Taking a long look at Salix OS 13.37 (DistroWatch Weekly #423)

While "long" in the headline is the key word here, Caitlyn does a pretty good job of covering all the bases in reviewing Salix OS. What's more, she finds that Salix OS is not for beginners, but mentions that with a little attention and with a little initiative, you too can throw off the training wheels of the distros-for-the-masses that top the DistroWatch list.

That's a good thing. I hope that some users who have been on this side of the fence for, say, a year or so and have tried out tweaking their systems will give something like Salix OS a try, if for no other reason to see if their skills have improved.

One thing I had forgotten but bears mentioning (as she does) is that the Fluxbox version of this release includes LibreOffice, which was kind of surprising, but in a good way.

I use Salix OS 13.37 Fluxbox on an old MicroPC TransPort T2200 laptop and it works really well -- and I'm really enamored by the performance. I plan to keep it around for awhile.

Thanks for the kind words. This is the advantage of only writing occasionally for DWW instead of week in, week out. I can take my time, do it right, and submit when ready. There are too many "reviews" that are really just brief commercials for Distro X. I'd rather point out all the strengths and weaknesses.

Regarding your "throw off the training wheels" comment: the only thing more difficult about SalixOS than one of the user friendly distros is the initial installation and configuration. Once you've got it right it is as easy as anything out there. Best of all, it doesn't break. Kind of like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps going and going and going and I don't have to worry about it.

Quoting:There are too many "reviews" that are really just brief commercials for Distro X. I'd rather point out all the strengths and weaknesses.

Indeed, one sees such "brief commercials" for *buntu-based "Distro Xs" on a weekly basis, even here at LXer . Here is hoping that SalixOS breaks into the top-20 DistroWatch-ranked distros relatively soon!

lcafiero: thanks for reviewing the review. i have given up on reading reviews because as is said above, many of them don't say much. i might actually go out and read this one :-)

greetings, eMBee.

Brand X, as tuxchick calls it, picked up my review today. Maybe they should start calling themselves Linux This Week :)