Salix OS

Salix is an open source, free and well-made operating system based on the Slackware Linux distribution and built around the lightweight Xfce desktop environment, which uses a traditional layout.

Available for download as a dual-arch Live CD and installable-only CDs

First of all, we should mention that this the first edition of Salix, which is no longer maintained by the Salix developers. It is available for download as a dual-arch Live CD ISO image, as well as installable-only ISOs for the 32-bit and 64-bit instruction set architectures.

Boot options

Arriving at the boot prompt, immediately after booting the ISO images from the BIOS of a PC, the user must hit the Enter key to start the text-based installation when using the installable-only CDs.

On the other hand, the Live CD will give you the possibility to try the operating system without installing anything on your computer. It supports various languages and allows you to change boot options, run a memory test or boot an existing OS from the first disk drive.

An easy to install operating system

If you want to permanently install Salix on a computer, we feel obliged to inform you that the text-mode installer is not that scary and will require you to choose a keyboard layout and target drive, select the installation source and an installation method, configure and install the bootloader, setup the timezone, enter a root (system administrator) password, as well as to set up users and passwords.

Bottom line

Overall, Salix is a really great operating system for Slackware fans who want to try something new. And, above all, it is fully backwards compatible with the official Slackware Linux software repositories.

Our suggestion is to try the Live CD first and then grab one of the installable-only ISO images, for your architecture, to permanently install the operating system.

What is new in this release:

• kresource-migration window pop-up. Fixed. Thanks to mimosa and aurlaent
• For those installing firefox after installation, having black information box with black text. Fixed. Firefox is now
• black on a lovely pale blue background. Thanks to mimosa
• huge.s kernel is not included in iso. Only hugesmp.s kernel exists. Iso size (32 bit) is smaller.
• the desktop panel doesn't have a clock. Or a tray. When installing on virtual box. Fixed.
• Now bottom panel size is rearranged according to screen resolution.
• kdm background image is darker than desktop image. Fixed.
• The /etc/skel/.xinitrc and /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.kde files are not the same. Fixed.
• /etc/skel/.qupzilla directory. Removed.
• The default search engine in qupzilla is DuckDuckGo and not Google. Fixed.
• libsndfile moved to FULL list.
• libsoup, libgnome-keyring added on BASIC list.
• gtk+3 which is a dep for ibus, moved to FULL list.

What is new in version 13.1.1:

• Lilosetup, a new graphical tool that can be used for setting up the Lilo bootloader has been added.
• New graphical system administration tools have been added; a tool to manage ALSA sound cards, one to manage system hostnames and a small tool to rebuild the system icon cache in XFCE. All salix system tools are now available in a "basic" installation too.
• The installation CDs can now be used as a local repository with slapt-get/gslapt, complete with dependency support. Detailed instructions on how to do that can be found in the README file in the iso images. This will help users with no internet access that are performing "core" or "basic" mode installations and would like an easy way to install extra software found in a "full" mode installation.
• The default start page in Firefox has been changed to: http://www.salixos.org/start
• An older version of the intel driver (2.9.1) is included in the installation media in the salix/extra directory. This is not installed by default but might be of use with some intel graphics cards. You can read the README.intel file in the iso images for more details.
• New packages included in a "full" mode installation: pyxdg, notify-python, libnl, net-snmp.
• All security fixes and package upgrades since the previous release have been included.
• Flash has been removed from the 64-bit release. Adobe has not updated their 64-bit flash plugin for the latest version and the previous version is a security hole. You can read more about the issue here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=921

What is new in version 13.1:

• The "full" installation mode installs all software that is included in the iso images. Mozilla firefox and Claws-mail are the applications chosen for your web browsing and email needs, accompanied by the pidgin IM client, the transmission torrent client and the wicd wired and wireless network manager. A complete Openoffice.org suite is provided for all your office work and evince can be used for viewing documents. Gimp is available for any image editing tasks, while viewnior is the image viewer of choice. Salix 13.1 comes with a full collection of multimedia applications; parole is a multimedia player targeted to XFCE that is lightweight yet fully functional, Exaile is a powerful music database manager and player, Brasero is used for burning optical media and Pitivi is a non-linear video editor that uses gstreamer. Salix by default comes with support for free multimedia codecs only, but installing additional multimedia codecs can easily be done using the "Install multimedia codecs" tool available under the Multimedia menu, if legislation in your country permits you to do so. Developers will find the Geany IDE and everything that is needed to compile software included by default. Other smaller applications, like the Simple-scan scanning application, the File-roller archive manager and more complete the desktop experience.
• Slapt-get and its graphical interface, Gslapt are used for package management and installing software from Slackware and Salix repositories. The Salix repositories offer dependency resolution support and are the largest third party software package repositories for Slackware offered to date, for both the 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Since Salix is backwards compatible with Slackware, Slackware users can use the Salix repositories to add software to their systems, like any Salix user can do, without having to install Salix separately. Custom Slackware 13.1 repositories, that include dependency resolution support are also provided.
• One of the biggest improvements in Salix 13.1, when compared to 13.0, is the Salix system administration tools suite, rewritten from scratch in python/GTK, that includes tools to administer system users and groups, system locale and keyboard settings, system clock settings and system services. These new tools are now easier to use, yet considerably more powerful than their older version. You can find some screenshots of the system tools here: http://picasaweb.google.com/salix.artwork/SystemTools#
• The "basic" installation mode, provides advanced users an installation that includes only a basic XFCE desktop environment, accompanied with the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Gslapt package manager, that they can use as a base to add their own custom selection of applications from the repositories, while the "core" installation mode, installs a console-only system, with a minimal package selection that can be turned to anything the user wants by installing additional software with slapt-get, anything from a web/mail server to adding Xorg and a custom desktop environment.

What is new in version 13.1 RC1:

• v4l-utils added, needed for simple-scan
• ktsuss has been internationalized and already translated in several languages
• tweaked the package update notification tool so that it will hopefully prevent freezes in gslapt
• upgraded a few packages to their latest version available
• cleaned up the repositories from obsolete packages