Linux in The News 5-27-24

The MX Linux team announced today the release and general availability of MX Linux 23.3 as the third stable update to the latest MX Linux 23 “Libretto” series of this Debian-based distribution featuring Xfce, KDE Plasma, and Fluxbox editions, as well as a Raspberry Pi edition.

MX Linux 23.3 is here four months after MX Linux 23.2 and it’s based on the Debian GNU/Linux 12.5 “Bookworm” operating system release. This means that most of the packages, including the long-term supported Linux 6.1 LTS kernel, have been updated to the versions from Debian Bookworm’s repos.

As expected, the AHS (Advanced Hardware Support) edition of MX Linux 23.3 comes with a newer kernel, namely Linux kernel 6.8.9, which might be useful to those experiencing hardware issues with Linux kernel 6.1 LTS. The Linux 6.8.9 kernel is offered as a Liquorix flavor.

Other noteworthy changes in MX Linux 23.3 include a zstd compression option for live-remaster (antiX live system), updated OEM installer mode to allow users to select a system language before setup starts, and a new MX Locale function to let you remove all manual packages except the current default system language.

With this release, the systemd init system is now usable on the live system in a rudimentary fashion via the init=/lib/systemd/systemd boot code. In addition, the manual has been updated and divided into language-specific packages, and many languages received updates.

The MX Linux Raspberry Pi edition has also been updated and it now includes the latest packages from the MX Linux and Raspberry Pi OS repositories. MX Linux 23.3 is available for download from the release announcement page as Xfce, KDE Plasma, and Fluxbox editions.

Of course, existing MX Linux 23 users will only need to update their installations by running the sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade commands in the Terminal app or by using a graphical package manager like Synaptic.