When comparing Funtoo vs Slax, the Slant community recommends Funtoo for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” Funtoo is ranked 32nd while Slax is ranked 54th. The most important reason people chose Funtoo is:
The profile system improves portage's usability without losing the soul of Gentoo.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Like Gentoo but more streamlined
The profile system improves portage's usability without losing the soul of Gentoo.
Pro Use flags that are suitable for a task or environment are grouped into Profiles
It allows selecting, for example, gnome or desktop profile with most of the sane use flags enabled inside the profile.
Pro Portage tree split into kits
This allows more fine-grained control over package updates, and packages can be now tied together inside the kit to minimize dependency breakage while upgrading.
Pro `boot-update` to take care of bootloader configuration
A tool to update your grub config.
Pro Funtoo Linux offers a variety of stage3 builds
Customized to a variety of CPU microarchitecture variants from AMD, ARM, and Intel.
Pro Stage3 sources are built using the Funtoo Linux tool 'metro'
It's a sophisticated replacement for Gentoo's build tool 'catalyst'.
Pro Uses GIt instead of Rsync
THis makes updates so much faster!
Pro Stage3 archive coming with pre-compiled kernel based on Debian's kernel
Pro Simpler template-based network configuration
Pro Persistent changes
Changes you make in the configuration persist if you run from USB.
Pro Pretty fast to boot up
It was considerably fast to turn on when booting from cd.
Pro Modules
Standard tar archives plus some simple shell scripting produces modules that you can load dynamically into the OS for added apps and functionality.
Pro Modern desktop
Pro Small footprint
About 200mb, but with a full KDE4 environment and loads of useful apps.
Cons
Con Overly complicated HDD/SSD installation
While it has a nice layout Slax's lack of an installer tool like Tinycore's just can't be justified. It seems strange that it comes built in with programs that some users may not want, yet it doesn't have an easy way to install it. Due to its heavier use of RAM, built in software, and lack of an installer its hard to choose it over TC.
Con Works slowly on old computers
Con Infrequent releases
Since Slax is maintained by only one person, releases are not that frequent. So it may take a while to get bug fixes or new features once you start using it.