Hmmmm I dunno, maybe my experiences are still different because of different GPU/drivers.

For a portable live USB flash drive I'll want something lighter weight for my desktop environment anyway, like MATE or XFCE. Just in case I used it with an older computer.

Why not try something that was designed to run from USB? Check out or [url=http://www.porteus.org/]Porteus.

And me thinking about installing it one of these days...
I did like KDE4. It was not as snappy as version 2 (or 3, in its later years), but I so much prefer KDE over Gnome, and QT over GTK.

To the OP, if you intend to use it on a machine with lower specs, look at Crashbang, Puppy Linux or good old Knoppix.

Slax KDE should be minimized and light. It might need a little bit memory, but should run smoothly.

I personaly rarely use live distros. When I do, it's something like System Rescue CD. It has all the tools to fix PC systems (Linux or Windows). The other live systems are bother when you need something urgently for diagnostic or repair.

Puppy Linux is pretty much made for this. It's not pretty but it's incredibly functional, plus it's structured in such a way to limit the amount of times it writes to the USB drive to help extend its lifespan.

Is Slax a derivative of Slackware?

In a way. But that doesn't mean much because Slax has its own philosophy and architecture. It doesn't have much to do with Slackware functionally.

It's kinda similar to Puppy LInux Slacko. Slacko is also based on Slackware but doesn't act like it, uses Puppy Linux utilities and Puppy Linux package management.

Porteus is much more Slackware like, but it uses its own package management and its own set of tools.

I wonder... how comparable is Slax's software repository to, say, Debian/Arch?

Slax has a different architecture. It was designed to run from live media. It uses so called modules. You can easily add functionallity by adding them to /slax/modules USB directory or at runtime.

Quoting its site: Check it out.

TL;DR: it's designed for live media so it has it's own philosophy.

Yeah, that was an initial nuisance for me too. It's one of the first things I disable on a fresh install: System Settings --> Workspace Behavior --> Screen Edges --> Make sure all are set to "No action".

I also disable certain effects that make KDE feel very slow (e.g. sliding popups, slide, fade) and set "Suspend desktop effects for fullscreen windows", amongst other tweaks.


Interesting... did this happen right after something changed the system display resolution?

I've had an issue once before when something changed my system display resolution and then didn't switch it back after (something I was testing in Wine set a low resolution before crashing), so my desktop was at 1920x1200 while the display resolution was still something much lower & I was able to pan over the desktop with the mouse.

Testing in a VM just now with Mint Cinnamon edition this kind of issue with display resolution not resetting under certain circumstances doesn't seem to be KDE-specific though.


I haven't experienced anything like this, although I mostly use CrossOver which has some differences to regular Wine.


I've never experienced anything like this on any of my systems (well the Software Manager & Driver Manager always take a few seconds but never an annoyingly long time, the Update Manager is always instant). I don't often use Gwenview as I normally use IrfanView (via CrossOver) but it also loads almost instantly here.

Checking just now in two identically configured VMs with fresh installs of the KDE & Cinnamon editions (with the virtual drives both being on HDD & without any tweaks applied) I get the same results & the Software Manager/Driver Manager/Update Manager all take about the same time irrespective of DE. Also, both KDE and Cinnamon have similar boot times & the memory use by KDE isn't that much more than Cinnamon.


I'm yet to encounter any issues so serious as to put me off using KDE... it's probably something about your system that KDE has issues with. Good thing there's plenty of choice :)

My main system is an i7-2600k @ 4.4GHz (mobo is an Asus P8P67 Pro rev. B3), 16GB RAM, GTX 970. Mint is installed to an SSD with home, tmp and var mounted to a HDD, I have no swap space and I'm using the proprietary Nvidia drivers from the xorg-edgers PPA.

Unity was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I refuse to use Ubuntu after they slipped that into a release with zero testing.

I personally prefer Cinnamon, but you have to make sure that the graphics drivers are working properly or it won't load.

Well, in a way...

If you are experienced with Linux or willing to spend quite some time learning it, then Arch is a wonderful choice. It's completely debloated and all the control is in your hand. If you're into that sorta thing, then I can only recommend it. It took me a good 10 hours when first installing it (I only had some incredibly basic knowledge of Linux at that time), but it was an awesome learning experience.

I already have it dual booting with Debian on my main laptop, therefore I have some experience with it. I already changed my mind on Arch for my potential live USB, because of its rolling release system. That's what would make Debian Stable easier to keep up to date by comparison.

Yeah as I said, it's a good thing there's plenty of choice - I tried out the Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce editions of Mint as well as KDE when I was looking into Linux back in late 2012 & they were all good but KDE was my preference. (Also tried Ubuntu but only very briefly because I hated Unity)