14 DAY TRIAL // The developers of the antiX Linux operating system have announced today the release and immediate availability for download of antiX 16.2, the second minor update to the antiX 16 stable series of the GNU/Linux distribution.
While work on the antiX 17 branch continues with a complete rebase on the soon-to-be-released Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" operating system, antiX 16.2 is here rebased on the recently released Debian GNU/Linux 8.8 "Jessie" repositories, shipping with a customized Linux 4.4.10 LTS kernel with fbcondecor splash.
"Bug fix version including all updates from Debian Jessie and security patched kernels," reads today's release notes on the project's wiki page. "Debian 8.8 (Jessie), but systemd-free! And it fits on a CD! Great LiveUSB features! As usual, antiX comes in 3 flavors for both 32- and 64-bit processors."
antiX is yet another Debian-based distro that ships without systemd
In the good tradition of the project, antiX 16.2 does not ship with the systemd init system that the Debian Project uses it since the Jessie series, nor systemd-shim. The release also includes LibreOffice 4.3.3-2, Firefox 52.2.0 ESR, Claws Mail 3.13.0, SMTube 17.1.0, GNOME MPlayer, XMMS, and eudev.
streamlight-antix, a tool that lets users stream videos on their computers with very low RAM usage, was also added in antiX 16.2, which is available for download right now on our website as live and installable 32-bit and 64-bit images. However, existing antiX 16 and antix 16.1 users need only to update their systems to receive all these goodies.
Four antiX 16.2 flavors are available, namely antiX-full, the biggest image that includes the IceWM, JWM, Fluxbox and Herbstluftwm windows managers, antiX-base, a smaller image that ships with the Fluxbox, JWM and Herbstluftwm windows managers, and antiX-core-libre, an image that has no graphical UI.
We should note that the antiX-core-libre image is using a libre kernel and it's good for experienced users who just want to have Internet connection and start building their own antiX system from scratch. On top of that, there's also the antiX-core-net image, which also has no X, but it uses the antiX kernel.