AntiX Keeps Going For Low-End Computers

AntiX 13.1 was released this past week for those looking to load Linux on low-end computers. AntiX isn't a Linux distribution about killing off X.Org, but rather is about running Linux on low-end hardware.

The antiX distribution follows Debian Wheezy at the moment with its version 13 "Luddite" series. The antiX 13.1 release pulls in various updates from Wheezy over its original 13.0 release, plus provides various bug-fixes as pointed out on its project page at MEIPS.org.

While antiX 13.1 is just a minor update and the distribution itself isn't new, the low-end claims of antiX are going to be tested soon at Phoronix on low-end hardware as well as an expanded version of our 11-Way Linux Comparison. At the moment, the new comparison is up to 15 different Linux/BSD operating systems.

AntiX claims that its Debian-based distribution can run on systems with as little as 64MB of RAM and Pentium II 266 systems while 128MB of system memory is their recommendation along with 2GB of persistent storage. For newer hardware, there is a 64-bit edition. AntiX 13 uses IceWM for its window manager by default (though other options are available), there's LibreOffice 4 for office needs, IceWeasel is the used web-browser, and the other usual Debian packages are available. AntiX 13.1 is using the Linux 3.7 kernel.

While antiX can run on low-end hardware, it's not exactly the most prettiest Linux distribution in 2013... Stay tuned for our performance tests!