One of the main benefits of the Slax distribution is its ease of customization.

A traditional package manager such as Debian's APT is not required to load additional software; Slax modules are completely self-contained.

Users can also modify the default CD image or USB drive installation to customize the packages available in the distribution on boot.

The various modules are stacked together to build the complete Slax root directory.

A supplemental writable layer (a tmpfs file system) is put on the top of the stack to implement the write functionality.

Slax 6 is offered in a single version and completely relies on modules (additional packages) for extra features.

It also features a stripped-down version of KDE 4, a new wallpaper, and a new module system.

This latest edition is heavily rewritten and is based on Debian, and relies on APT to add packages.