14 DAY TRIAL // The final version of Salix 14.1, a GNU/Linux distribution based on Slackware that is simple, fast, easy to use, and based on the Xfce desktop environment, has been released after a couple of development versions.
The development of Salix 14.1 moved fairly quickly and the final version is now available for download. It comes with a lot of new features, and one of the most important is the support for (U)EFI-enabled systems.
The 64-bit installer has received some improvements, and users should be able now to install this Linux distribution on (U)EFI systems. They will have to choose now ELILO instead of LILO when the installation has been completed.
Another important change that will be noticed by the users is that GPT partitioned hard drives are now supported and this functionality can be found in both 32-bit and 64-bit installers. It should make things go a lot smoother if your hard drives already have GPT partitions, which can be normally found in systems with Windows OSes already present.
The distribution also switched completely to suido, and has replaced the old su package in one of the previous testing releases. This works pretty much like the previous implementations, which means that if you want to give root rights to another user, all you have to do is to add that person to the wheel menu.
“One other major addition (although tiny in size) is the inclusion of spi, a new command line package management tool that is now the recommended way to search for and install packages and SlackBuilds. spi is a tool that acts as a wrapper around slapt-get and slapt-src and also allows dependency handling crossing over to the ‘other side’ if needed. Please run man spi (or gtkman spi) to read how it works, it should be easy enough,” notes the developer in the announcement.
As you can imagine, a lot of packages have been upgrades for this particular release. For example, Gstreamer 1.x packages have been included, but users relying on the old 0.10x packages haven't been forgotten. The new Gstreamer packages have been installed in parallel with Gstreamer 0.10.x.
The major applications from the previous versions have remained largely the same and include LibreOffice Claws Mail, Pidgin, GIMP, Geany, Parole, and so on, including the usual administration tools.
A complete list of new features can be found in the changelog. Download Salix Xfce 14.1 right now from the website.