A few days ago I mentioned Salix OS, a Slackware-based distribution, as one of my top five distributions of 2010. Even at the end of the year they are still keeping up the momentum and have released the last remaining version of 13.1.2, this time with the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE).
Salix now has images for four different desktops: the standard XFCE, LXDE, KDE4 and since recently Fluxbox. Like the other, the LXDE release is now available for x86_64 as well. Seperate live images are currently available for all but the Fluxbox version.
According to the release announcement this is for the first time "a triple release and it includes a 32-bit installation image, a 64-bit installation image as well as a 32-bit Live CD. The most evident change in Salix LXDE 13.1.2 is that it is the first release in the LXDE series that comes with a 64-bit image, something that has often been requested by our users. So, users of 64-bit systems can now also enjoy the lightness and speed of LXDE, while using the full potential of their CPU."
However, that is not all. Unique to the new LXDE edition of 13.1.2 Salix now also makes compiling source code into native package format even easier by including a tool that downloads compile scripts from SlackBuilds.org and pulls the relevant source packages in, similar to sbopkg.
"Another important change since the previous LXDE release, is the inclusion of slapt-src, a new tool that makes the process of downloading and building software packages from slackbuilds.org simple and easy. Thousands of extra packages are now available through this new tool for our users."
Other changes include that the persistence tool has been updated in the live CD and "persistence now works properly in all setups", updated kernel packages to fix security issues, and an upgraded glibc to fix multiple security issues.
Download links are in the release announcement or here:
Download (all): salix-lxde-13.1.2.iso (469MB), salix64-lxde-13.1.2.iso (438MB), salixlive-lxde-13.1.2.iso (528MB).
I for myself have just tried out the Fluxbox edition and found it is as functional and as easy to use as the other releases, thanks to the included Salix tools and customization to the menu. Great work.
