irssi, mocp, rtorrent, and MPV.
The antiX developers also emphasize that Snap and Flatpak are not included, citing their dependencies on systemd and elogind, respectively.
For more details, see the announcement.
antiX 26.1 is available now in Full and Core editions for both 64-bit and 32-bit systems. Existing antiX 26 installations can simply update rather than downloading and reinstalling the new ISO.
