Salix Forums

I installed Salix 14.0 XFCE version a couple of days ago and I must say It's exactly what It says, a Slackware ready to use.

I started in the Linux world with Mandrake but jumped to BeOS (one of the best OS made in the history IMHO), I was using BeOS for a long time, even after the company didn't support the OS anymore but the lack of drivers and software made it unusable.

So I jumped to the BSD world for a short time and finally back to the Linux world. I was jumping from one distro to another and I didn't feel comfortable with any of them until I installed Slackware.

Finally a distribution that just works, the only negative point is that you need to spend some time on it, overall when you try to install a software not available in the official repositories, you have to deal with dependencies, compile, etc... I don't complain too much about it either, because I like to compile software. The problem is my time at home is limited and I need to work with the computer and not spend time configuring, compiling...

I have been using Slackware since 13.37 version without problems. I was using -current version but It seems after some updates (and probably some packages compiled by myself) caused some problems that made GIMP to work very slow and since most of my work is with this software I needed to do something, I spent a some time trying to solve it but the fastest way was a fresh install. But once again the problem of the time... I knew about Salix and wanted to give it a try.

The installation was just too easy and after reboot I had a full desktop configured, ready to use. It's like a dream, Slackware made even more easier and not time consuming.

Resuming... in a hour I had all my data and software just like before. So, here is a new happy Salix user.

Congratulations Salix developers, keep up the good work.

Welcome from a fellow user. Salix is as easy to maintain as it is to install. Custom source and binary repos add some (optional) dependency checking and resolution. Perhaps you've already discovered slapt-get, GSlapt, slapt-src, and Sourcery.

I also use the related Slackel distro, which is based on Slackware -current. So far that's installed here on a dedicated test PC, though I'm also considering it for production use.

With several old PCs around, I also have an interest in the BSDs, and have enjoyed experimenting with the desktop-oriented GhostBSD. The latest PC-BSD appears to have improved its compatibility with standard FreeBSD ports & packages, so it's also on my list for testing.

Have you been following news of the BeOS-inspired Haiku OS? Have heard some reports that it's ready for prime-time, though likely still at the cult-following stage. In any case, the Other Distros sub-Forum would be the place to find / post info about the BSDs, Haiku, etc.

One or more Salix devs will likely chime in here later, when timezone differences permit. Once you feel comfortable here, entering your location might be useful. Look forward to seeing you on other posts here, too. BTW there's also a Salix Community on Google Plus.

Welcome Kreezii

As an experienced Slacker you should feel right at home with Salix. Welcome to the community!

As you may have noticed, there is a large selection of WMs and DEs available for Salix besides xfce; but these (and the Live version, which has some very user-friendly tools such as lilosetup) aren't quite ready for 14.0 yet. My personal favourite is the Ratpoison edition, though I'm using xmonad for now (till it's ready for 14.0). Betas are available for KDE and Openbox if you feel like giving them a spin.

mimosa wrote:As you may have noticed, there is a large selection of WMs and DEs available for Salix besides xfce; but these (and the Live version, which has some very user-friendly tools such as lilosetup) aren't quite ready for 14.0 yet. My personal favourite is the Ratpoison edition, though I'm using xmonad for now (till it's ready for 14.0). Betas are available for KDE and Openbox if you feel like giving them a spin.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say 'until xmonad is ready for 14.0'? I'm sure you can compile xmonad on Salix XFCE without a problem? I guess I'm confused about what goes into making of a different flavour when the only thing different is the WM

No, I mean till Ratpoison 14.0 is ready. As for what goes in to each flavour, the secret ingredient is TLC or Essence of Bonsai: judicious selection of default applications, careful tweaking of settings, and generally a mix that makes for a pleasant user experience right out of the box, unlike some distros I could mention. And above all, testing, testing, testing - which is where the wider Salix community makes an indispensable contribution.

I'm actually considering making a Salix XMonad and Haskell edition but it's quite a major project.