Vector Linux 6.0 isn't exactly new, but a couple of things have me doing this anyway:

1. I don't know too many people on here who use it, so I might as well just write a review to tell you about it.

2. I'm using it right now to write this. May format later to try something else, but, I do like it right now.

Now that that is out of the way, let's start:

Vector Linux is basically Slackware Linux with a different installer, and this newer version of it, actually has a GUI installer I haven't used before.

The installation is pretty fast even on my now dated hardware. The GUI installation is very easy to use, and I didn't even read any manuals to do it. I just popped in the CD and rebooted.

It's actually pretty nice, and since Vector relies VERY heavy on Slackware I'm sure it could be used on Slackware.

Vector Linux unlike other based on something distros doesn't use anything from Ubuntu. Just Slackware. In fact, Slackware packages (.tgz tarballs) can be installed on Vector Linux without any changes. Just grab a tgz from something like LinuxPackages, and install it. Nothing needs to be changed.

By default, you basically have XFCE. I personally don't use XFCE only, because I like KDE and Gnome and Enlightenment, but, it works well and isn't the typical XFCE I'm used to in other distros. It's VERY custom.

It has a bar at the bottom like KDE or Gnome, and has desktop icons out of the box.

It also has slapt-get installed, which means the Slackware Debian based tool is easy to keep things updated, and also, a way to install other packages. I loaded up the configuration file in Vim and then checked what it used as an update and extras link, and went to it with Seamonkey to look at the packages. I grabbed a BUNCH of them, and decided to try out the tool and see what it would be able to handle.

I was kind of shocked at how fast it went. It took about 30 seconds for this thing to download, AND install, ALL of Window Maker and other tools. In under a minute it grabbed a whole window manager for me. I was pretty impressed to say the least.

What about Irssi? It took seriously 2 seconds. I know, I timed it. I typed this:

slapt-get --install irssi

(Counted two second and it had downloaded and installed the package). So speed is for sure on this things side.

It's REALLY fast. I've used FreeBSD, Slackware, SUSE, all those in the last month, and I'm still shocked at how fast this thing installs packages.

So, final verdict?

If you like Slackware, or want to try out Linux but don't want to use your best hardware or fastest box to do it, give this thing a try. It's FAST and it is fairly easy to use too. It's based heavily on Slackware to the point that you don't even need to change a thing from a Slackware package to install one, and of course you have Slapt-get.

The install? not very long, easy to understand, I'd personally install this one by itself unless of course you have Windows installed, then it can find your Windows partition and add it for you.

It can also find Windows NTFS based stuff and even has tools for NTFS. I didn't have any Windows partitions on this machine, but from experience with others, it's as simple as telling it which partition is the Windows one (Which is easy because it'll either be NTFS or Fat32 unless you're using an incredibly old version of Windows) and it adds it to fstab so you can load it up at boot time and see your Windows partition.

If you like Slackware and have another box lying around you want to try something similar out on, give this a try.