Slax is a live linux distro meaning it can run directly from a CD/DVD, usb drive or can be loaded into RAM. The creator of slax is Tomas. He wrote a set of scripts called 'Linux Live Scripts' that will convert your favourite linux flavour into a live distro.

They can be downloaded here http://www.tomas-m.com

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 Slax itself was created from slackware which has always been my distro of choice. It is probably not for the linux beginner but since it's inception i have found it to be the most stable and customizable flavour of linux around. Running from RAM, slax is a lightning fast OS that allows you to complete most basic tasks from the standard vanilla install.

Slax is modular by design which means that you don't need to install the programs. You simply download a pre compiled module of the program and activate it. Activating the file mounts the module into the file system and you are ready to go. If you want to 'uninstall' the program you simply deactivate the module. Very simple.

The slax community are very active, prompt and helpful in the official slax forum and due to recent inactivity by the author have further developed a remix of slax making it compatible with most hardware, and 64 bit systems (need confirmation). The main problem with the standard install of slax (IMHO) has been that the wireless functionality did not work 'out of the box' for a large number of systems. I had to manually install this function and create a script to get it to run at boot time. Since then Fanthom has written a network install tool which is a big bonus.

While slax is designed to be run from removable media, i had no problems putting it on my hard drive and using it as my primary system. I run it along side windows 7 as slax will not run some of the design programs i require on a frequent basis. You certainly could run windows from a virtual box but i find it easier to simply reboot into another OS. Both slax and win7 have extremely fast boot times on my machine.

Pre-compiled modules can be activated directly from the modules section of the slax website, downloaded to your own storage device or you can produce your own modules from the source code. I always prefer to compile my own modules to guarantee that they will run best for my system. Users can create modules and upload them to the slax repository and should respect and follow the outlined requirements of making modules if they choose to upload for other people to use.

When you first boot to slax you are presented with a text prompt from which you are required to login and type 'startx' to get a graphical interface. Inside the control centre you can arrange for an auto login of your user and you need to edit the slax.cfg file (inside the slax folder) and append init 4 to the autoexec= line in order to auto boot to a GUI. Once again the community is a great help to new comers provided you follow the correct ediquette when posting. Be sure to use the search function before asking basic questions as nobody likes to answer the same old questions over and over again. Especially when the person asking the question hasn't bothered to help themselves by doing a little searching. Like most other linux distros, slax is not for the average windows user that relies on only GUI's to get everything done. Some times you need to pop the hood and look into the inner workings of the system to make certain tweaks and adjustments.

I have created various scripts that can make life alot easier for slax users. I created these scripts for my own use and no longer maintain them but you are welcome to use, modify and pass on any of these as you see fit. The following page contains a description of each script and what it does.