My first pocket Operating System - Slax

I never owned a USB flash drive, until recently. I needed one not just for data transfer requirements but because I always wanted to carry an operating system with me. While trying out differnet OSs with various installation methods, my system sometimes had tremendous breakdowns and the only way to access & backup the data was to boot into a LIVE session. Luckily, I came across this really small pocket operating system, Slax. Its just 200 mb and the method to get it bootable on a flash drive is probably the quickest and most effortless of all I have ever used.

Not just for backing up data, sometimes when you are not carrying a laptop and want to access Internet but all the computers nearby are password protected, a bootable USB is your best bet then. Because of its quick boot capability and small size, Slax fits the picture very well. Although you should be careful while doing that, you could be unknowingly breaching someone's privacy.

While I was downloading it, I thought, "What could actually come in just 200 MB?". If this is what's bugging you too, then don't worry, it comes with plenty of pre-installed apps, which should be enough for an average user. And if you want more then Slax's developers provide you with the option to build your own customized slax and download it. You can add various functionalities/apps in the form of modules.

Not just the above things, I really like their options too.

• Slax Graphics Mode(KDE) - Tries to autoconfigure graphics
• Slax always fresh - The configurations/changes will never be saved.
• Slax copy to RAM - Works just like the first one, only faster because the data is in RAM now. Requires > 300MB  of memory.
• Slax Graphics VESA Mode - Forgets about configuration the card and uses the default VESA driver.
• Slax Text Mode - Take a guess.
• Slax as PXE server - This one is my favourite and probably a must for a pocket operating system. Thanks to this feature, I don't just have a single OS but if the systems are wired, I can boot any number of system's using it, haven't tried it though .

The one thing that I hated

So far I am pretty happy carrying Slax in my pocket but if there is one tiny bit that I didn't like in it. It was the weird Chrome like tabs in Firefox.

I am pretty sure developers would have given a lot of thought to it, but I still can't bear it. It looks as if someone kept Firefox's head over Chrome's body . May be its just me...