# First look at SliTaz GNU/Linux 1.0, the smallest desktop distro on earth



## Pat (Apr 2, 2008)

I have to admit that every time I receive an email entitled "New Distro Submission", I tend to let out a little sigh. Is this really something new and innovative that we haven't seen before? Or is it just another remastered Ubuntu or Slax that will die in a few short months? So when Christophe Lincoln sent me a notice about a distribution called SliTaz GNU/Linux, I reacted with the usual scepticism. It wasn't until I noticed the download size of the just-released version 1.0 which prompted me to take a closer look. A full-featured desktop distro in 25 MB? Now, that's certainly something we haven't seen here before!

Small Linux distributions might not be as glamorous as the big, modern operating systems designed to run on the latest and greatest hardware, but judging by the number of searches and enquiries here on DistroWatch, this market is far from dead. After all, many of us have an old box that originally came with Windows 95. While no current operating system will run satisfactorily on this "ancient" hardware, it doesn't mean that it is destined to gather dust in the cupboard. On the contrary. With some of the small Linux distributions available today, it can be brought back to full production, even as a graphical workstation. Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, DeLi Linux and others have made it possible to bring many an old computer back to life.

                 Now there is a new kid on the block. SliTaz GNU/Linux 1.0 is not just another small desktop distro; it is, in fact, the smallest by some margin and just half the size of Damn Small Linux. When it runs, the 25 MB compressed CD image expands to about 80 MB, so any computer with 128 MB of RAM will be able to load it fully into memory, ensuring blazing fast program execution. Computers with less memory can boot it too; with the boot prompt cheat code of "slitaz-loram", computers with 64 MB of RAM are also supported, while those with as little as 16 MB of RAM will be able to run SliTaz as well - the cheat code is "slitaz-loram-cdrom". It goes without saying that the performance of the machine with 16 MB of RAM won't be nearly as good as that of the 128 MB one, but it's still hard to believe that there is an operating system that can run in graphical mode on machines with so little memory.

 So what have the SliTaz developers managed to fit into 25 MB? A lot more than one would expect. The system boots into the JWM window manager with four virtual desktops and a Xfce-like toolbar at the top. It is based on the latest Linux kernel (2.6.24), with glibc 2.3.6, GTK+ libraries and X.Org 7.2. It includes hardware auto-detection modules for network and audio cards, and sets up X with a VESA driver (several screen resolution choices are available during the initial configuration step). Among applications there is the latest Firefox, Ghost In The Mail (email client), gFTP, Transmission (BitTorrent client), mtPaint (image editor), GPicView (image viewer), AlsaPlayer, Asunder (CD ripping tool), Geany (a light-weight IDE) and other small applications. Also included are a CD burning tool and a PDF viewer, while web developers will no doubt welcome the addition of the lighttpd web server with support for CGI and PHP.

                *distrowatch.com/images/screenshots/slitaz-1.0-small.png

*SliTaz GNU/Linux - the smallest desktop distro on earth*
 (full image size: 238kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)

SliTaz is not restricted to old hardware only. Users running it on more modern systems will be able to take advantage of many more applications available from the project's download server, including some heavy-weight ones, such as The GIMP, Kino, AbiWord, Inkscape, or the Enlightenment 17 window manager. The distribution also comes with its own APT-like package manager called "tazpkg", preconfigured for easy access to available packages from the project's server. Using it is simple: "tazpkg recharge" will get the list of available packages and "tazpkg install abiword" will install AbiWord, including its dependencies. The tazpkg utility has its own shell (command "tazpkg shell") which can be a great time-saver while performing a series of package management tasks.

SliTaz comes with other useful utilities, including a hard disk installer, a build tool (tazwok), a program to remaster the CD image (tazlito) and another for creating an image for installation on bootable USB storage devices (tazusb). The project's web site provides good documentation, user forums and mailing lists, and a package browsing interface. The distribution supports two languages: English and French.

After spending a few hours using the SliTaz live CD, I emailed the project founder, Christophe Lincoln, to ask what had motivated him to create SliTaz. Here is his response: "The initial motivation was the desire, then need. Desire to have a fast, robust and simple distro (example: boot with 5 scripts and 1 configuration file). The project is also a kind of a challenge - to see what we can do in 25 MB. The first public ISO was about 15 MB, without Firefox, but with links 2.x - it was usable. I did a little promotion over a few French sites and a tiny community started."

                 Does he use SliTaz on a day-to-day basis? "Yes, SliTaz is my only distribution now. It does everything I need on my Toshiba Satellite Pentium Dual CPU 1.46 GHz with 2 GB RAM. I can run GCC, listen to music, browse the web, write code... all quite fast. You might have also noticed that the web site, forum and our Mercurial repository are hosted on an old, recycled Pentium 3 box with 512 MB RAM (yes people throw away amazing stuff), running SliTaz with lighttpd, PHP and CGI-Python."

 I haven't been this impressed with a new Linux distribution for a long time. A compact package with basic applications, a web server and web development tools, an excellent package manager, remastering utilities and good auto-configuration scripts - all in a 25 MB download. What more can one need? While SliTaz GNU/Linux is unlikely to satisfy every user's needs, the project is a great testament to the old saying that good things come in a small package. It is also a tribute to the infinite versatility of Linux and free software. Give SliTaz a try, you will like it!

                 For more information please visit the project web site at slitaz.org.
Download the live CD image from here: slitaz-1.0.iso (24.8MB, MD5).

Source: www.distrowatch.com
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 246, 31 March 2008

It looks very interesting to me and am waiting for a chance to try it out..Anyone planning to give it a go ?


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## Pathik (Apr 2, 2008)

Looks good. Downloading.


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## ray|raven (Apr 2, 2008)

Wow!, they squeezed quite a lot into it.
I'll have to try it out some time.


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## praka123 (Apr 2, 2008)

seems interesting!


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## FilledVoid (Apr 2, 2008)

Heh I was going to post about this since I got it in my RSS feeds but here is another review from another user. 

*kmandla.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/slitaz-10-on-450mhz-k6-2-256mb/


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