MX Linux Fluxbox Review - For Low-End Laptops

 

MX Linux logo from https://linuxiac.com/mx-linux/

    Recently I have successfully installed MX Linux Fluxbox on my Acer Aspire One 725 (AO725) netbook. I initially wanted to install Bodhi Linux onto my AO725 netbook, but failed. Finally I tried MX Linux Fluxbox, after trying Anti-X linux and some other ultra-lightweight Linux. MX Linux Fluxbox is suppose to be a lightweight Linux for low-powered laptops such as netbooks or very old laptops. Upon bootup, it only takes 337MB of RAM (438MB for Thinkpad X200) before you load any apps. With 4GB RAM, it is still a lot of RAM for for most apps, like the browser but the CPU utilization is close to 100% after running a Chromium broswer and DeadBeef music player. Things likely be slow... after this point from my observation but I have not tried to do anything more than those common things that I usually need to do. 

    Since I managed to install MX Linux Fluxbox, I initially did not bother to use the AO725 much since the hardware specs is pretty low or slow. Even the battery is dead and I have removed it from the netbook. The hardware specs is as shown below:

Acer Aspire One 725

Released Date: Jul 2008

CPU: AMD C-70 1 GHz (Max Turbo Speed 1.33 GHz)
RAM: 4 GB (Max RAM Supported 4 GB)
Main Storage Size (HDD/SSD): 500 GB HDD SATA 3Gb/s / 5400 rpm
Screen Size: (Type) 11.6"
LCD Backlight Technology: LED backlight
Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768 (HD)
Widescreen: Yes
Image Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Graphics Processor (GPU): AMD Radeon HD 7290
Wireless: 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Network Interface: 10/100 Ethernet
Input: AC 120/230 V (50/60 Hz)
Output: 40 Watt

    Due to its low AO725 hardware specs, especially CPU, I just wanted an operating system to at least let my AO725 netbook do the most common tasks as follows:

• Play at least 480p videos (This is the resolution I used for my downloaded Anime videos)
• Play music (I usually listen to music when I use the laptop.
• Surf the Internet and watch Youtube videos online.
• Create or edit some common word or excel files.

My Acer Aspire One 725 netbook running MX Linux Fluxbox

    I upgraded the RAM from the initial 1-2GB to 4GB. I also upgraded the harddisk to a 500GB mechanical harddisk. If I upgrade to a SSD storage, speed would be faster and more responsive when I load apps but I will stick with this for now since I do not use this laptop often. AO725 laptop is more of a test bed for MX Linux Fluxbox right now. 

    My other test platform for MX Linux Fluxbox is an old laptop Lenovo Thinkpad X200. Below are its specs:

Lenovo Thinkpad X200

Released Date: Jul 2008

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 / 2.26 GHz

RAM 7.7 GB (Max RAM Supported 4 GB)

Main Storage Size (HDD/SSD): 500 GB HDD SATA 1.5Gb/s

Screen Size(Type): 12.1"

LCD Backlight Technology: Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL)

Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800 (WXGA)

Widescreen: Yes

Image Aspect Ratio: 16:10

Graphics Processor (GPU): Intel GMA 4500MHD

Wireless: Wi-Fi

Network Interface: Gigabit Ethernet

Input: AC 120/230 V (50/60 Hz)

Output: 65 Watt

    With a faster CPU (almost double in terms of speed) compared to AO725 and double the RAM, MX Linux runs a lot smoother and speed as well. Very usable for normal use. I even use my favourite browser (Vivadli) compared to Chromium. Maybe I should install Vivadli on AO725 since I experience the previous browser taps gets closed and have to manually restore them back (have a shortcut to do this but not default which puts me off). 

    

    As for my personal experience using MX Linux Fluxbox, there are good and bad experiences. 

PROS:

• Low RAM usage so suitable for limited RAM laptops using 1-2GB RAM.
• Pretty responsive when using the laptop. Not too much lagging experienced for the until I tried using the Chromium browser for watching YouTube videos and playing music. 
• Many tools to tweak the operating system but I suspect not many people will do that.
• Default firewall is Uncomplicated Firewall(ufw), my preferred firewall for all my laptops. So is easier to just turn on instead of removing other firewall and install ufw instead for me. 

Cons:

• The kernel gets recompiled, especially during update. You might see missing firmware error messages but since you don't have those hardware, is only false positive but not meant for new beginners.
• Time consuming when recompiling the kernel during update. Not common in other Linux distribution. Likely due to smaller kernel compared to other Linux distribution.
• No open-sourced drivers for some hardware such as Nvidia or AMD Radeon Graphics Processing Unit(GPU) or Broadcom Wireless Lan may have some extra issues depending on whether those hardware can work properly or need to manually install linux drivers for those hardware.
• Running Youtube video and DeaDBeef music player will hit close to 100% CPU utilization. So this limits the usage after running these two apps. 

On a side note, I am using WattOS Linux as a Debian Linux distribution for Debian experience on my laptops. So far is ok but I think it is not meant for low-powered laptops so this review is for this purpose.