Tag Archives: salix os

Lightweight Linux Choices For Older Computers

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I traded laptops last week, trading my newest i3 laptop for an older Centrino laptop. I bought my laptop with this intention, as I really do not need that much horse power for what I do, and another family member can make better use of it.

The best part of the trading is the new ‘old’ laptop sent me down the Linux trail. Because it is an older laptop, the Linux distro it can reasonably run is a little more restricted. A lighter desktop is fine with me as I have come to appreciate function over form.

Why have any processor gobbling cycle time to fill a desktop with monitors and gadgets is not the best use of resources imo. I prefer a less resource hungry desktop for the most part. I am guessing I am an average user, and once I load up a web browser, the web browser looks and acts the same under a lean Linux Distro as it does running in big name distributions.

Lubuntu, PCLinuxOS LXDE, Puppy Linux, Salix OS, Zenwalk, and VectorLinux, all found there way to my download directory. These distributions are known to be both fast and light; any or all of these distros and their close cousins are a good fit for older hardware.

I found a whopping 486 megabytes of usable ram and a sixty gigabyte hard drive on my ‘new’ laptop. I left Windows XP on half the hard drive and formatted the other half to have some fun with.

What I found is Puppy Linux is the very powerful in terms of doing things. Puppy crams an awful lot of system tools into one small package. I use Puppy often to recover files from broken or virus infested Windows computers. Puppy works flawlessly every time I slide the cd in a computer. I have yet to find a situation where Puppy Linux can’t do whatever I need it to do.

Doing whatever I need Puppy Linux to do includes installing Grub if it is over written or otherwise made inoperable. Puppy Linux is small, needing less than one gigabyte of hard drive space if you choose to install Puppy Linux to a hard drive. If you want to load a spreadsheet off of a Windows Hard drive, Puppy Linux can do it with the included spreadsheet. Same for text or document editing. Puppy Linux is one very impressive lightweight Linux Distribution.

Lubuntu and PCLinuxOS with LXDE desktop are practically twins, with PCLinuxOS edging out Lubuntu with some additional bling installed by default. Adding the same few programs to Lubuntu levels the playing field. I thought PCLinuxOS was a tad snappier, but I am fond of PCLinuxOS, so my observations may be skewed. Either distribution has all the software anyone wanting to use the LXDE desktop is likely to want or need. They both are fast, easy on resources, and accept my desktop tinkering with ease.

Salix OS walks a very close walk to Slackware, and as such Salix OS is a very solid distribution. Salix OS like all Slack distros is not the queen of eye candy distros, not that the others are either. The repository is full of software and Salix OS will meet the needs of anyone wanting a fast, solid, light weight distro with Slackware compatibility.

VectorLinux is also sports a LXDE desktop. VectorLinux is the prettiest to look at right from install. VL is fast, and comes with a large amount of programs installed. I think VectorLinux edges out Puppy when it comes to how many programs can be placed on one CD. VectorLinux uses Lilo for the boot loader. For whatever reason, Lilo and I do not think alike.

I installed grub a few times, overwriting Lilo, and VectorLinux refused to load, presenting me with a kernel panic error, except in one attempt when everything loaded and worked as it should. I am sure I caused the problems, though I could not manage to find what I was doing wrong.

I wanted VectorLinux to work for me, as VectorLinux is an easy to manage, slice and dice distribution. VectorLinux has been reported as something not quite Linux by writers more adept than myself. For my needs and abilities VectorLinux has never been a disappointment or led me to a dead end. I downloaded VectorLinux 7, Alpha 4, and it gives a choice of either Lilo or Grub for a boot loader. I hope the final version does the same. Lilo is great of you dual boot, if you want more, you have to make it happen.

Zenwalk is another favorite distro of mine. Though Zenwalk has also been accused of deviating from the straight and narrow of ‘real’ Linux, I find it easy to use. Zenwalk has more than enough packages in the repository to keep most users happy. If there is any downside to Zenwalk, it is Zenwalk walks a pretty close path to Slackware, and Slackware is not intended to be exciting in its looks. Zenwalk improves Slackware’s looks a lot in the looks department, and is a very good choice.

When it came to memory usage, Puppy and VectorLinux reported the most free ram when checked. With the exception of Zenwalk which uses XFCE desktop and needs more memory, all the distros left me with more than enough ram to do everything I would want to do. Zenwalk used a little over half my available ram, which I am sure would still allow me to do everything I would want to do. Zenwalk with XFCE is a quick nimble desktop and distro.

The Linux winner for my desktop was arrived at in an unlikely manner. Puppy garned a slice of my hard drive because it is such an amazing little distro and such a small foot print. As much as I wanted VectorLinux on my laptop, I could not get VectorLinux to multi boot with more than Windows.

What tipped the scales is I made arrangements to recover files and remove virus infection from a Desktop running Windows. The desktop was reduced to unusable by virus and other Windows ailments. While I was removing viruses, the owner thought the Linux desktop was pretty, and noticed his computer was suddenly as fast or faster as it was when new.

He asked if I could install ‘That Linux thing’ for him on his Desktop. I explained the options for install, and he chose to delete Windows completely and learn how to use Linux. I installed PCLinuxOS LXDE on his desktop, installed Gnome Games, and a few other programs. I spent about thirty minutes explaining how Linux works and what he needed to do to keep it running and install programs.

The next day he called me asking how to use a specific program. I had never used that program, and that is what decided the Linux would be on my Laptop for the near future. I installed PCLinuxOS LXDE myself, installed the program and called him back with a solution. Puppy was already on my hard drive by this time.

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Salix OS Linux 64 Bit Overview

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For those that follow  Zenwalk linux, you know the Zenwalk team members decided to go in different directions a few months back. The result is a new distribution named Salix OS, available in 32 and 64 bit torrent and iso files. Added 12/30/09: This review is of  Salix64 13.0.2a

I chose Salix OS 64 bit XFCE torrent to download and install. I had trouble with Transmission on my Mac which gave me a ‘password’ error for the torrent file, so I opted for an iso file from SourceForge which downloaded quickly.

I set up my hard drive partitions using System Rescue CD with a /root, /home and /swap partition before installing Salix OS 64 iso. I may have cheated, or bypassed a possible install problem, but I doubt it. Installing any Linux distribution is not a complicated process, and almost anyone who has installed any OS should have an easy time with the Salix OS install.

Salix OS install is interesting because the opening screen give you three choices for install. The first choice is a ‘Full’ install which loads everything that is included in the iso. The second choice is a ‘Basic’ install, installs only the XFCE desktop, Firefox web browser, and Gslapt package manager. Third choice is the ‘Core’ which installs only the essentials for a console system to start.

I chose the ‘Full’ install which installs a complete operating system using one program for each application. The install was fast. The Salix OS home page states it takes “less than five minutes” for the full install on any modern pc. Installing Salix OS on my laptop was a fast install, but honestly I did not feel a urge to time it.

The only ‘issue’ I had was choosing to have ‘Numlock’ to be activated during bootup. Not a good choice for a laptop keyboard. It took logging in couple of times and getting kicked out before I realized what I did.

One dislike I have of Salix OS is using Lilo for the boot loader. Grub is in transition to Grub 2, so Lilo is the best boot manager choice at the moment. Grub 2 is available in the repositories if you wish to use it.

One treat I found was during the Salix OS install is I was given the option of creating a usb stick boot loader which when used at boot up brings you to the login screen bypassing the normal Lilo boot screen.

Salix OS uses XFCE desktop which I am partial to. XFCE is simple to navigate, allowing one click access to the menu system. XFCE desktop for Salix OS is more complete and polished than Debian’s XFCE desktop. Whether this is important or not is for you to decide. Kde desktop is also available.

Multimedia functions I mainly use are flash,  mp3 rip and playback, and youtube videos. While I completed updating to the most recent packages, I installed Lame so I am able to convert .wav files into .mp3 files.

Gslapt package manager is different, but that does not mean it is bad. Salix OS is a child of Slackware – which I have not tried. Salix OS claims there are as many or more tested and immediately usable packages in the Salix OS and Slackware repositories than are available for  Slackware itself. As far as total number of packages available, there should be enough choices for most users.

If you are a newer Linux user the installed apps should meet most if not all of your your needs. Repositories available via Gslapt have more than enough programs to generally meet your needs. If you still are not satisfied, you probably can roll your own programs directly from the source.

Salix OS appears to be every bit as solid, dependable, and fresh as one would generally want in a Linux distribution. Salix OS is backwards compatible with Slackware but more user friendly with some tuning already done for the user. The repository contains all programs which I need or want, though your requirements may be different.

I am really undecided about Salix OS. Due to it’s lineage, it is a well put together distribution. Salix OS competes on its own with Debian and uses newer package versions. Differences between Salix OS and Zenwalk are not obvious to me, although it is what is under the hood that is different and not necessarily what I see as a user.

In wrapping up, Salix OS is not a flashy distribution like some, at least in my opinion. Salix OS is solid. Each installed applications does the job it was picked for very well. If you want more bling, you will have to install it yourself. If you are looking to move away from Ubuntu or Ubuntu’s children, or another ‘beginner type’ distribution you will find Salix OS a system that is rock solid and dependable.

I have Debian as my primary Linux, but I find myself booting into Salix OS and playing around because exploring and changing settings in Salix OS is a simple matter. If you decide to give Salix OS a try, I do not think you will be overwhelmed,  frustrated, or disappointed. I think you will decide you have made a good choice.

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