 Visitor Reviews |
|
Reader supplied reviews for SliTaz GNU/Linux
Average rating
7.3 from 10 review(s)
Version: cooking
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-03
Votes: 5
|
Latest November 2025 version is a tiny 54.3 MB ISO and is at the extreme 'lite' end for resurrecting very old hardware,
Not as small as Tiny Core, but more usable IMO. I transferred the ISO to a 2 GB USB stick and booted an old core 2 duo Dell machine with it in legacy mode - doesn't appear to support UEFI booting which is not common on very old hardware anyway.
Picked up the wi-fi automatically and while claims of it being able to run in 256 MB of RAM can't be verified, it does have a very low resource footprint that should make it possible to run on machines with very limited RAM.
As a last resort for getting ancient hardware to be useful again, can't fault it, but I suspect I got lucky with it recognising my wi-fi and you'll probably need a wired connection to get online on a lot of machines.
|
Version: cooking
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-07-07
Votes: 7
|
Long time ago I used SliTaz-3.0 on my very ancient home pc, as on my Lifebook I installed Slitaz-4.0 and parallel the cooking version. It was not everything working "out-of-the-box". But with the helpful documentation and the great support from the SliTaz forum nearly everything could be managed. And after this, I really loved to work and play with this amazing OS.
After my Lifebook got broken and I was travelling a lot, There was no time and no opportunity anymore to stay with the SliTaz team. Several times I had a look onto the SliTaz website and gladly saw, there is still activity, even without getting new releases.
Now after returning back home, I lloked closer again to this really nice and impressive distro. And I am really impressed of the help of the members. At the moment I work with a convertible with the poor and cheap baytrail board. Originally there was WIN 8.1 on it. Then I swiched to WIN10. But as the support ends in october, I tried several Linux distros and just a view ones recognize all of the hardware of this convertible. I had to figure out, how to boot the 32bit uefi in combination with the 64bit processor. And allof this could be managed with the assistence of the kind and friendly SliTaz team. Tere is new work on a "current" version of SliTaz with the Linux-5.10.238 kernel. This is, what I try now and how I'm impressed, how it works on this convertible. It's an amazing speed, very less battery consumption, no bloatware. The size of the iso is Just around 100 Mb, with everything I need for the beginning.
What more should I expect out of this? I'm really amazed and happy to get back to this great distro.
|
Version: cooking
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-02-18
Votes: 5
|
I cant belive what a quick system it is, how compatible it is, how much software is bundled into such a tiny package. I love this distro, and every few years when I come back to it I am so glad to see it is still developed. It's one of linux's gems for sure,
For me for getting old computers back online, doing a first diagnostic of them, and for rescuing data I have found some very useful scenarios for SliTaz. It is also more than capable of being run as a daily driver, and it's quite funny to watch a 15 year old celeron PC out-doing a brand new i3 running windows and all its invasive bloatware.
|
Version: cooking
Rating: 1
Date: 2023-08-12
Votes: 27
|
SliTaz used to be a great little distro, up to version 4.
Mobile broadband was a pain to set up, but it was doable, and once set up, it just worked.
I used Slitaz for quite some time on an EeePC 4G, when my desktop machine died, and it was also good for data recovery from unbootable systems, even if it was lacking in software in comparison to the big distros.
Version 5 was supposed to be the ever up to date 'cooking' rolling release, but it seems that it was put on a back burner on the lowest heat setting possible. It's rolling so slowly, it's gathering moss.
Everything in SliTaz is so out of date as to be a security risk.
I don't really see how SliTaz can be truly considered to be active, when it does not actually roll with the freely available updates and source code.
It's a shame, because SliTaz has a very good GUI, and is a very easy system to use.
But use it at great risk to your data security and integrity.
|
Version: 4.0
Rating: 7
Date: 2023-05-16
Votes: 28
|
Well...so over the last few weeks I tried 22 different distros. SlizTaz is the one I really, really wanted to work and was the only one I could not get WiFi to work on.
What i think is going on is it does not recognize my WiFi hardware unlike 21 other distros. Unfortunately there are many SlizTaz documents for setting up WiFi,meant for various SlizTaz versions that,in general, are not identified. Several of the terminal commands either do not exist, the parameters have changed,or the scripts the run with were not updated. For example one doc instructs you to issues the following:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
lspci | grep -i network
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
good except in the version I am in running it tells you the flags are -k and -m and it does not recognize -i
The docs also note this:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SliTaz-4.0 and newer:
wifi-box was renamed to wifibox
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nope, I was running rolling and it is wifi-box
and then there is this:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The following commands do all of the above steps. This is also the easiest way:
# tazhw detect-pci --get-firmware
# /etc/init.d/network.sh restart
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
when the commands are run, it does not find things, fail on restart and indicates errors.
So the issue is the documentation is not in sync with the versions, even the doc with the installation does not match the distro. I am sure a Linux administrator who had seen what WiFi cards look like and new what drivers are needed and how to install them could adroitly navigate my issue; but sadly that does not (yet) describe me. I am reliant on the documentation which seems not to match the current version.
All that being said, I love the desktop, the blazing speed, I really want to get this working,
I also note the kernel is very dated and in the forum their seems to be some debate about the future of the distro. IMO, it would be a shame if SliTaz disappears. This is a nice distro, in a narrow niche where it is sorely needed.
So how to rate it, for a Linux system admin with experience this is likely a 9.0, For someone not afraid of a command line but is not a hard core Linux admin this is likely a 7.0 due to the documentation. For someone who is a GUI type with limited command line experience this is likely 5.0 . So I averaged the scores,and for now call SlizTaz a 7.0
In the end it is a great distro that simply needs a little attention. If I can get the WiFi configured and use it for some time I'll likely see if I can help them organize the docs.
tfb
|
Version: cooking
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-03-09
Votes: 5
|
I used to run this years ago. I loved that it had such a small system footprint, and when I have a huge HD, extra space is great. I liked the look and feel, good skins and wallpaper. One downside was that my live cd wouldn't recognize my wifi. Eventually I had to switch to another distro because of issues with Wine, which was because the SliTaz team was using a VERY outdated kernel. I didn't mind the mild learning curve or the unique package system - you can convert anyway.
Please come back, SliTaz!
|
Version: cooking
Rating: 9
Date: 2022-09-16
Votes: 4
|
It's fantastic, I'm running slitaz on a 1GB 1.6GHz single core notebook, I have not seen yet a memory usage higher than 400 MB. Slitaz It's very fast and lightweight, providing a complete desktop experience, compared to his dimension. On the other hand, on tazpkg there is not so much choiche of package, only the essentials packages are provide, more thant enough for my usage of slitaz.
pros:
very very lightweight
out-of-the-box support for all the basics and preinstalled application and drivers
cons:
package not updated and limited choiche
a little bit of trouble in the installation process(64bit machine, coocking, not all the flavors worked after the installation, I needed to redownload the iso in the live process in order to install on the drive, maybe my foult)
|
Version: cooking
Rating: 9
Date: 2022-04-20
Votes: 3
|
SliTaz, well well, such an awesome little distro I wish had updated packages. I installed it on my 500GB HDD(overkill) with 8GB of ram(again overkill as a 32bit os, it uses only 4 at max.) It works like a charm, Openbox with LXDE gives you decent amount of desktop customization. Sure it won't be your cutting edge Linux distro but if you want to bring an old PC/Laptop back to life, it does it well.
Pros:
- Currently with a GUI, firefox with 1 tab opened and 1 instance of terminal its consuming 306MB of Ram. I've installed some packages already otherwise install on a HDD comes around 170MB.
- Out of the box Audio, ethernet, wlan support. Most of essential applications like a browser, text editor, few games, video/audio player, image viewer, pdf viewer are available.
- Its own package manager (command line) which is easy to use.
Cons:
- Outdated packages, like the Firefox version I get from default repository is 77, back from 2020. Gimp on official repository is at 2.8 iirc and Python 2.7
- Unable to run Netflix but Youtube works fine. This is because of outdated browser once again.
- Its own package manager (command line), yes, you won't find apt or pkg here so you will have to get used to it.
P.S. it shouldn't be hard to install unofficial packages as it comes with a package convertor (you will have to look into manual)
but iirc, they have to be x32 packages.
|
Version: 5.0-rolling
Rating: 8
Date: 2022-03-08
Votes: 0
|
x16, x32 and x64, x32 perferred - Designed by BSD to have you UP N RUNNING. Period.!
user: tux/root admin: toor .. Installable to Live-CD, USB, renamed from .ISO to .exe .. versitile.
- not your every day OS yet, it will help you Debug your system - should others not Work for you.
. I first ran into This back in 2016. A 53 meg Complete OS ( who ever designs things this small - LOL ) however, what I had totally forgotten was How Many 3.5" 1.44 Meg Floppies things used to take ( to make a Complete System back in the Windows 95 Days. )
. Surpirsingly, it worked just fine on my old Toshiba 486 - Hooked ever sense, - JW USAF Retired
|
Version: 5.0-rolling
Rating: 5
Date: 2021-12-01
Votes: 0
|
I really liked Slitaz for its small footprint, ease of use, and very lightweight size compared to other bloated OSes (like Windoze!) But its major drawback alone it that its core kernel wasn't updated in well over a decade, and I don't know its current status.
I wish it could be properly updated and maintained - with the Win11 migraine looming, I'd rather install FreeDOS than deal with MS any further.
|
|
Latest Reviews
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: cooking
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-11-03
Votes: 5
|
Latest November 2025 version is a tiny 54.3 MB ISO and is at the extreme 'lite' end for resurrecting very old hardware,
Not as small as Tiny Core, but more usable IMO. I transferred the ISO to a 2 GB USB stick and booted an old core 2 duo Dell machine with it in legacy mode - doesn't appear to support UEFI booting which is not common on very old hardware anyway.
Picked up the wi-fi automatically and while claims of it being able to run in 256 MB of RAM can't be verified, it does have a very low resource footprint that should make it possible to run on machines with very limited RAM.
As a last resort for getting ancient hardware to be useful again, can't fault it, but I suspect I got lucky with it recognising my wi-fi and you'll probably need a wired connection to get online on a lot of machines.
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: cooking
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-07-07
Votes: 7
|
Long time ago I used SliTaz-3.0 on my very ancient home pc, as on my Lifebook I installed Slitaz-4.0 and parallel the cooking version. It was not everything working "out-of-the-box". But with the helpful documentation and the great support from the SliTaz forum nearly everything could be managed. And after this, I really loved to work and play with this amazing OS.
After my Lifebook got broken and I was travelling a lot, There was no time and no opportunity anymore to stay with the SliTaz team. Several times I had a look onto the SliTaz website and gladly saw, there is still activity, even without getting new releases.
Now after returning back home, I lloked closer again to this really nice and impressive distro. And I am really impressed of the help of the members. At the moment I work with a convertible with the poor and cheap baytrail board. Originally there was WIN 8.1 on it. Then I swiched to WIN10. But as the support ends in october, I tried several Linux distros and just a view ones recognize all of the hardware of this convertible. I had to figure out, how to boot the 32bit uefi in combination with the 64bit processor. And allof this could be managed with the assistence of the kind and friendly SliTaz team. Tere is new work on a "current" version of SliTaz with the Linux-5.10.238 kernel. This is, what I try now and how I'm impressed, how it works on this convertible. It's an amazing speed, very less battery consumption, no bloatware. The size of the iso is Just around 100 Mb, with everything I need for the beginning.
What more should I expect out of this? I'm really amazed and happy to get back to this great distro.
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: cooking
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-02-18
Votes: 5
|
I cant belive what a quick system it is, how compatible it is, how much software is bundled into such a tiny package. I love this distro, and every few years when I come back to it I am so glad to see it is still developed. It's one of linux's gems for sure,
For me for getting old computers back online, doing a first diagnostic of them, and for rescuing data I have found some very useful scenarios for SliTaz. It is also more than capable of being run as a daily driver, and it's quite funny to watch a 15 year old celeron PC out-doing a brand new i3 running windows and all its invasive bloatware.
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: cooking
Rating: 1
Date: 2023-08-12
Votes: 27
|
SliTaz used to be a great little distro, up to version 4.
Mobile broadband was a pain to set up, but it was doable, and once set up, it just worked.
I used Slitaz for quite some time on an EeePC 4G, when my desktop machine died, and it was also good for data recovery from unbootable systems, even if it was lacking in software in comparison to the big distros.
Version 5 was supposed to be the ever up to date 'cooking' rolling release, but it seems that it was put on a back burner on the lowest heat setting possible. It's rolling so slowly, it's gathering moss.
Everything in SliTaz is so out of date as to be a security risk.
I don't really see how SliTaz can be truly considered to be active, when it does not actually roll with the freely available updates and source code.
It's a shame, because SliTaz has a very good GUI, and is a very easy system to use.
But use it at great risk to your data security and integrity.
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: 4.0
Rating: 7
Date: 2023-05-16
Votes: 28
|
Well...so over the last few weeks I tried 22 different distros. SlizTaz is the one I really, really wanted to work and was the only one I could not get WiFi to work on.
What i think is going on is it does not recognize my WiFi hardware unlike 21 other distros. Unfortunately there are many SlizTaz documents for setting up WiFi,meant for various SlizTaz versions that,in general, are not identified. Several of the terminal commands either do not exist, the parameters have changed,or the scripts the run with were not updated. For example one doc instructs you to issues the following:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
lspci | grep -i network
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
good except in the version I am in running it tells you the flags are -k and -m and it does not recognize -i
The docs also note this:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SliTaz-4.0 and newer:
wifi-box was renamed to wifibox
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nope, I was running rolling and it is wifi-box
and then there is this:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The following commands do all of the above steps. This is also the easiest way:
# tazhw detect-pci --get-firmware
# /etc/init.d/network.sh restart
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
when the commands are run, it does not find things, fail on restart and indicates errors.
So the issue is the documentation is not in sync with the versions, even the doc with the installation does not match the distro. I am sure a Linux administrator who had seen what WiFi cards look like and new what drivers are needed and how to install them could adroitly navigate my issue; but sadly that does not (yet) describe me. I am reliant on the documentation which seems not to match the current version.
All that being said, I love the desktop, the blazing speed, I really want to get this working,
I also note the kernel is very dated and in the forum their seems to be some debate about the future of the distro. IMO, it would be a shame if SliTaz disappears. This is a nice distro, in a narrow niche where it is sorely needed.
So how to rate it, for a Linux system admin with experience this is likely a 9.0, For someone not afraid of a command line but is not a hard core Linux admin this is likely a 7.0 due to the documentation. For someone who is a GUI type with limited command line experience this is likely 5.0 . So I averaged the scores,and for now call SlizTaz a 7.0
In the end it is a great distro that simply needs a little attention. If I can get the WiFi configured and use it for some time I'll likely see if I can help them organize the docs.
tfb
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: cooking
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-03-09
Votes: 5
|
I used to run this years ago. I loved that it had such a small system footprint, and when I have a huge HD, extra space is great. I liked the look and feel, good skins and wallpaper. One downside was that my live cd wouldn't recognize my wifi. Eventually I had to switch to another distro because of issues with Wine, which was because the SliTaz team was using a VERY outdated kernel. I didn't mind the mild learning curve or the unique package system - you can convert anyway.
Please come back, SliTaz!
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: cooking
Rating: 9
Date: 2022-09-16
Votes: 4
|
It's fantastic, I'm running slitaz on a 1GB 1.6GHz single core notebook, I have not seen yet a memory usage higher than 400 MB. Slitaz It's very fast and lightweight, providing a complete desktop experience, compared to his dimension. On the other hand, on tazpkg there is not so much choiche of package, only the essentials packages are provide, more thant enough for my usage of slitaz.
pros:
very very lightweight
out-of-the-box support for all the basics and preinstalled application and drivers
cons:
package not updated and limited choiche
a little bit of trouble in the installation process(64bit machine, coocking, not all the flavors worked after the installation, I needed to redownload the iso in the live process in order to install on the drive, maybe my foult)
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: cooking
Rating: 9
Date: 2022-04-20
Votes: 3
|
SliTaz, well well, such an awesome little distro I wish had updated packages. I installed it on my 500GB HDD(overkill) with 8GB of ram(again overkill as a 32bit os, it uses only 4 at max.) It works like a charm, Openbox with LXDE gives you decent amount of desktop customization. Sure it won't be your cutting edge Linux distro but if you want to bring an old PC/Laptop back to life, it does it well.
Pros:
- Currently with a GUI, firefox with 1 tab opened and 1 instance of terminal its consuming 306MB of Ram. I've installed some packages already otherwise install on a HDD comes around 170MB.
- Out of the box Audio, ethernet, wlan support. Most of essential applications like a browser, text editor, few games, video/audio player, image viewer, pdf viewer are available.
- Its own package manager (command line) which is easy to use.
Cons:
- Outdated packages, like the Firefox version I get from default repository is 77, back from 2020. Gimp on official repository is at 2.8 iirc and Python 2.7
- Unable to run Netflix but Youtube works fine. This is because of outdated browser once again.
- Its own package manager (command line), yes, you won't find apt or pkg here so you will have to get used to it.
P.S. it shouldn't be hard to install unofficial packages as it comes with a package convertor (you will have to look into manual)
but iirc, they have to be x32 packages.
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: 5.0-rolling
Rating: 8
Date: 2022-03-08
Votes: 0
|
x16, x32 and x64, x32 perferred - Designed by BSD to have you UP N RUNNING. Period.!
user: tux/root admin: toor .. Installable to Live-CD, USB, renamed from .ISO to .exe .. versitile.
- not your every day OS yet, it will help you Debug your system - should others not Work for you.
. I first ran into This back in 2016. A 53 meg Complete OS ( who ever designs things this small - LOL ) however, what I had totally forgotten was How Many 3.5" 1.44 Meg Floppies things used to take ( to make a Complete System back in the Windows 95 Days. )
. Surpirsingly, it worked just fine on my old Toshiba 486 - Hooked ever sense, - JW USAF Retired
|
Project: SliTaz GNU/Linux
Version: 5.0-rolling
Rating: 5
Date: 2021-12-01
Votes: 0
|
I really liked Slitaz for its small footprint, ease of use, and very lightweight size compared to other bloated OSes (like Windoze!) But its major drawback alone it that its core kernel wasn't updated in well over a decade, and I don't know its current status.
I wish it could be properly updated and maintained - with the Win11 migraine looming, I'd rather install FreeDOS than deal with MS any further.
|
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx 
lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr 
86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le