Slax - Pocket Operating System
It’s no secret to anyone that the openness, ease of assembly and configuration of the Linux kernel allow you to install the system not only on a hard disk, but also on portable media such as disks, memory cards, flash drives, players, etc., and compactness and Undemanding kernel and related software to resources allow you to start the system directly from these media.
Such "compact" versions of Linux systems are called live distributions . Now there are a lot of them created, for all kinds of tasks. Also, some full-fledged desktop distributions (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Mandriva) allow you to start the system from a CD, so you can easily get acquainted with it without installing it on your hard drive.
In this topic I want to tell you about one of the popular live distributions - Slax. Slax is a Linux kernel-based distribution based on Slackware, designed to run from CDs and various removable drives. To begin, I’ll tell you about its advantages over many similar systems: 1) Compactness Apparently, Slax was originally designed to run from mini-CD, and therefore the size of the distribution was always slightly less than 200 MB. In addition, the latest 6th version uses the squashfs file system and lzma compression for system modules. This allowed us to make the distribution most compressed and fit into it everything you need for convenient work. 2) Portability
Sometimes it is necessary to save some files after working in a live distribution. Slax allows you to do this if the system is started from a rewritable medium (for example, a flash drive), and this is completely transparent to the user. At the same time, you can save files not only within the home directory, but generally within the entire system. Thus, for example, to establish localization, it is not necessary to rebuild the entire base system - just change a few files in / etc
3) Convenience
KDE 3.5.9 and a basic set of programs are included in Slax 6: Konqueror browser, Kopete, KOffice office suite, KPlayer and others. And although many consider KDE to be a heavyweight DE, the developers did a great job here - everything works very quickly and responsively. It also gives ease of use - I think that any Windows user would quickly get used to this system.
4) Extensibility
I already wrote that changes to any files can be saved, thereby you can quickly change anything in the system. In addition, Slax supports a system of modules, which in a working system can be installed in 2 clicks with the mouse, and can also be included in the distribution itself, and installed automatically when Slax starts. Finally, from the Slackware I stayed here pkgconfig package manager, so in Slax, you can install any package from Slackware repository (for example, here)
Application
Slax is not intended to be installed on a hard drive (that is, of course, it is possible, but it doesn’t make much sense). It is best to use it as a compact and portable system that can be run on almost any computer, even without a hard drive (by the way, when my laptop did not have a hard drive, because of the repair, I worked in Slax).
If on your Linux, and you want to use the usual interface and programs on any computer - Slax is perfect for this.
In addition, it can be useful not only for avid Linux users, but also for Windows users, for example, to recover data in case of a severe crash (the damaged NTFS partition in my mode opened perfectly in Slax), or for formatting partitions (let's say to demolish Vista with new laptop :).
PS:In my next topic, I will describe in detail the installation of Slax on a USB flash drive, and also describe the initial setup of the system, in particular, Russification, well, I will make a small selection of modules.
Links:
The official Slax website
A few screenshots
The official repository of Slax modules
Such "compact" versions of Linux systems are called live distributions . Now there are a lot of them created, for all kinds of tasks. Also, some full-fledged desktop distributions (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Mandriva) allow you to start the system from a CD, so you can easily get acquainted with it without installing it on your hard drive.
In this topic I want to tell you about one of the popular live distributions - Slax. Slax is a Linux kernel-based distribution based on Slackware, designed to run from CDs and various removable drives. To begin, I’ll tell you about its advantages over many similar systems: 1) Compactness Apparently, Slax was originally designed to run from mini-CD, and therefore the size of the distribution was always slightly less than 200 MB. In addition, the latest 6th version uses the squashfs file system and lzma compression for system modules. This allowed us to make the distribution most compressed and fit into it everything you need for convenient work. 2) Portability
Sometimes it is necessary to save some files after working in a live distribution. Slax allows you to do this if the system is started from a rewritable medium (for example, a flash drive), and this is completely transparent to the user. At the same time, you can save files not only within the home directory, but generally within the entire system. Thus, for example, to establish localization, it is not necessary to rebuild the entire base system - just change a few files in / etc
3) Convenience
KDE 3.5.9 and a basic set of programs are included in Slax 6: Konqueror browser, Kopete, KOffice office suite, KPlayer and others. And although many consider KDE to be a heavyweight DE, the developers did a great job here - everything works very quickly and responsively. It also gives ease of use - I think that any Windows user would quickly get used to this system.
4) Extensibility
I already wrote that changes to any files can be saved, thereby you can quickly change anything in the system. In addition, Slax supports a system of modules, which in a working system can be installed in 2 clicks with the mouse, and can also be included in the distribution itself, and installed automatically when Slax starts. Finally, from the Slackware I stayed here pkgconfig package manager, so in Slax, you can install any package from Slackware repository (for example, here)
Application
Slax is not intended to be installed on a hard drive (that is, of course, it is possible, but it doesn’t make much sense). It is best to use it as a compact and portable system that can be run on almost any computer, even without a hard drive (by the way, when my laptop did not have a hard drive, because of the repair, I worked in Slax).
If on your Linux, and you want to use the usual interface and programs on any computer - Slax is perfect for this.
In addition, it can be useful not only for avid Linux users, but also for Windows users, for example, to recover data in case of a severe crash (the damaged NTFS partition in my mode opened perfectly in Slax), or for formatting partitions (let's say to demolish Vista with new laptop :).
PS:In my next topic, I will describe in detail the installation of Slax on a USB flash drive, and also describe the initial setup of the system, in particular, Russification, well, I will make a small selection of modules.
Links:
The official Slax website
A few screenshots
The official repository of Slax modules