AV Linux and MX Moksha are a pair of distros tweaked for audio and music manufacturing, every utilizing a special department of the Enlightenment household of desktops.
The longstanding AV Linux distribution has a new release, AV Linux 25, together with a brand new sibling distro known as MX Moksha 25. Each are based mostly on MX Linux 25, which appeared in November and is in flip based mostly on Debian 13 “Trixie.”
Each editions are based mostly on the newest upstream MX Linux, with the newer 6.15 kernel from the Liquorix project. However there’s unhealthy information for individuals who want to keep away from Lennart Poettering’s all-encompassing system administration suite. Because the version 23.5 announcement puts it, it makes use of:
In case you are decided, it’s doable to switch the Debian init system.
MX Moksha’s desktop is shiny, colourful, and pleasant – and largely devoid of bloat
Though AV Linux solely simply appeared on The Reg FOSS desk’s radar, it has been round for a while. It has its personal Wikipedia article which traces its improvement again to 2011’s AV Linux 5.0, and the docs for version 5 say that model 1.0 was based mostly on “Ubuntu 7.10 with Ubuntu Studio’s -rt kernel” and up to date apps constructed from supply, with the media created with Remastersys.
Since then, there have been a couple of dozen releases. As Distrowatch describes, it is modified upstream distro just a few occasions: first from Ubuntu to Debian, after which in 2020 to MX Linux. It is switched desktop just a few occasions too, going by way of Xfce and LXDE phases earlier than selecting Enlightenment. AV Linux 25 makes use of Enlightenment 0.27.1, the newest point-release following the January release of Enlightenment 27. Enlightenment’s launch numbering system is difficult and just a little complicated – which we might additionally say of Enlightenment itself. Amongst different complexities, there are two lively forks of older variations of Enlightenment. One among these is utilized in AV Linux’s new child sibling, MX Moksha. As a substitute of Enlightenment 27.1, this makes use of the Moksha desktop from Bodhi Linux. Moksha is a seamless fork of Enlightenment 17. The most recent Bodhi Linux 7 relies on Ubuntu 22.04, so it is fairly outdated now. That makes MX Moksha a simple approach to get this unusual desktop on high of a contemporary underlying distro.
MX Moksha is lighter-weight than its large sibling. It is a 2.93 GB obtain and comes with the desktop and an assortment of equipment, together with the MX Instruments for managing your set up, including new software program and repositories, and so forth. It additionally consists of numerous accent apps, such because the Thunar file supervisor from Xfce, the Firefox internet browser, a textual content editor, file and picture viewers, media gamers, and so forth – all the essential instruments you would possibly fairly anticipate. It additionally has numerous instruments for configuring and managing sound and media recording and playback. And that is about it: no workplace suites, chat or e mail purchasers, or anything. Moksha seems shiny and colourful, with large clear icons and a colourful wallpaper of a wildflower meadow. Excluding the swapfile, it takes up about 8 GB of disk area, and in response to the built-in htop command, it makes use of lower than 500 MB of RAM at idle, which is fairly good for 2025.
The total AV Linux is a much bigger and extra critical proposition. It is a 4.12 GB obtain, and takes about 11 GB of disk excluding the swapfile. It is because it comes with an audio-visual toolkit. The Multimedia app menu consists of the Ardour DAW, Avidemux, Handbrake, the Kdenlive video editor, OBS Studio, Polyphone, Yoshimi, and extra, and beneath Graphics there’s additionally GIMP 3.0.4 and Inkscape. What you will not discover are extra prosaic instruments like an workplace suite. Distro creator Glen MacArthur is the guitarist and singer of Rated: Blue, and he is aware of his FOSS media-creation instruments. Maybe, fortunate chap, he would not should take care of workplace tedium.
Other than all the additional apps, the Enlightenment version is barely any heavier than Moksha. At idle, the very best we noticed htop go was 510 MB.
AV Linux sports activities the newest Enlightenment and it is somewhat much less colourful, however can do way more
Though each use the identical installer, derived from MX Linux, a prolonged sequence of questions earlier than you attain the desktop makes the set up of AV Linux fairly a bit extra concerned than the Moksha taste. It asks some uncommon and non-obvious questions throughout setup – and also you’d higher select your solutions rigorously, as a result of though there is a “Subsequent” button there is no “Again” button.
We felt that the solutions to a few of these have been non-obvious, to say the least. For instance, what kind of desktop we wished: “AVL-MXe,” “Laptop,” or “Tiling.” One other was about “Sizing,” which appears to be the dimensions of the fonts in window title bars. Then it asks whether or not you need focus-on-click or old-style focus-follows-mouse – as a Nineteen Nineties setting, Enlightenment is a bit idiosyncratic by fashionable requirements. It additionally would not comply with some fashionable conventions. As an example, radio buttons include no indicator: an empty white circle is on, and a grayed-out circle means out there, however off. Nowadays, graying-out a management usually means it is unavailable. Different questions are about compositing, automated updates, keyboard structure and language, whether or not we wished a taskbar, and a few others we do not normally see.
When you get to the MX Linux installer, we discovered that it did not decide up the present keyboard choices. We added UK English, eliminated US English, and moved on. As soon as put in – and be careful, like just a few others the installer would not eject the boot media earlier than rebooting – you get the identical startup questions once more. After you have answered them – together with keyboard area once more, however right here, UK English was pre-selected – you are on the desktop.
We opted for a taskbar, and on that was a location indicator, displaying the chosen keyboard with a flag. An American flag. By this level, we would already chosen UK English thrice, however the default setting remained US. We went into settings, selected the UK English setting, eliminated US English, and repositioned the dialog field so we might attain the OK button… and the flag stubbornly remained the Stars and Stripes. It is a niggle – it modified after a reboot – but it surely’s an annoying one.
We will not actually assess AV Linux’s audio capabilities. This vulture can play didgeridoo and sing, and that is about it. It is a one-man venture, and as such, it is not fairly as polished as a number of the greater initiatives with extra builders. Enlightenment is a little bit of a wierd desktop but it surely’s very succesful, extremely customizable, and really light-weight – leaving extra reminiscence and CPU to your sound processing. In distinction, Ubuntu Studio makes use of KDE Plasma – in model 25.10, Plasma 6.4 – which is about as heavyweight as Linux desktops presently get.
If sound and instrument recording and enhancing is an curiosity of yours, AV Linux is certainly value a glance. When you’re simply searching for a light-weight however present distro, then MX Moksha is an attention-grabbing addition to the usual MX vary of Fluxbox, Xfce, and KDE Plasma, and its elements are significantly extra present than Bodhi Linux. Each have a lot to advocate them. ®
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