Slax is one of the smallest portables and fast Linux operating systems with a modular approach and outstanding design built to run from a USB stick. It is based on Debian, which gives you the ability to benefit from its entire ecosystem.
Slax works with a plethora of filesystems including NTFS, FAT, EXT4, and Btrfs. Thanks to apt command, tens of thousands of prebuilt packages with applications are all within reach. The distro also features the ability for Persistent Changes which means the modifications will be saved if you run the OS from a writable storage media such as USB stick.
This way, you will be able to boot from flash to perform your daily tasks, save your work, and then continue your work on a completely different workstation without any hiccups because your changes are saved to the writable media.
The previous Slax 9.11 version was released all the way back in September 2019. Today, more than 2 years later, Slax 11.2 is out. So without further ado, let’s quickly take a look at what’s new.
What’s Changed in Slax 11.2
With the Slax 11.2 release, which incorporates all the latest security patches and software updates from the Debian 11.2 “Bullseye” operating system, the developer also announced that this new version comes with included EFI support for USB booting.
Slax Linux 11.2 comes with the Fluxbox 1.3.5 window manager by default. This is to make the system as fast as possible, as well to make the ISO file as small as possible too. If you never heard about Fluxbox before, it is a Blackbox-based window manager that was built for X to be lightweight, memory friendly, swift in operation, and customizable.
Among other noteworthy changes, this release comes with the ConnMan GTK GUI by default which replaces the previously used network connection manager Wicd. On top of that, the network support for WIFI connections has been improved.
Apart from those mentioned above, the Chromium browser is no longer a part of Slax due to its size, but you can still install it with a single click, as well as VLC video player. So, all you need to do is just click on its icon in the App Launcher, and it will install automatically before first use.
Under the hood, Slax 11.2 is powered by the long-term supported (LTS) Linux kernel 5.10.
For detailed information about all changes, you can refer to the official announcement.
Download
You can download Slax from their main website, just choose the architecture you want. Slax 11.2 is only 280MB in size, making it one of the smallest Linux distributions out there. Downloading it on a fast Internet connection shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.
