Zenwalk, a Slackware-based slim-and-zippy distribution, released a major update last month. The release announcement listed some noticeable enhancements and promised the best support for Wi-Fi you can expect in any Linux distro. Excuse me for being skeptic, but one doesn't expect midget distros to be the best in any field. How well can a single-CD 469MB distro hold up against every other multi-GB DVD distro available today? As it turns out, Zenwalk manages to squeeze in a long list of open source wireless drivers, as well as the proprietary Intel wireless device firmware. Surprisingly Zenwalk 5.0 not only does things you don't expect from a single CD distro, it does them with ease and very little command-line sorcery.

Zenwalk is based on the mature and respected Slackware Linux. It's popular for its one-task-one-app approach to limiting the number of bundled apps. The distro performs respectably on dated hardware by selecting low-resource apps wherever possible, such as the Xfce desktop.

Zenwalk 5.0 runs atop a recent stable release of the kernel (2.6.23.12). According to its release announcement, this is the first Zenwalk release that includes the freedesktop.org Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). In terms of software, it packs the latest X.Org 7.3 suite of X Window software, Iceweasel Web browser, Icedove email client, Pidgin for instant messaging, AbiWord word processor, Gnumeric spreadsheet, GIMP image manipulator, GMPlayer media player, streamtuner Internet stream browser, and more; all accessible from menus under Xfce 4.4.2. The window manager has grown more sophisticated in recent releases and helps distros that use it appear more professional.

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