This CD is the first based on Slackware 14, and uses the Xfce interface; the others (KDE, Mate, LXDE, Fluxbox, and Ratpoison) will be issued later. It’s for installation only; the live disk will also come later. There’s a very good start-up guide available at the web site (it says it’s for the previous version, but all the advice still applies) and a wiki. If you already have Salix 13.37, you don’t need this disk as the wiki has a guide to updating using the internet. The recommended minimum hardware for a full installation is a Pentium III (pae support required), 512Mb RAM, and an 8Gb HD. Those with ancient machines will have to wait for the LXDE version.

To transfer the iso to USB, use unetbootin. If you need to shrink a Windows partition, do that from Windows first. The installer is a simple, text-based program. You can choose a full installation, a basic installation (select your own software later), or just a CLI Linux (for a server or other special purpose). Unfortunately, the installer doesn’t offer encryption.

The main programs are Midori, Claws-mail, Pidgin, LibreOffice, Gimp, Exaile for music, Parole for videos, and PiTiVi for video editing. Running from the CLI gave a few warnings, but nothing critical. LibreOffice was correctly set up for my locale, with a spell-checker enabled. There is an entry in the menu for installing the patented media codecs, which took just 2 minutes after which all formats played perfectly. The Flash plugin is installed, but those with 32-bit AMD CPUs will need to replace it with an older version. Salix has its own set of configuration tools for tasks like enabling USB speakers and managing services. A new program, Sakis3g, has been introduced to control mobile broadband and 3G mobile is now supported. Extra software can be installed with Gslapt or slapt-get. Gslapt doesn't sort the packages, but the search facility works. The repository is not large by Debian standards, but huge compared with Slackware, with software for most purposes: Ekiga, Gnucash, Gcompris, Dia, etc. Salix also has its own Slackbuilds repository to which dependency information is being added.

It's a pity that Salix still hasn’t got round to providing encryption at installation, but it’s still a great way to get Slackware reliability combined with modern housekeeping tools and an ample supply of software.