Few days ago it became known great news along with the launch of the compact distribution «Slax 15″, in which The main novelty that stands out is the return to the use of the developments of the Slackware project. Yes, that's right, as you are reading it after 9 years Slax returned to the Slackware base, because in 2018, the distribution moved to the Debian base.
For those who don't know about Slax, they should know that this is a very light live media distribution from Czech developer Tomas Matejicek. The distribution in its beginnings it was based on Slackware and later (at the end of 2017) Tomas Matejicek announced that had made the decision of that the release of the new version of Slax Linux (at that time) would be based on Debian and not on Slackware.
Tomas Matejicek justified the decision to ditch Slackware Linux in favor of Debian on the grounds that "Debian made his life a lot easier and that he thinks the Debian-based version will make life easier for users as well."
After that (now), Tomas revealed last July that they were playing with a rebirth of the distribution based on Slackware and it is now (in August) that it surprises us with the launch of this new version that is already available.
In the announcement of this new release Tomas Matejicek shares the following:
Slax version 11.4.0 is a new incremental update of Slax based on Debian,
Slax version 15.0.0 is now a new initial version of Slax based on Slackware again.These Slax releases were made possible by generous Patreon backers. If you want to see more releases in the future or if you want to be part of the growing community of people interested in supporting Slax on a regular basis, feel free to join us there.
Both versions provide the same desktop with almost the same packages installed.
Main novelties of Slax 15
I am pleased to announce the new release of Slax based on Slackware 15! The old version based on Slackware dates back to 2013, sorry for the delay 🙂
This new version of Slax 15 that is presented, as we mentioned at the beginning arrives with the system base in Slackware 15, along with which this version of Slax comes with Linux Kernel 5.15 which includes a new NTFS driver with write support, ksmbd module with SMB server implementation, DAMON subsystem for monitoring memory access, lock primitives for real-time mode, fs-verity support on Btrfs, and more more things.
Regarding the user interface, it comes equipped with graphical environment is based on the FluxBox window manager and the desktop/launcher interface xLunch, VTE, a text editor and a file manager.
Another change that stands out from the new version is that Slax Linux bring updated shutdown procedure to improve handling of unmount devices and implement preservation of mounted devices between reboots by removing systemd rules.
It is worth mentioning that at the same time, a corrective version of the Debian-based branch, Slax 11.4, was formed, which includes the proposed package updates in Debian 11.4.
Both versions of Slax (both Slackware-based and Debian-based) use the same software, i.e. the same Fluxbox window manager with the same user interface using the xLunch application launcher designed specifically for Slax and a selection of software identical. The only difference between both versions is the base of the system (one is based on Debian and the other on Slackware), nothing else.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it you can check the details In the following link.
Download and get Slax 15
For those who are interested in being able to test or install this new version of Slax 15, they should know that the builds of the Slax 11.x branch (both Slackware-based and Debian-based) are prepared for the x86_64 and i386 architectures and not they weigh more than 300 mb.