Announcing Salix, a new Slackware based distribution
 

Hi!

I would like to announce the release of Salix, a new Slackware based distribution. Here's the official announcement:

After several months of development the first official Salix release is out! Based upon Slackware 13.0, Salix is 100% version compatible with it and it inherits the stability and design simplicity of Slackware. The Salix installation CD provides three different modes of installation:

1. Full: Everything that is included in the ISO is installed. That includes the Xfce desktop environment, the Firefox web browser and Claws-mail email client, a complete OpenOffice.org office suite, a Java Runtime Environment, the Totem media player and Exaile music manager, the gslapt package manager and several other applications, always following the "one application per task" rationale.
2. Basic: This installs only the Xfce desktop environment with the Firefox web browser and the gslapt package manager. Ideal for advanced users that would like to install a lightweight Xfce and add their own choice of applications.
3. Core: Only the minimum essentials for a console system to start are included. A graphical environment is not provided. This is ideal if you are an experienced user and want to customize your installation for any specific purpose, such as a web server, file server etc.

Except from providing a fast installation of a lightweight, yet complete, Slackware compatible system (a "full" mode installation will take less than 5 mins on any modern PC), Salix also functions as an "extra" quality source of software for Slackware users and their favorite distribution. The Salix repository includes dependency information, so installing software using a package manager like slapt-get or gslapt is very easy.

Last but not least, Salix includes a set of fully localized system configuration utilities, making system administration a breeze for any user.

Our homepage can be reached at http://www.salixos.org

You can download the Salix installation CD ISO from SourceForge (511 MB):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sali...0.iso/download
and a torrent download can be found here:
http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?pa...e80107e46fdb73

The software repositories for Salix and Slackware 13.0 users are available from two mirrors:
* http://download.salixos.org/i486/13.0/
* http://salix.enialis.net/i486/13.0/

As an open-source project, Salix offers a source repository of all software packaged in the Salix repositories, just look in the "source" directory of the above mentioned mirrors. A source DVD ISO that includes all sources used for creating the Salix installation CD ISO is also available from our SourceForge project page (973 MB):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sali...d.iso/download

Huge thanks go to everyone who participated in this effort. This wouldn't have been possible without the input of everyone involved.

Have fun!

The Salix Team.

OK
I'm gonna give it a whirl baby!

OH
whats the requirements?
how much ram, etc is Salix run on?
128 or more?

How much space is used if full install from cd?
thanks

Hi, I have personally tested it on a PC as low as P2-650MHz with 256MB RAM, where it was usable, but maybe a bit sluggish. I have also tried it on an old Acer Aspire 1300 laptop with mobile AMD Athlon XP 1400 and 512MB RAM, where it ran just fine.

A "full" mode installation occupies about 2.3GB of HD space after installation.

OK
so, whats the main diffs between slackware-13
and salix-13?

Meaning(dont get offended)
Why should I want Salix vs Slack?

Whats its selling point?

Well, for one thing, we only have an x86 release for now.

There are no real differences, other than the fact that Salix provides an easy way to install an Xfce (or console based) Slackware system fast and easily using a single CD, without having to go through the package selection in the Slackware installer. You could end up with the exact same system if you installed a custom Slackware and then added some extra packages from the Salix repository and did some tweaking (artwork etc). Slackware is perfect, we don't want (we can't) improve on it. We just wanted to customize it the way we like it.

In fact, the Salix repositories can be used with no problems at all by existing Slackware users to add software to their systems. We already have a somewhat large collection of software in our repository and it's expanding daily. Yes, we know of linuxpackages, slacky.eu and Slackbuilds.org. But linuxpackages and slacky.eu packages quality is sadly not always that good. Quality in SBo on the other hand is very good, but trying to install something that might need half a dozen dependencies, compiled at the right order, using the right versions etc, might get tedious for a lot of people. There are many Slackware based distributions out there, all borrowing from Slackware, but never giving something back. We wanted to do something in that respect.

Sounds Good
My downloads aalmost done

Assuming your gonna expand the salix repo yes?

We already have more than 400 packages in our repo that are not present in Slackware. And yes, we're going to keep adding software to it.

Sounds a lot like Zenwalk to me.

Yeah, except that Salix is fully backwards compatible with Slackware, it doesn't break every now and then and it actually doesn't abuse the GPL by not distributing sources...
Well, all Salix devs for now are former Zenwalk devs, so it makes sense, doesn't it? ;)

That's good news.
Yeah. I noticed that from looking at your site.
Good Luck.

Hey Gapan, nice job. Now I have something to replace Zenwalk 5.2. Though I had to do a bit of tweaking by blacklisting ipv6 and installing the nvidia driver, but that's it...

Still checking it out, but so far so good...Thumbs up...:D..

<edit>Hmm...Just checked a few things out and looks like I didn't need to install the nvidia driver...Never get used to things being automated but never really automate...

Good proposals; I really like the idea of backwards compatibility. I'm downloading.


Good luck

Thanks everyone :)

Well, hello, gapan!
This sounds like it's going to be a pretty well-known distro in the very near future, alright! Bet we'll even be seeing it on Distrowatch" before long. I'm using Vector Linux,..(because I LOVE Slackware, but HATE too much configuring). I'm looking into this for sure...