Slackware-based Porteus live system update has Linux 3.4

Porteus 1.2 with the LXDE desktop The developers at the Porteus project have released version 1.2 of their portable Linux distribution. Porteus is a Slackware-based minimal live system that offers a choice of lightweight desktop environments including KDE 3 (Trinity), KDE 4, Xfce and LXDE. Using a "heavily modified version of the linux-live scripts", it has been optimised to run from portable media such as USB flash drives or CDs, and can be expanded using modules. Its developers say that, with its small footprint and modest system requirements, it is also ideal for running on netbooks.

Porteus 1.2 is a major update based on Slackware Linux 13.37 binary packages and the recent 3.4.4 Linux kernel, which also upgrades the included desktops and other components. The Trinity KDE 3.5 fork has been updated to version 3.5.13.1 (R14), while KDE 4 is now includes the recent KDE SC 4.8.4 stabilisation update. Lxde has been upgraded with the latest stable components, and Xfce 4.10 editions of Proteus have been added as standalone ISOs.

At boot, users can switch between desktops or even copy the system to RAM The update also sees the Wicd wired and wireless network manager for Linux replaced with the NetworkManager utility, and it now allows users to batch change modules. Applications such as the Porteus Settings Centre, Language Selection Tool, and Magic Folders for handling system configuration have been improved, and the boot process has been further optimised.

Other changes include upgrading Firefox to the latest 13.0.1 release and the addition of support for encrypted save.dat containers, as well as "lots of other tweaks and package substitutions". The developers note that this will be the last version to be binary-compatible with Slackware 13.37, noting that their next version will be based on the upcoming 14.0 release of Slackware.

An overview of the major changes, including links to the full change logs, can be found in the forum release announcement. Porteus 1.2 is available to download for 32- and 64-bit systems from the project's site.

(crve)