Slackware is a great Linux distribution. It is fast, stable, and easily maintained. It is also easy to customize to users' tastes, which is a good thing because a certain amount of customization is necessary for a fully useful installation.

That's not because Slackware is somehow "incomplete," its maintainers simply refuse to monkey (much) with the upstream products that go into the distribution. So, for example, there's a bug in the coreutils utility that results in the...

Part of the reason I'm starting to keep this blog is because I've learned enough about Linux now to start forgetting stuff. Part of the key of using Linux is knowing which commands to use, and how to use them, in a given situation.

For example, I downloaded Alien Bob's MS Fonts SlackBuild script so I could install Georgia and the other good web fonts. I built the package and installed it, and then wondered why it wouldn't work!

It took some research for me to find the...

One of the things that I like best about Linux is that the OS and its interface(s) are independent. Even the text-based interface is interchangeable. If you don't like Bash, use zsh or csh. For window managers and "desktop environments": if you don't like Gnome, use KDE, or Fluxbox, or Window Maker, or ... or ... -- there's several dozen to choose from.

Slackware has a wonderful little script, xwmconfig, that lets a user set his choice of window manager to start with the...

This week, Google announced its plans for a Google OS to be used on netbooks called (not surprisingly) Chrome, and running (especially not surprisingly) on Linux.

Most of the press about the Chrome OS has been negative, with most of the analysis saying that people will reject a Google Linux-based netbook -- as they've rejected previous Linux-based netbooks -- because it won't run the applications that people want (Word, Excel, etc.) and probably won't come with the patent-encumbered...

I didn't realize I had an LQ for a long time. For a longer time, I didn't think I had much to post. However, I've been thinking that I need a place to keep a bunch of technical stuff I've worked out over time with help from the friendly people at LQ.

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In the past day or so, I've been working to build Gnash for Slackware 12.2 to evaluate it as an alternative to the Adobe Flash player. Below are my results so far:
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