The free, open source Linux desktop restores a startup menu for picking the service manager that starts the machine, reversing a v25 change and refreshing a long promised Raspberry Pi edition.
When MX Linux 25.2 boots, the user is handed a real choice that most Linux distributions have long since stopped offering: run systemd, the service manager that starts the operating system and its background tasks, or fall back to the older sysvinit system it replaced. No reinstall, no separate partition. A menu at boot time, and the machine starts the way the user wants.
That small piece of user agency was lost when MX 25 shipped, breaking a feature MX had carried through its 23 line: the ability to switch init systems at every boot, not just at install time. The Register's MX Linux 25.2 review, written by longtime FOSS correspondent Liam Proven, describes 25.2 as restoring that menu. It also smooths the in-place upgrade path from the 23 line, which Proven notes could break MX Tools, the distro's own configuration helpers, in earlier 25.x point releases.
25.2 is an incremental follow-up that tidies the rough edges of the v25 cycle rather than a sweeping new feature drop. The headline change for most users will be the boot menu. The kernel has been bumped to an optional 7.0, which MX users can pick at install time, and the Raspberry Pi edition that has been promised since the v25 cycle is, in Proven's words, still needing further work, but is at least present and installable in this release.
Why does the init choice matter in practice? The init system is the first program the Linux kernel runs and the parent of every service that follows. systemd has become the default across most major Linux distributions over the past decade. It brought faster boot times, unified service management, and tighter integration with modern features, and a different model for writing startup scripts that broke compatibility with a generation of Unix-style shell scripts written for sysvinit. Most distros made the choice once, in their install, and never looked back. MX Linux, however, kept a per-boot chooser in its 23 line for users who wanted the older, more scriptable model for compatibility, debugging, or simple philosophical reasons. When v25 shipped, the chooser disappeared from the boot path. 25.2 puts it back.
There is a caveat baked into that restoration. The Register's framing of 25.2 also leans on a "refuge from AI" hook, a notion that MX Linux might shield users from the wave of AI features being bolted into mainstream Linux desktops. The article does not, in the visible excerpt, specify which AI defaults MX is opting out of or which apps it ships without. That is the editorial framing of the source rather than a claim made by the MX project itself, and it is not load-bearing for the story this draft is built on. The concrete story is the restored chooser, the smoother upgrade, and the Pi edition's status.
The Raspberry Pi edition deserves honest framing. It is in 25.2, and it works well enough to install, but Proven's review flags it as still needing further work before it matches the maturity of the x86 release. Nvidia drivers, a long-standing pain point for any Linux distribution because of Nvidia's proprietary graphics stack, are not described as solved in this release. The honest read is that 25.2 is a measured, careful release that gets the v25 cycle back on track, restores a feature the MX community had asked for, and lays groundwork for a Pi release that is almost there.
One source-side flag is worth surfacing for readers rather than burying. The Register's coverage carries a marker in the captured excerpt that resembles an advertorial or sponsored-content label, "REG AD." Whether the piece is paid placement, an in-house promo, or a regular review mislabeled by the page's ad slot system, this draft cannot independently verify. Readers who care about the distinction should check the original article's byline, disclosure block, and any sponsor notes at the foot of the page before treating the review as straight editorial.
For most readers, the practical takeaway is narrower. If you run an older MX 23 install and have been waiting for a path to v25 that does not break MX Tools, 25.2 is the release to try, on a spare partition first. If you want a Linux desktop that still lets you boot into a sysvinit-style init system without recompiling, MX Linux 25.2 is one of the very few distributions that still does, and it does so without making the user pick sides at install time. The next test will be whether the Raspberry Pi edition matures in a 25.3 point release, since Proven's review makes clear that Pi users should hold off on treating 25.2 as a daily-driver target.