Hello friends. My workstation and server are running Mandrake Linux 8.2 but I would like to try to install Slackware 8.1 on my HP Pavilion xf145 laptop. I like the Mandrake and Redhat distros but I would like to learn (slowly) how Linux as a operating system really works and not just point-n-click. Can someone tell me if Slackware is good choice for laptop and for me? Thanks.

You never try you never know. Just shoot it, unless you are aware that certain hardware is not supported.

When installing on laptop it's a good idea first to find out if your hardware is supported and, if it's supported, if the drivers are included with the distro you're planning to install.

As far as I know all components on this laptop are supported by Redhat Linux 7.3 (even the winmodem), so does it mean that Slackware 8.1 should be OK too since they both use the same 2.4.18 kernel? Thanks.

Yea, they'd probably work too. Just remember that in slackware just about nothing is set up for you, you have to do almost everything by hand.

And yes, slackware is a good choice if you want to learn. Of course if you want to learn even more, then you could try LFS (linux from scratch), or even some bsd variant.

Good Luck!
Have Fun!
Refried Bean

PS, Its a good idea to compile your own kernel on slackware as soon as you can

I learned so much from installing/configuring Slack that I went and redid the install w/out X or a WM. I then added XFree 4.2.0 and KDE myself. No big deal, but for a noob it was intense. I find Slack much less buggy than Mandrake, and much easier to customize.

When you'll install a Slack on a laptop, u might be surprised, because your sound card want work, etc... It's a difference between those fancy graphical interfaces like Mandrake, Redhat and suse has, so prepare to do a lot of things by hand.

zeky

Hell none of those things worked on my desktop, let alone a laptop. But I have to agree with all those who urged me to ditch Mandrake in favor of either Slack or Debian. I really like Slack.

Since Slack 8.1 uses pretty much the latest kernel, and the latest XFree86, you'll get all the hardware support Linux has to offer. PCMCIA and USB devices should be pretty much plug-n-play. Internal modems may need to be manually configured. Edit /etc/rc.d/rc.modules to turn on your sound and network hardware (or make your own entry if you need to). I've had lots of trouble getting the later XFree86 to autoconfig correctly to my hardware, your milage may vary. Fortunately Slackware won't dump you into a non functional X server (like Mandrake will) during or after the install, so you'll be able to fix Xfree later. You can change your run level default in /etc/inittab to '4' to get the graphical login screen after you get X running if you want. I hope your laptop will boot from the CDROM because their floppy disk boot set has grown to an unacceptable 6 disks!

Overall you'll find Slackware 8.1 nicely up-to-date (like Mandrake) but with a little less cool desktop apps, a little less nicely pre-configured, and less things like removable disk automounting, will happen automatically. It will be a little faster than Mandrake, and less "buggy" because it has simpler ways of getting things done. Slackware is a very good way of learning Linux internals without being hindered by the extra complexities those fancy installation and configuration programs add.

Be sure to read up on all the Slackware FAQs, READMEs, and the online "Slackware Book" and any other document you can find before and during the install. You'll still end up with some questions due to holes in the documentation, so resort to forums like the Slackware section of "linuxquestions.org" for help usually the answers will be simple.

I've had Slackware 8.0 running perfectly on my old Compaq Armada laptop for a year now.