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This is the question that has been bugging me. Fine, I can compile the Linux kernel with glibc, compile gtk2 (and several others extensions), include Openbox, PCManFM and Lxpanel and do the basic scripts needed for it. But then what?
There's already Linux distributions out there that aims to be a bare bones that you can build up. In fact there's 3 (Gentoo, Arch and TinyCore) that I know of. TinyCore even gets the micro-Linux concept right and even the wireless enabled version is under 50MB.
I'm not really sure what SliTaz's role should be anymore. We have the fact that SliTaz runs on older hardware, looks graphically better than most mini distros and that the iso is under 30MB. This all works in our favour, but there is many parts that I can't get to work in my mind.
This is where you come in. Help me define what SliTaz should be so that we can take this distro to the next step. If we don't make the effort now, there might not be a SliTaz (fork or otherwise) to come back to.
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Well m8 for me in my mind i would love to be able to install
software such as zubaddsynfx, ardour 3 and other audio software without
any trouble, and for now we still have some issues with getting them to work "out-of-the-box"
What i love about slitaz uptodate is that i can easaly use sofware such as
Universal-USB-Installer-1.8.7.8 and get slitaz on an usb stick
and when working with the slitaz dist i can easaly just #\tazusb writefs, then copy it over
to the mounted fat32 usb stick from root\ and it works with new software installed as a live system.
so that is my main goal to keep that flexability of slitaz.
Guess this didnt help much 
Maintain the distribution in working condition. That is, correct errors, update the installed programs and regularly issue new releases with new wallpaper and icons. What else you need for a good distribution? 
And new ideas are themselves.
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Ok just very short:
1) compared to TinyCore - support for quite a lot of languages and TinyCore is a snail compared to SliTaz
2) Arch could be a really alternative, but archiso is a pain in the as compared to tazlito. I use CTKArch for ardour - Ardour2-2.8.12 is working out of the box after installation - Gentoo I do not know at all.
and the highlights for me are tazusb and tazlito - like I was thinking a while if I should do the OLA-LiveCD with tinycore or SliTAz and I decided even with the atheros troubles to do it with SliTaz, because it is so easy to keep it uptodate. And I am just working on the new one with the slitaz-libre iso and atheros drivers are working now.
Then installing a computer for total nobs - you install it once and it works ever like this - they have no chance to damage the os - no more phonecalls from the best friends when you have absolute no time for this - you just update it when you meet them, make tazusb writefs and finished - takes 10 minutes. The only thing is, you have to look, what hardware they buy.
For others all this tiny Slitaz programs are really helpful and perhaps the main reason, why the use SliTaz - when you grow up with command line you dont need them.
That what I miss/hate in SliTaz is setting up a usb-printer and the same as Martin - that ardour and co is not working.
But still - SliTaz is the best OS I ever used
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hi all,
me, what i have liked the most in slitaz
was in first, the documentation all was write in french,
very interesting, complete, step by step all was well write.
in general all is write in english about gnu/linux and it is not always easy for me.
and in this project was perfect for me
a kind of debian project all in french
and very iñportant slitaz was create from scratch and no based of a debian etc....
that is about the project, now about the O.S.
i like because it is light, rapid, it is not something "big" like a ubuntu etc.....
it is a light list of software include in teh livecd
and in first , what i like the most is the tools tazpkg tazlito etc....
the objective is make something light but powerfull for me, it is.
now what can it be the futur of slitaz?
i dont know,
i am not interesting by a new list of software a firefox or a midori .....a leafpad or a scite etc.....a game etc.... a xterm or an other.... add a osmo or a viewer pdf etc...
what i like the most is
what the dev. do with a kernel + a busybox + a serveur X and all tools create for make slitaz fun
but u say right, to ask this question, maybe it willbe interesting to speak all together: dev+user of the futur of slitaz
and what u think about this O.S:
http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm
000000000000000000000000000000
ps: sorry for my poor english, i wish my anszer is easy to undesrtand
ps: i ask to all dev
is it possible to create a gui gtk fronted for the excellent nano.... i have search every where but without sucess
thanks all and
happy slitaz user
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I think Black dog is right.
I use Slitaz to do most of the daily activities on the PC, and the main reason for which I chose it was its speed, stability, the fact that I had most of the apps I wanted available and that it's highly customizable. I started from a barebones OS and installed everything that I needed and nothing more. No bloat, no speed penalties, everything runs smooth.
From my point of view, in the future Slitaz should aim at updating existing applications as well as base OS and increase the amount of software available.
You can keep Slitaz going by just making sure it delivers on daily tasks for most users, while keeping the current philosophy in mind, because for users like me Slitaz is the best option out there.
I totally agree with Black Dog and BugRaiser.
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hi BugRaiser and all others,
since a while i try SliTaz on my lifebook and enjoy the way it works.
how and where do i get a "barebones os" to create my own SliTaz only with following programs: secure and fast web browser, office package (like libreoffice or openoffice), pdf-viewer, media player, editor, skype and a possibility to run some important win-programs such as garmin mapsource and trainingcenter.
sorry, i'm an absolutely newbie ;-)
once i downloaded justx-3.0.iso but it won't run. after boot i only get black screen with the pointer?
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i use for call center agents. (slitaz 3)
* it should boot and reboot fast. (now around 1min) (in laptop around 30seconds 4GB RAM)
* all applications should be portable except basic ones (file manager, panel and window manager), if someone wants it, instead of installing, just download it and use it.
* default user should be changed for frugal installation by command line (grub4dos parameters)
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Hi aniguenni,
a) please do not mix subject on same post,
b) if you are a newbie, you should first consult the doc,
c) then you may need to give more details about your problem: what you did so far, did yo try to run the liveCD, error messages, etc...
Happy slitaz.
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I think, the main problem is that SliTaz is mainly targeted for extremely small livecd usage.
Personally, I cannot agree with godane's ideas to create modular slitaz system. Well, it's a good idea, but it seriously hurts the usability.
As for me, targeting simple and fast desktop installations must be primary goal.
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* I believe that a 30 MB iso image to be fully loaded in RAM for LiveCD usage is a great feature of SliTaz. But I agree we need to have an installer easy to use for desktop installs.
* A regular release cycle is another thing we need to focus. A yearly stable release and maybe 2 cooking but usable releases (a release each 4 months).
* On the dev side, control the changes on the cooking repo, making contributions first on the undigest wok, testing, then moving it to the cooking repo (3 months adding features & packeges, updating and fixing, one month wok freeze with bug fixes).
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I agreed with Black Dog and BugRaiser comments. I will just add the need of more documentation. I will like to see Slitaz ported to others CPU,(ARM,etc), with the ability to run on small devices. Slitaz should follow the market's trend. Everything is going small, nets,minis,pda,tables,smart phones.
It will be great to run Slitaz on your PC as well as in your cellular phone. One system for everybody, flexible, small and fast.
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> I will like to see Slitaz ported to others CPU,(ARM,etc)
That needs a developer with an ARM/MIPS/etc system to create a build bot on...
>one month wok freeze with bug fixes
We already froze our repo... And you see, in what condition it is now.
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I can see the role of Slitaz clearly...
I am not a newbie and not an expert, but for me it's nice to get the most important tools out of the box. In Slitaz I can start to use the distro directly after downloading the iso file. Maybe with Gentoo/Arch it would be possible to create smth similar to Slitaz, but this would lead to much work untill the Distro would be ready to use and: why try to immitate smth if you can use the original! ;-)
About Tiny Core: it's probably the ugliest distro ever...
Well I always thought that design and artwork is not so important, untill I saw TinyCore...
Slitaz is based on Gtk instaed of Fltk, probably this is the reason why Slitaz looks much more pleasant.
Debian makes statistics about installation of programms/packages. Maybe smth like this would help to find the most important programms for Slitaz. Maybe the better way wouldn't be to try to get as many packages as possible but some popular programms for everyday usage.
Are there users who use just Slitaz? I really like it but probably it wouldnt be the only OS which I would use. But i would like to use it in 95% of cases and for this I need a webbrowser, an e-mail client, an office-suite, and an image-editor.
So for me a stable Slitaz 4.0 with 300 packages in 2012 would be much more pleasant than a Slitaz 4.0 which 5000 packages in 2014...
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@Sebastian I use SliTaz 3.0 as my base distro with a dual boot copy of Windows XP for stuff that doesn't work in with Wine.
I'm starting to think SliTaz can't be simply defined like TinyCore could. This is probably why SliTaz looks and feels better than TinyCore to begin with. It aims for simplicity, beauty and small size rather than just simplistic small. Not that I think we couldn't learn something from TinyCore - we could for example create a copy of SliTaz with just OpenBox, PCManFM and a simple panel running with nothing else installed - a lite version from which people can add what they want without having to remove a lot of stuff they don't want.
I also think we need to split up the jobs for SliTaz. People can do multiple jobs, but by splitting them up into groups, we can set up goals for each. I was thinking grouping like documentation writers, packagers, kernel compilers, busybox compilers, bug fixers, graphic designers (for themes, wallpapers, etc) and tool makers. That way we can focus on each specific tasks with set goals we want to achieve. It also means we separate the workload into something each of us can manage with our free time. I think part of the problem with why we failed to release SliTaz 4.0 was because we all tried to do all of these at once or just one at a time. This meant that pankso was stuck doing everything and SliTaz as quickly grown beyond a one-man or few-men project.
I tried using other distro's kernels. It doesn't work all that well for the simple reason that SliTaz wasn't designed for it. This means we have to make our own and use our own packages yet again (it's inescapable it seems).
We also can't be like other distros since nothing comes close. I doubt we'll ever be like Slax or Puppy with a state saved file. I don't really think that's the point since SliTaz isn't mean to be a clone of other distros. I also think we should stick to simple packages, but allow larger more complex packages to exist. Maybe even (*gasp*) some proprietary drivers like those used by Wifi cards. Another thing I was thinking about was the use mode modules and services loaded by default. For example, Puppy comes with usb_modeswitch installed with the cdc_acm and option modules loaded by default. What does this mean? It means I can plugin in my cellphone or 3G Modem and I can connect to the internet using a simple dialer program. It's a small touch and it works wonders when seen. As for the overhead? Probably about 150kb extra for the iso so it might be worth adding
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,, Not that I think we couldn't learn something from TinyCore - we could for example create a copy of SliTaz with just OpenBox, PCManFM and a simple panel running with nothing else installed - a lite version from which people can add what they want without having to remove a lot of stuff they don't want."
I think that is a very good idea, but one must have one browser at least. Then one has immediate access to the forum and the documentation.
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Trixar_za: agree 100%
been fiddling around and yea, nothing like slitaz.
trix if you could pop a mail to me i have some ideas i would love to
hand over or atleast some thoughts: ztealmax@gmail.com,
Cheers
Ztealmax "Martin"
@Trixar_za, @michaelbischof
...SliTaz with just OpenBox, PCManFM and a simple panel running with nothing else installed...
You want to create a new flavor between http://hg.tuxfamily.org/mercurialroot/slitaz/flavors/file/tip/justx and http://hg.tuxfamily.org/mercurialroot/slitaz/flavors/file/tip/core-basic
Do it ! it's easy. Using both examples above or http://pizza.slitaz.org/
See http://hg.tuxfamily.org/mercurialroot/slitaz/tazlito/raw-file/tip/doc/tazlito.en.html#rebuild-flavor
Then send your custom.flavor to the mailing list...
The rolling is built with a flavor and 2 commands : http://mirror.slitaz.org/iso/rolling/slitaz-core.log.html
Why nobody creates flavor ?
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Tazlito is a strong SliTaz tool, maybe it's possible to create a website or SCN section with user contributed flavors and ready to use ISO images, like:
SliTaz FlavorName flavor- description (contributed by ContributorName). DowloadLink.
The first one can be the "SliTaz Lite flavor" suggested, with the mentioned packages and tazweb.
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Yea i like that idea something like slitaz-gamer.iso or slitaz-studio.iso
@Bellard is it possible to get compat-wireless.tazpkg for 3.0 and cooking - it was available for 2.0 and improved the standard wireless drivers quite a lot. most problems beside slitaz is not booting to X are wifi problems.
then to improve printer compatibility: what do you think about system-config-printer http://cyberelk.net/tim/software/system-config-printer/ quite small and improves setting up a printer quite a lot.
I think it should be included in a "userfriendly" iso which includes UMTS, powermanagement, printer support and wicd instead of networkmanager...
and as an idea for slitaz-modular:
I use different rootfs.gz like one with only kino to cut videos, one with gimp and scribus to layout flyers - so the consumption of Ram is low and you still have a very quick os....
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@Bellard
Ok, ok, give me 1 week. A slim piece of slitaz needs, as I said, at least a useful browser for the reason that I have given.
A slitaz for the potential use of newbie pupils is not that slim. I must have a more common browser, a pdf-viewer, an office application above abiword, and an html-Editor like Kompozer and, living in Germany, an access to a German-language linux user group for the basics. Slitaz-Forum is for a minority only (Gymnasium pupils), sad, but true.
Well, I will try both, as flavours, of course. The concept of kultex is correct: to have slim variations of rootfs.gz for special purposes. This concept is nerd as conditio sine qua non, though. Would not work with the masses.
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Right now, what I want out of Slitaz is a good learning environment, which in some ways, it is anyway. One of my goals is to take whatever threads I like from here and put them in an organized file of some sort, like a book of fixes.
Printing can be challenge though. I do know that HP works fine with Ubuntu but Lexmark, and a few others don't work as well. That could be a project in and of itself.
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I want it stable, with no fancy stuff, and easy. I am no distro expert, but I am sure you'll find that most distros try to be fancy, and I don't like it. And the ones that aren't fancy are completely bare-bones, and for experts only, thus more work I don't want to do. Then you have stuff like Lubuntu or Debian, well Lubuntu is shit because it bloated, and Debian is fine, but still not easy. Probably the closest popular distro to slitaz's demographic(old PCs) is Puppy linux, which is great but they also do LOTS of fancy stuff. So that is how Slitaz fits in the grand linux scheme in my eyes, it definitely has its place.
I would also like to address repo size by saying a large one is over rated, sure it is nice to customize beyond recognition or "try things out", but as a person who has been there and done that, all it really is is a way to waste time when you are bored. I say Slitaz focus on a basic number of Core Applications, that will suit most peoples computer needs. The standard Slitaz release does this fine, except for the fact that some are not stable(midori). And we should vote on them.
Also while it is kool that Slitaz can say it is 30mb in size, I don't think Slitaz should be afraid to get larger, especially in the name of stability or usability.
Also someone mention whether anyone only used slitaz, well I only use slitaz.
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