Just wanted to say this "plug and play" OS is AWESOME. I was hoping that the site would have had better functionality by now tho, it still has "TODO" here and there, sorry if I come across as ungrateful, but I'm just saying it because such things will ease the interaction of the users and help new users come on board.
Progress is still to be made, but none the less this setup is extremely flexible and I'm just surprised it doesnt get more coverage.
I am really interested where Slax will end up in the next 5 years, as more people are becoming aware of the Linux World.
Slax in five years: An interesting IT trending projection.
1) I see that the need for light footprint custom/optimizable OS tool sets on portable media will become more intense not less over the next five years.
2) The need for cypto-support for peer to peer public key distribution as well as reversible key management is going to get more intense and not less over the next five years.
3) These OS forms are going to merge or extend into smart phone and parallel processing platforms of nextwork clustered shapes for mathematical, network sharing and group security needs.
Can you build a version that encrypts all its data in memory, coordinates with a Crypto key server and can also work in a cloud stack of systems? For that matter, VM versions that fit inside smart phones?
Google translate (maybe some czech reader can do a better job at least on the key issue for eg " did Tomas really said it's over for slax":-
Interview with Tomas attorney at law, author of Slax distros, which two years did not deliver a new version. A few years ago while it was one of the most famous Linux distributions, and its fame extended far beyond the borders of the Czech Republic. What happened with Slax? Why does not evolve and change it again?
Serial confessional
Pavel Koutsky: pirates help the Czech market with e-books
Peter Hodac, InstallFest: active and enthusiastic people decreasing
Paul Šnajdr, vpsFree.cz: commercial hoster do not like us
Czech team at the ICPC World Final: we had to silver
Thomas Matějíček: Slax do not develop it, I can not afford it
All episodes of the series
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Slax
Previous interview with Tomas attorney at law, author of Slax, we did almost exactly six years ago at the trade fair and conference LinuxExpo. It was a time when the Slax LinuxExpo and in his prime, and their fame grew. Today we did a further six years, Thomas is back in Prague Sumperk, this was not LinuxExpo and Slax is not moved for two years. Why?
The latest version of Slax, was released two years ago, what is the status of the project?
Is it really so long ago? So the time flies. The truth is that I really long to touch them and soon will have the resources to make a difference. On the other hand, even though the system is outdated and not updated a long time, it is still fully functional at all reasonable configurations (x86 compatible), more people download it and occasionally write for advice or require some improvement or extension. The old (and probably leaky) version of Firefox or other applications on the distribution of live people do not worry too much, live users take system only as an emergency solution or demonstration.
Hear you and ask users to the new version?
Today, not really. Earlier, about a year after the last version, asked someone every now and then. I think you rock as well as users understand that the development does not take place at the moment and future outlook is not optimistic - if so find a relevant sponsor. I sewed for herself as a whip women, two children (I have two boys, 4 and 5 years) and very high mortgages, and any time spent in their redemption - even if the child is contrary to redeem me. I can therefore afford to Slax invest money or human resources. If I got paid for it, it would be a matter of course different, but all my previous attempts have not met with success not, and therefore focus on activities with which to better fill the family budget.
Today, it also probably is not such a demand for live distributions, or maybe the operating systems in general, people need a browser and the Internet. The operating system is de facto not care.
Thomas' family (also the fourth member)
Have you tried to get to be a sponsor?
Generally I tried Slax "monetize" in several ways, without success. One model was advertising on the Web, but it did not cover even the cost of the server. Another attempt was a public system of gifts, when anyone who wanted to donate any amount, and then blazed his name on the board of honor, but even this did not cover even basic expenses - pay something around 3000 crowns per month per server, which runs as Slax, to build online interface (where the user clicks the package wants to have the ISO file and downloads done according to the ISO specification).
There have been some other business model?
Something occurs to me, but I have no idea if he's stuck. It would be advertising in the form of wallpapers. Currently, many companies need to pay two crowns per click on their ad, and more. It occurred to me to allow companies to add their own wallpaper Slax. Imagine that you need a full-screen advertising company Internet Info on the desktop background (desktop background) Slax, a beautiful picture I'm lovin 'it, or it could be easy to deal with the whole branding (logo graphic at boot time, etc). Technically it is relatively easy for anyone who downloads the Slax, foist any wallpaper. Not only would such advertising jumped to the user repeatedly whenever the use Slax (booted into the graphical interface), in addition to seeing her and anybody else who Slax user will show, and anyone who copies Slax. She would do well on the desktop icon with a link to the site the company or in your browser homepage set to the company website, the possibilities are great. Everything would be to automate the addition, companies should register on the site themselves, they recorded their wallpaper and other graphics, set the price for a wallpaper, and I drove it, even auction - who gives more than that, as before.
Currently (for the years of existence) Slax nearly three million downloads and counting only download it from the main page. If this model has been implemented since the beginning, and if companies were willing to be one such downloaded Slax obrandovaný pay at least as much as pay per click advertising (the two crowns), earned my Slax would be no more than six million, and now we definitely did not make this conversation about "why Slax is dead." However, implementation of such a thing would require currently release a new version, which is quite complicated and tedious and I do not have time. Thus about it I'll only dream about, or I hope he reads this one, and it inspires so much so that it is willing to share the profits of finance it expensive to upgrade.
What is the new version so laborious?
First, it is imperative to issue 64-Slax, but also hold 32 variant. Nowadays, when the average computer has more than 2 GB RAM, 64-bit version is in my opinion necessary. However, this complicates things a lot. Another is the replacement of desktop environment, KDE 3 is old and anything else (whether KDE 4 or Gnome or whatever) requires a complete rebuild all dependencies (libraries, etc) and a completely new analysis, what can I erase (due to size). Finally, it is also a need to upgrade to new kernel and it contained a new compressed format Squashfs (with LZMA support from the kernel). It eliminates the need to patch the kernel (Slax has a squashfs with LZMA unofficial support, which I financed myself years ago), but encountered problems with backward compatibility.
The dloubání nose about now is the time
Slax was (is) aimed at users around the world, it is no one who would help you?
I also addressed the community of users, about 50 000 emails of people who are waiting for new version, with the suggestion that if they want a new version, they can join, send a few pennies each month, and as a result the fund Slax. Joined about 200 people with a few dollars a month, it did not make sense, so I canceled and money returned.
Have you noticed already some attempts to fork?
They occurred even when Slax was still being developed, but their monitoring pursuing too.
Do you think that will come when officially tell the end of the story?
I think that I came, but the result (at least according to the few that I tested) is nothing extremely interesting. No one has the resources to do it properly - from scratch.
Do you think Slax in something unique, to be worth it to continue?
I have not met with any other distros that would in a comparable size (200 MB) offered so many features, including a fully functional compiler and gcc buildovacích tools, KDE, office applications, etc. Packaging Method software in Slax is interesting to unpack packages, but used directly in package form. The entire architecture of the tmpfs aufs overlay allows you to use the system from read-only media (eg CD) and creates a perfect illusion of a fully writable, the user can change absolutely everything.
What distros do you use?
Well at the moment when I need to keep old Slax, of course.
Do you think the chances are that even Slax comes alive?
davame_internetu_obsah
Chance is always, I would condemn it. But like they say "no pain no gain", so I always have to do to add "without money do not go to the pub."
Ok It's not my translation as I use google translate...
I would interpret as
""Do you think the chances are that even Slax comes alive?"
Do you think there is a chance of slax being revive/continue ?
"Chance is always, I would condemn it."
as you stated "chance is always, I would NOT condemn it."
The "NOT" is critical as it turn the entire sentence into the opposite meaning
I would interpret as
would NOT disapproved it ( it refer to slax being revived"
""no pain no gain","
I would interpret as a lot of hard work/sacrifices is required to work on slax
"without money do not go to the pub."
There is no incentive for Tomas to work on slax and without financial incentive users should not expect him to work on slax...
Summary
Development on slax have stop
You may consider slax as
Dead /comatose /in hibernation / in icu...etc
Tomas have not discounted that work may continue on slax
but at the moment he have other priorities
and there is no incentive for him to work on slax
and users should not expect work on slax without sacrifice
""without money do not go to the pub." I don't know if this is a czech saying , but I think most of us can understand (just like "no money no honey :)
My personal opinion is users should use
slax 6.12
slax remix
porteus
in that order depending on hard ware / software.
I am on remix 0.9 mostly and partly porteus.
slax 6.12 no longer play nice with recent openoffice / libreoffice version which I need.
I forsee slax remix 0.9 lasting me at least a couple of years more.
"without money do not go to the pub." I don't know if this is a czech saying
Yes, it is :)
I agree with you. He is concentrating on his family and he currently doesn't have money and time for working on Slax
I used Slax few years ago but the software was very obsolete. I compiled my hybrid Linux From Scratch/Cross Linux From Scratch (x86 and x86/x86_64 versions) and added some packages from Beyond Linux From Scratch. Then I unpacked InitRD from Slax and little updated it so now I have modern Slax-like system for my personal usage :D (however, there are no modules for it, because it uses Squashfs 4 - but i don't need it, I have everything I need build-in ;)
fabiovate@yahoo.com wrote:
Couldn't he ask some support,some funding from the Government of his country,an University?
Cheers.
FV
Czech government is stupid. Tomáš pays about $150 MONTHLY only for server hosting - from HIS OWN pocket! The only way to get a new version is to give him MONEY and find some sponsors who would give money for example for having their ads as Slax's wallpapers, boot logos etc... Slax isn't dead, it only needs lots of money and time that Tomáš doesn't have now.
"Your ad here for $10? Contact tomas@slax.org" - No ad here...
"Slax isn't dead, it only needs lots of money and time that Tomáš doesn't have now."
That means it's dead dude... I just hope it will resurrected some day!
I'm currently NOT working on Slax. However there is a possibility that I will start working on it soon, since two companies are willing to invest some money into the Slax project. Can't tell you more at the moment, since nothing is certain yet, however it seems promising.
