MX Linux 19.2 KDE Edition Officially Released, Available for Download Now

MX Linux 19.2 KDE Edition

The MX Linux project uploaded today the final release of the highly-anticipated MX Linux 19.2 KDE Edition, which happens to be the first officially supported MX Linux flavor using the KDE Plasma desktop environment since the end of MEPIS Linux.

I’ve been keeping my eyes on this first KDE Plasma edition of the MX Linux distribution since it was first unveiled a month ago. Usually, MX Linux has only released ISOs with the Xfce desktop environment as it aims to be a fast and lightweight Debian-based distribution for 32-bit and 64-bit computers that doesn’t ship with the systemd init system.

So, in order to offer users a more modern MX Linux release, the KDE Plasma edition has been based entirely on the recently introduced Advanced Hardware Support (AHS) ISO, which is only available for 64-bit systems and allows the use of newer kernel and graphics stacks on top of a stable Debian base.

“This will be first officially supported MX/antiX family iso utilizing the KDE/plasma desktop since the halting of the predecessor MEPIS project in 2013,” said the developers. “Adding KDE/plasma to the existing Xfce/MX-fluxbox desktops will provide for a wider range user needs and wants.”

Just like the main MX Linux 19.2 release, the KDE Edition is based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux 10 “Buster” operating system series and includes the usual MX tools, antiX-live-usb-system, and snapshot technology. However, it uses the newer Linux 5.6 kernel and Mesa 20.0.7 graphics stack.

Due to using the stable Debian repositories, the KDE Edition comes with the older KDE Plasma 5.14.5 desktop environment, which is accompanied by the KDE Frameworks 5.54.0 software suite and the Qt 5.11.3 application framework.

Among the pre-installed apps, there’s the Mozilla Firefox 79 web browser, VLC 3.0.11 media player, Clementine 1.3.1 music player, Mozilla Thunderbird 68.11 email client, GIMP 2.10.12 image editor, and the entire LibreOffice 6.1.5 office suite. Of course, you’ll also find all of your favorite KDE apps, including digiKam, K3b, KTorrent, and many others.

This edition also features a dedicated MX Look-and-Feel theme to make it stand out from the flagship Xfce edition, which I find quite enjoyable and minimalist. All-in-all, the KDE Plasma edition of MX Linux looks to be a fast and modern KDE distro, despite shipping with an older and unsupported Plasma desktop.

Without further ado, you can download the KDE Edition of MX Linux 19.2 right now using the link below, and, in the meantime, check out the screenshot gallery to see it in action. This distro is for you if you like MX Linux and the KDE Plasma desktop, but you don’t want systemd.

Last updated 4 years ago

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