New Slax is comming

It has been long time ago when I released latest Slax version. The time has come to ressurect the project again. Why? Just for the fun :)

The main decision I had to make is to abandon Slackware. Yes it's true, next Slax is not going to be based on Slackware. Sorry Slack fans. The reason is simple: lazyness. I am too lazy, reall, really lazy. When I prepared Slax from Slackware, I had to patch kernel with aufs, configure, recompile, etc. etc. Then compile other software from sources, fight dependencies, and so on. I enjoyed doing that in the past, but now I'm not in the mood anymore. So, I've selected a different base for Slax. And it is, prepare youself, hold on, hold on, ... Debian.

I had to learn few new things with Debian, but other than that, it is the same as Slackware. I mean, all Linux distros are the same anyway, ... it's all Linux. Debian has the advantage of 'apt-get install aufs-dkms'. This simple command helps me add aufs to the kernel in an instant, and it's the main reason why I selected Debian. Another good reason is the database of packages for Debian, there is hell a lot of them.

So what is it going to look like? When is it going to be released? Well, I have it almost ready! :) I'm going to use fluxbox for window manager, compton for compositing (fading effects, transparency), xlunch as app launcher, xterm for terminal and chromium as web browser. That's it. All of this in a 800 KB download ISO image. Yes, you read it right, 800 KB, that's true, I'm not kidding :-) Standard ISO size is going to be like 210 MB, but there will be also a ~800 KB version which will simply boot everything over network. It will mount the big iso from web and download only the parts which are actually accessed. It can also work peer to peer, so all slax users who boot from network may connect to others to get Slax data (verified by checksum using official server).

If I am in the mood, I will maybe prepare a 1 GB version with some software collection. But at the moment I don't feel that's necessary, you can simply add anything you want using 'apt-get install' (and make a permanent module using 'savechanges' script), and there is no need for many software applications nowadays, since everything is moving to the web.

You'll probably want to see some amazing screenshots. Well, can't show you any yet, since I don't have the most important part for Slax - the right wallpaper ;-) As soon as I select one, I'll show you. Next Slax should be available in about a week or two.

More news to come ... :) Stay tuned, and take care.

User comments