When comparing Mint vs Slax, the Slant community recommends Slax for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distros that run entirely in RAM?” Slax is ranked 4th while Mint is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Slax is:
Changes you make in the configuration persist if you run from USB.
Specs
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Pros
Pro All accounts in one place
Mint can handle banking accounts, saving accounts, credit cards, etc. It consolidates all your accounts together so you do not need to put work into following multiple accounts.
Pro Organizes budget into categories
Mint splits your spending into different categories, such as gas or fast food, so you can see where you're spending too much money or how much you need to budget for.
Pro Alerts
Mint can be set to alert you to various events such as upcoming bills, or low balances on any accounts. It can be set to alert you from the app, through email or by text message. In addition you can sign up to recieve monthly emails about your money and ways to improve your budget.
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 Not international
Only works for US & Canada banks, and even then there are banks (like EQ Bank) that have actively blocked access to Mint.
Con Online only
It does not work offline.
Con Unsafe
With very few exceptions, Mint isn't just syncing your data over, but is using your username and password to log directly into the bank website. Banks will not reimburse for any fraud or stolen funds that may result from this, or may use Mint as an excuse to not reimburse for charges or stolen funds that occur from other causes.
Con Categories organization not flexible
Con The budgeting part has too many bugs
Con Very complicated tool
Of course, it's powerful but also very complicated. Some would prefer tools which are less robust, has less features but are a lot easier.
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.