Waiting for SliTaz

In the comments to my post on the best lightweight GNU/Linux distros, someone pointed out that I had overlooked SliTaz, the smallest desktop distro out there, at a mere 25 MB download. Astounded that the beta version came with Firefox 3, a feat none of the distros I recommended managed to do, I figured I’d give it a try. I was instantly infatuated with it, but, like many a burning passion, the love did not last long. Here are the reasons why I have ultimately removed it from my recommendations.

SliTaz's "Cooking" (beta) edition looks great and is substantially improved, but if I can't log into my USB installation or install Flash, it's not ready to be an everyday system for even my minimalistic needs.

1. Not as Well Reviewed: If a distro did not get overall exceptionally positive reviews, then I cannot recommend it to others. Although SliTaz’s reviews are overall excellent, the review on Linux.com points out a number of challenges with the distro and ultimately recommends it as a “rescue CD” distro or a barebones distro upon which more experience users can build their own systems. Distros with similarly moderate reviews include NimbleX and Slax, which I did not recommend.
2. Wireless & Flash Challenges: Unlike other distros, SliTaz actually made it onto my drive so I could try it out personally, and I have to admit that the issues outlined in the review were issues for me (or my brother) as well. Like the reviewer, my brother had to fiddle with SliTaz to get the wireless recognized, and, also like the reviewer, I could not get Flash installed. Therefore, I can’t really see making an “exception” for SliTaz and recommending it despite the lukewarm review elsewhere.
3. Stable Release Not Better than Puppy: Puppy Linux is amazing because it is so much smaller than other distros but still retains a tremendous amount of applications and functionality. SliTaz is smaller than Puppy, but does so by chopping out useful applications without necessarily adding anything. It still uses the barebones JWM as the window manager. I’ll admit I like SliTaz’s file manager emelFM2 better than Puppy’s Rox, but that’s just a few clicks away in Puppy if I really want it. My trouble installing Flash, which comes pre-loaded on Puppy, make me wonder what other programs SliTaz doesn’t include that I’ll ultimately want but won’t be able to install.
4. Beta Release Better, but…: The “Cooking” version of SliTaz does offer some substantial improvements, but my previous post was looking only at final, stable releases, excluding betas like wattOS. Again, I considered making an exception for SliTaz because I really liked what I saw, but I quickly found out why it was smart to exclude betas in the first place. I found my system dragging in a number of programs, SliTaz apparently stuck in the ’90s when multitasking was still far in the future on my trusty Mac OS. I also found that I was unable to log in after I installed SliTaz to a USB drive, a problem others apparently have as well.

Don’t get me wrong. I was amazed by what SliTaz could do with so little, and I honeslty don’t have much use for anything beyond a modern browser, basic system utilities, and a good-looking desktop environment. SliTaz “Cooking” delivers all of that, but it’s undermined by enough problems that it renders these basics unusable on a daily basis. For now, I’m sticking with my previous post’s recommendation of Puppy Linux as my main system, but I’ll be anxiously awaiting the final release of SliTaz’s next version.