Slackel 3.0 "Openbox"

Less than two weeks since the release of 2.0, the developers of Slackel, a lightweight Slackware-based distribution, have announced the release of version 3.0: "Slackel 3.0 Openbox has been released. Slackel is based on Slackware Linux and Salix OS. This is an update release. Changes are: Linux kernel 3.4.8 and lots of updates from Slackware's 'Current' tree. Slackel 3.0 Openbox includes the Midori 0.4.9 web browser, Claws-Mail 3.8.1, Transmission, SpaceFM, OpenJRE 7u9, Rhino, Icedtea-web, Pidgin, gFTP, wicd. AbiWord, Gnumeric and ePDFviewer office applications are included. Whaawmp is the default movie player, Exaile 3.3.0 is the application to use for managing your music collection, Asunder CD ripper, Brasero for writing CD/DVDs and more. In the graphics section Viewnior 1.3, GIMP 2.8.4 and Scrot the snapshot utility." Here is the brief release announcement with a screenshot. Download (MD5): slackel64-openbox-3.0.iso (624MB) slackel-openbox-3.0.iso (686MB).

Slackel 2.0 "Openbox"

 Dimitris Tzemos has announced the release of Slackel 2.0 "Openbox" edition, a lightweight desktop Linux distribution based on Slackware's "Current" branch: "Slackel Openbox 2.0 has been released. Slackel is based on Slackware and Salix. It uses the excellent Salix tools and Salix packages. A collection of two Openbox ISO images are immediately available, including 32-bit and 64-bit installation images that can be burned to a CD. Slackel Openbox 2.0 includes the current tree of Slackware and Openbox 3.5.0 accompanied by a very rich collection of software. Linux kernel is 3.7.10. The Midori 0.4.8 web browser, Claws-Mail 3.8.1 and Transmission are the main networking applications included in this release. SpaceFM is the file manager. It comes also with OpenJRE 7u9, Rhino, Icedtea-web, Pidgin and gFTP." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information. Download (MD5): slackel64-openbox-current-2.0.iso (617MB) slackel-openbox-current-2.0.iso (677MB).

Porteus 2.0 "Kiosk"

Jay Flood has announced the release of Porteus 2.0 "Kiosk" edition, a minimalist Linux distribution for web-only terminals with Firefox as the sole application: "The Porteus community is proud to announce the Porteus 2.0 Kiosk edition. Based on Slackware Linux 14.0 and with Linux kernel 3.7.8 and Firefox 19.0.2, this is a 32-bit system which is entirely locked down to prevent tampering with any of the components (including the browser), making this a perfect fit for kiosks and other publicly available web terminals. The ISO image is 37 MB and it contains only the libraries and utilities which are required to launch Firefox. Additional software may bring along security risks and affect stability in a restricted environment which is why we have removed everything else from this edition." Read the rest of the release announcement for a brief list of features. Download: porteus-kiosk-v2.0-i486.iso (37.0MB, MD5).

Puppy Linux 5.5 "Slacko"

Barry Kauler has announced the release of Puppy Linux 5.5 "Slacko" edition, a small and fast distribution built from and compatible with Slackware's binary packages: "Slacko Puppy is built from Slackware 14.0 binary TXZ packages, hence it has binary compatibility with Slackware Linux and access to the Slackware, Salix and Slacky package repositories. Slacko 5.5 has many improvements due to the heavy development of the woof build system and the many bug fixes to the Slacko base packages. Through the dedication of many testers and developers we were able to produce what is a great working dog Puppy that can rejuvenate your hardware and show it's potential. Release notes: improved SFS manager; improved updates manager - to get the latest; new kernels following LTS branches; improved graphics support, with KMS and Mesa...." Read the release announcement and release notes for more details. Download: slacko-5.5-4G.iso (165MB, MD5), slacko-5.5-PAE.iso (165MB, MD5).

Porteus 2.0

Jay Flood has announced the release of Porteus 2.0, a Slackware-based live CD with a choice of KDE 4, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce desktops: "The Porteus community is excited to announce that Porteus 2.0 final is now available for immediate download. This is the first stable release of our Standard and Xfce editions based on Slackware Linux 14.0. Here are some of the major changes between version 1.2 and version 2.0: Linux kernel upgraded to version 3.7.8; Razor-qt replaced Trinity as the desktop environment for the 32-bit standard edition; all desktops were upgraded to their latest stable versions - KDE 4.9.5, Razor-qt 0.5.2, Xfce 4.10 (Thunar upgraded to 1.6.2), LXDE (latest components except for PCManFM), Firefox upgraded to version 18.0.2; Porteus package manager now resolves all dependencies such as Python and Perl...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details. Download: Porteus-v2.0-x86_64.iso (227MB, MD5), Porteus-XFCE-v2.0-x86_64.iso (186MB, MD5), Porteus-v2.0-i486.iso (228MB, MD5).

Porteus 2.0 RC2

The second release candidate for Porteus, Slackware-based live image set with a choice of KDE 4, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce desktop environments, is now ready for testing: "The Porteus community is pleased to announce Porteus 2.0 RC2, the latest development release of our Standard and Xfce editions. We've cleaned up several minor bugs that were present in RC1 and have added some new features. Please give this a thorough test so we can continue refining everything for 2.0 final. Here is our changelog from 2.0 RC1: Linux kernel upgraded to 3.7.5; fixed a bug with linuxrc not ejecting CDs in copy2ram mode; added a function to rc.M which disables discrete video card for PCs with dual graphics setup; rc.services - added a function for setting brightness when booting on battery...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a complete changelog. Download (MD5): Porteus-v2.0-rc2-x86_64.iso (224MB), Porteus-XFCE-v2.0-rc2-x86_64.iso (187MB).

Slax 7.0.4

Tomáš Matějíček has announced the release of Slax 7.0.4, the latest update of the project's Slackware-based live CD with KDE: "A new version of the Slax pocket operating system has been released. Improvements and fixes include: added 'load=' and 'noload=' boot parameter support to filter loaded modules; better bootinst.sh compatibility with Ubuntu and its clones; PXE now tries to get Slax data over TFTP (from the same server) if HTTP connection to port 7529 fails; fixed a bug which appeared when using from=... to load Slax from a path which included a directory with two letters; fixed URL open in KDE, so clicking a link in Pidgin for example opens it in Firefox instead of downloading the URL by KDE kioslave; support for special files in Slax bundles; the autobuild system now adds a file /run/requires to all modules which require other modules...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a complete list of bug fixes. Download (MD5): slax-English-US-7.0.4-x86_64.iso (219MB).

Slackel 1.0 "Openbox"

Dimitris Tzemos has announced the release of Slackel 1.0 "Openbox" edition, a lightweight desktop Linux distribution based on Slackware's "Current" branch: "Slackel Openbox 1.0 has been released. A collection of two Openbox ISO images are immediately available, including 32-bit and 64-bit installation images. Slackel Openbox 1.0 includes the 'Current' tree of Slackware and Openbox 3.5.0 accompanied by a very rich collection of software. Linux kernel is 3.7.1. The Midori 0.4.7 web browser, Claws-Mail 3.8.1 and Transmission are the main networking applications included in this release. SpaceFM is the file manager. It comes also with OpenJDK 7u9, Rhino, IcedTea-Web, Pidgin and gFTP. Wicd is used for setting up your wired or wireless networking connections. In the multimedia section Whaaw! Media Player is the default movie player, Exaile 3.3.0 is the application to use for managing your music collection and more." The release announcement. Download: slackel64-openbox-current-1.0.iso (607MB, MD5).

Slax 7.0.3

Tomáš Matějíček has announced the release of Slax 7.0.3, an updated release of the project's Slackware-based live CD: "A new version of Slax is available for download. This release adds several new features and fixes a few bugs as well. Probably the most interesting feature is PXE boot support and improved X auto-detection. All modern computers nowadays support PXE, which allows booting an operating system over network interface independently of data storage devices (like hard disks). Slax fully supports PXE booting now. How to do that? One computer will act as a server, so just boot Slax on it from CD or USB and make sure to have the appropriate boot menu option 'Act as PXE server' checked. Slax on the server computer will provide DHCP, TFTP and HTTP services to enable PXE booting for other computers on the network." See the full release announcement for a list of new features and changes. Download (MD5): slax-English-US-7.0.3-x86_64.iso (219MB).

AgiliaLinux 8.1.1

AgiliaLinux 8.1.1 has been released. AgiliaLinux is a Russian Slackware-derived distribution with a custom, dependency-resolving package manager and support for several pre-configured desktop environments. Changes in this release include: fixed problems with dBUS in Openbox causing nm-applet to work incorrectly; fixed dcron - now it creates pid-file and rc-service crond restart works correctly; fixed the PHP build on x86_64 architecture; fixed calculation of required space during installation; added phonon-gstreamer to KDE without which there were problems with sound; support for fbdev video driver and modesetting in live mode; fixed a problem with hostname and NetworkManager; fixed problem with "grey faces" in YouTube and updated libvdpau to 0.5; Firefox now uses the default system language, not English; the mpkg package manager now always uses "safe" mode to update packages; updated Linux kernel to 3.6.11, Qt to 4.8.4 and KDE to 4.9.4.... Read the release announcement (in Russian) for a full list of bug fixes and other changes. Download: AgiliaLinux-8.1.1-x86.iso (3,011MB, MD5), Agilialinux-8.1.1-x86_64.iso (3,108MB, MD5).

Porteus 2.0 RC1

Ira McDaniel has announced the availability of the first release candidate for Porteus 2.0, a set of Slackware-based live images with a choice of KDE 4, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce desktop environments: "The Porteus community is excited to announce Porteus 2.0 RC1, the first development release of a new version for our standard and Xfce editions. Porteus is a lightweight, highly configurable and flexible live distribution based on Slackware that is optimized to run from USB drives, flash cards, CDs or other storage media. The 32-bit standard edition now ships with Razor-qt as the desktop environment, replacing Trinity/LXDE. Some of the more important changes from Porteus 1.2 include: bumped Linux kernel to 3.7.1 and userland to Slackware 14.0; switched to initramfs and added a second initramfs for PXE booting...." Visit the Porteus forum to read the full release announcement. Download: Porteus-v2.0-rc1-i486.iso (235MB), Porteus-XFCE-v2.0-rc1-i486.iso (198MB), Porteus-v2.0-rc1-x86_64.iso (224MB), Porteus-XFCE-v2.0-rc1-x86_64.iso (186MB).

Slax 7.0

Tomáš Matějíček has announced the final release of Slax 7.0, a Slackware-based live CD with KDE 4.9.4 that fits onto a 220 MB CD: "I'm happy to announce the final release of Slax version 7.0, code name 'Green Horn'. After more than three years of silence Slax is back in action and is better than ever before. Slax 7.0 is the major update of the Slax Linux live operating system. It includes the newest Linux kernel, KDE 4 desktop, GCC compiler and lots of other stuff in a 210 MB download. Furthermore it's available in more than 50 localizations, so you can get a Slax that speaks your language. Big thanks to everybody who helped with development and testing. The work didn't end now, actually it rather just started. I'm going to prepare a modules section for the website and bring Software Center in Slax to life. The next step, however, is to start supporting buildscripts." Here is the brief release announcement with a screenshot. Download (MD5): slax-English-US-7.0-i486.iso (212MB), slax-English-US-7.0-x86_64.iso (219MB).

Salix OS 14.0 "Xfce"

George Vlahavas has announced the release of Salix OS 14.0 "Xfce" edition, a Slackware-based distribution featuring the Xfce 4.10 desktop environment: "Salix Xfce 14.0 is ready. With Xfce 4.10 being the centerpiece of this release, CD images for the i686 and x86_64 architectures are available for immediate download. Apart from Xfce 4.10, software that comes installed includes Linux kernel 3.2.29, Midori 0.4.7 as the default web browser, Claws-Mail 3.8.1 as the application to use for accessing your e-mail accounts, LibreOffice 3.6.3 for all your office needs, GIMP 2.8.2 for everything that has to do with image editing and manipulation, Viewnior 1.3 as the default image viewer, Parole 0.3.0.3 as the default movie player, Exaile 3.3.0 as the application to use for managing your music collection and more." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional details and MD5 checksums. Download the installation CD images from here: salix-xfce-14.0.iso (664MB, torrent), salix64-xfce-14.0.iso (680MB, torrent).

Slax 7.0 RC1

Tomáš Matějíček has announced the availability of the first release candidate for Slax 7.0, a brand-new version of the project's minimalist Slackware-based live CD with KDE 4: "I'm releasing the newest Slax 7 build as a release candidate 1. It has KDE 4 with many applications from the KDE network, KDE multimedia, KDE games, Pidgin IM, Firefox, MPlayer and more. The entire system fits to 183 MB for the 32-bit and 188 MB for the 64-bit variant and runs perfectly fine on boxes with 256 MB of RAM and more. This is most likely the version which contains all the programs for the final Slax release. Development tools are still missing though. Before I show you the download links, I'd like to remind you about the opportunity to get Slax on a cool USB device when it is released." See the release announcement for more details, screenshot and a video. Download (MD5): slax-7.0-kde4-2012-11-06-i486.iso (183MB), slax-7.0-kde4-2012-11-06-x86_64.iso (188MB).

Slackel KDE-4.9.2

Dimitris Tzemos has announced the release of Slackel KDE-4.9.2, a live Slackware-based distribution with the very latest KDE desktop environment: "Slackel Live KDE-4.9.2 has been released. A collection of two KDE live DVD images are immediately available that can be burned to a DVD or used with a USB drive. The Slackel live DVD images include Linux kernel 3.2.29. Slackel Live KDE-4.9.2 includes the current tree of Slackware Linux and KDE 4.9.2, accompanied by a rich collection of KDE-centric software. Firefox 16.0.2, KMail, KTorrent, Akregator, Kopete, OpenJRE 7u9, Pidgin, gFTP, GParted, wicd, slapt-get and Gslapt, sourcery. In the multimedia section Bangarang 2.1, Clementine 1.0.1, K3b 2.0.2 are all included. See the release announcement to find out more about the release. Download (MD5) the installation DVD images from SourceForge: slackellive-kde-4.9.2-32.iso (1,002MB), slackellive-kde-4.9.2-64.iso (1,011MB).

Zenwalk Linux 7.2 "Live"

The "Live" edition of Zenwalk Linux (also known as "Zenlive" and based on the latest version of Slackware Linux), version 7.2, has been released: "I am happy to finally announce the release of Zenlive 7.2 - just a few days after Zenwalk Linux 7.2 standard edition was official launched. A lot of fine-tuning and testing was necessary and a lot of packages have been upgraded since the last beta 3 to reflect recent changes in upstream Zenwalk. Under the hood: new xz compression Squashfs 4.0 (now in vanilla kernel); all new simple installer and live scripts; on-the-fly optional live module activation during the running live session; persistent changes feature is now supported, even over network shares; additional packages for more functionality; additional language packs and full Japanese language input support...." Read the full release announcement for further details. Download the live DVD image from here: zenlive-7.2-dvd.iso (922MB, MD5).

Slax 7.0 Preview

Tomáš Matějíček has announced the availability of a public preview release of Slax 7.0, a Slackware-based live CD with KDE 4 in under 180 MB: "So here it is. A small lightweight KDE, recompiled with as few dependencies as possible. I've partially completed my battle with the KDE desktop environment. There is a lot of work waiting in the queue, since there are no applications yet except Konsole; however, it is ready for wider public testing. I am convinced it was worth the effort. Both 32-bit and 64-bit variants are ready for testing. I've configured four workspaces. Try to switch between them using your mouse - simply move your mouse pointer to the very top left of the screen. No clicking needed. You should see the effect." Here is the full release announcement with screenshots. Download (MD5): slax-7.0-kde4-2012-10-20-i486.iso (177MB), slax-7.0-kde4-2012-10-20-x86_64.iso (183MB).

Slackel 14.0

Dimitris Tzemos has announced the release of Slackel 14.0, a Slackware-based Linux distribution featuring the KDE 4.8.5 desktop and a good collection of KDE-centric software applications: "Slackel KDE 14.0 has been released. A collection of four KDE ISO images are immediately available, including 32-bit and 64-bit installation images as well as 32-bit and 64-bit live images that can be burned to a DVD or used with a USB drive. The software included in live images is exactly the same as that present in the standard Slackel KDE 14.0 installation DVDs. The Slackel live DVD images includes Linux kernel 3.2.29 and were built using SaLT (Salix Live Technology). Slackel KDE 14.0 includes the stable 14.0 tree of Slackware Linux and KDE 4.8.5 accompanied by a very rich collection of KDE-centric software." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details. Download links (MD5): slackel-kde-14.0.iso (993MB), slackel64-kde-14.0.iso (941MB), slackellive-kde-14.0-32.iso (994MB), slackellive-kde-14.0-64.iso (1,003MB).

Zenwalk Linux 7.2

Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the release of Zenwalk Linux 7.2, a Slackware-based desktop Linux distribution with Xfce as the preferred desktop environment: "We are happy to release Zenwalk Linux 7.2. After several months of rescheduling we think it's time to let this new jet fly. Zenwalk 7.2 is loyal to its design - providing 1 application per task, everything needed to work, play, code and create, in a single 700 MB CD image, through a 10 minutes automatic install process on any recent computer. Zenwalk 7.2 runs on kernel 3.4.8 with BFS scheduler. The Zenwalk desktop is based on the Xfce 4.10, GTK+ 2.24.10 and 3.4.4, with unique look and feel and perfect ergonomic integration of the application set - LibreOffice 3.6.2, Firefox and Thunderbird 15.0.1, GIMP 2.8.2 and much more. The Netpkg package manager has been improved with multiple mirrors support and better performance." Here is the full release announcement. Download: zenwalk-7.2.iso (679MB, MD5).

Slackware Linux 14.0 RC5

Slackware Linux 14.0 is getting very close to being released, but Patrick Volkerding has decided to play it safe and offer one more release candidate for testing: "Here we go one more time with Slackware 14.0 release candidate 5. Really, this time it is not a drill! Everything is in place and ready to release at this point, and unless there's some kind of showstopper found, the release can be expected soon. After careful consideration and a considerable amount of internal testing I did relent to give the kernel one more bump to 3.2.29, so of course 3.2.30 was released a couple of hours ago. But that's not a showstopper, and it seems to be time to get off the never-ending kernel upgrade treadmill until the next cycle begins. Speaking of kernels, I added sample .configs for all the 3.x kernel branches in /testing." See the distribution's changelog for a full list of recent changes. If you'd like to give it one last round of testing then download Eric Hameleers' unofficial DVD images from here: slackware-current-install-dvd.iso (2,320MB, MD5), slackware64-current-install-dvd.iso (2,275MB, MD5).