MX Linux 21.2 “Wildflower” Lands, Keeping Things Simple

The latest Debian-based distro doesn’t break new ground, so why is it stealing Ubuntu’s thunder?

The Debian-based distribution MX Linux has announced the release of MX Linux 21 version 21.2, dubbed “Wildflower.” The update continues MX’s tradition of simplicity.

A Wildflower “Refresh” for MX Linux

The developers touted the release in an official MX Linux blog post:

MX-21.2 is the second refresh of our MX-21 release, consisting of bugfixes, kernels, and application updates since our original release of MX-21. If you are already running MX-21, there is no need to reinstall.

The developers stressed that all that existing users of the distro had to do was run the package manager to obtain the latest version.

What’s New in MX 21.2?

As the developers mentioned, MX 21.2 comes with a raft of improvements. The “Advanced Hardware Support” (AHS) variant uses the Linux 5.18 kernel, while the other versions use the 5.10 kernel. The system overall is based on Debian 11, codenamed “Buster.”

The installer application has received bug fixes, and the MX Tweak application has the ability to toggle Bluetooth on and off as well as customize the placement of Xfce file dialog buttons. There are other tools to tweak boot options, retrieve system information for help requests, and to automatically reboot the system when making snapshots. The system will also make sure there’s enough disk space remaining before updating the kernel.

Interested users may download the Xfce, KDE, and Fluxbox-based versions from the blog post or from the MX Linux download page.

A Crowd-pleasing Update Keeps It Simple

While there seems to be nothing groundbreaking about the latest MX Linux version, the system’s updates should please the distro’s users and perhaps attract new ones. MX Linux is currently the most popular Linux distribution on DistroWatch in terms of hits to its homepage. While this may mask the current usage as many Linux users bypass the homepage and download upgrades to their systems directly, it can show how much attention Linux distros currently receive.

MX Linux currently outranks Ubuntu in terms of page hits by a significant margin, making its popularity a major upset over distros that have more corporate support. The popularity of MX Linux shows that Linux is still a grass-roots phenomenon, at least on the desktop.

MX Linux has attracted a lot of support by keeping the system simple, aiming for a “mid-weight desktop.” It seems that’s what a lot of Linux users are hungry for as mainstream distributions grow increasingly complex. Users may want something simpler.

MX Shows Flexibility of Debian

The release of MX Linux shows how flexible the Debian base of the distro is. It’s already the basis of many popular offshoots, including Ubuntu. There are Debian spinoffs for nearly any task that users can think of.