The goal of antiX is to provide a light, but fully functional and flexible free operating system for both newcomers and experienced Linux users. You need at least 256MB RAM, and the installer needs minimum 4.0GB hard disk size. So, If you are looking to revive your old hardware with Linux, well you can give antiX a try.
antiX is based on Debian Buster for Intel-AMD x86 compatible systems and is fully systemd-free. Put simply, it isย Debianย withoutย systemd.
Above all, antiX is extremely fast. Instead of using a heavy desktop environment, AntiX comes with iceWM as the default window manager. It is a lightweight window manager for performing day-to-day tasks on your distro.
In addition, antiX can also be used as a fast-booting rescue cd and works extremely well running ‘live’ with or without ‘persistence’ on a usb stick or ‘frugal’ on a hard drive.
What’s New in antiX 19.4 Lightweight Linux Distro
The latest antiX 19.4 release named Grup Yorum includes updated packages such as Firefox-ESR 78.10, Linux kernel 4.9.0-264 and the latest IceWM 2.3.4.
Major changes:
- Added more options in the installer
- LibreOffice 7.0.4
- SeaMonkey browser included on full and base editions
- ytfzf included. It opens/downloads YouTube clips using mpv/youtube-dl
- Improved and updated localisation
- Latest firmware backported from Debian sid.
- Various upstream Debian security upgrades
- Base edition fits on a cd
- iso-snashot-cli replaces iso-snapshot (gui) on base edition
- Removed Package Installer from base edition
- Removed smtube from base edition
- Frugal install to encrypted partition supported
- Removed virtualbox-guest apps from base
For detailed information you can refer to the full changelog or projectโs home page.
antiX Flavors
AntiX lightweight Linux distro offers 4 different flavors, all systemd-free and available in 32-bit and 64-bit architecture.
Full version is flavor with all the necessary software pre-installed. It is larger in size compared to the other available flavors. AntiX full comes with 4 window managers namely iceWM, Fluxbox, jwm, and herbstluftwm.
Base is the base of the system. It comes with all the 4 window managers that are included in the full flavor.
Core is the core of the system. It has no window manager, cli installation, no UEFI support, no encryption support, but supports most wireless. It is very small in size.
Net is even smaller than core. It does not have GUI installer, no X, no UEFI support, no encryption. AntiX net does not even support wireless. If you want to build your own distro, use AntiX net and connect the wired network to download and configure packages.