14 DAY TRIAL // Salix Fluxbox, a GNU/Linux distribution based on Slackware that is simple, fast, easy to use, and based on the Fluxbox window manager, is now at version 14.1 Beta 1.
Along with the Openbox version of Salix, the Fluxbox edition is one of the lightest versions available in the series. It’s also the last one to get updated to the new 14.x branch, although this is still a development version and it will take a while until a stable release is made.
Salix is one the few very active distributions based on Slackware, which is a famous and very stable operating system that has been around for quite a while. It has a modular approach and it’s one of the few that uses a rolling release model.
“It's time to revive our Fluxbox edition! Here is a first beta that is mostly untested for now, so feel free to try it out and post your findings.The Fluxbox edition is designed to bring a minimalist environment to your desktop. The default desktop layout is comprised only from the Fluxbox panel and the right click menu will bring up the Fluxbox menu, so it should be really light on resources. The file manager that is used is PCManFM.”
“The default browser in this beta is Firefox. The office applications that are included are Abiword and Gnumeric. Whaawmp is the default video player and Exaile is the audio media library application. Of course, Salix Codecs Installer is also there to install all kinds of restricted codecs that you might need, reads the official announcement.
Salix Fluxbox 14.1 Beta 1 also makes of xdgmenumaker to create a list of installed applications, and it shares the rest of the apps with all the other distros in the series. For example, the Transmission torrent client, the Claws-mail email client, and the Salix System Tools are implemented by default.
The developer also explained that the 32-bit release includes both an i686 SMP capable, PAE-enabled kernel and also an i486, non-SMP, non-PAE kernel.
This is a rather stable system, and if you decide to try it, you should consider using a virtual machine, like VirtualBox for example, before deciding to replace your OS.
A complete list of new features can be found in the changelog. You can download Salix Fluxbox 14.1 Beta 1 right now from Softpedia.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.