Do you think Slack has a really hard learning curve?
 

Hi all Im curious if people think Slack has a hard learning curve to it.

I didnt find it any harder to setup/install than red hat 7.2 (in text mode)

In fact I liked the way that you could be provided with verbose info on the packages you were installing.

Also the whole editing by hand via the Shell using Pico, Vi or Emacs isnt that difficult, (although I do find it difficult to use Vi, which is why i stick with Pico)


So if people could vote and explain in a post why they voted as they did it would be great.

Well for a newbie it's hard to edit files by hand. They see a bunch of garble, and can sometimes be hard pressed to know how to start their distro from a command line.

Yes, for a newbie, I believe Slack is VERY hard. For someone who has used Linux for a little while, and has a slight grasp on things, Slack would be fine. The learning curve is still rough, but it's sort of like going to a foreign country to learn the language. You are thrown in, and have to figure things out real fast, or else you are going to be using a black screen for a while.

IMO

Compare it to an engine of a car. If one isn't interested in doing something with it, he won't touch it and will never know something about. If one is interested in modifying it and watches the mechanic, he is going to learn but not much. If you do it yourself, you'll have a hard time, but not for long. And you'll learn fast - nobody wants to destroy an engine do we?

It seems like most people no matter what distro are going to get in there and fiddle around. So I say it's somewhat similar.

Well I can tell you all that Slack isn't as super hard as people say it is. Well maybe for a complete newbie this wouldn't be a good distro to start from but at least for me it was fine although I used only Red Hat 7.2(for 3 weeks) before Slack and I can say that with the help of the good people at this forum(remember me Dai:) ) I didn't have a lot of problems.(except when I had to write down the resolution I want to use into the XF86Config) But almost everything else is same as other distros and I find Slack the best distro there is if you want to get into Linux. :)

Personally, I have stayed away from Slack simply because so many users have taken, and continue to take, great pride in its difficulty. The macho crap about how hard Slack makes you work to it set up really turned me off :D .

To me there's nothing worse than a useless OS. And an OS that deliberately makes itself difficult to work with, especially in its set up, is not going to be very accessible or very satisfying. If it is not accessible or satisfying, it will have a low perception of utility and is not going to be used. The less it is used the less useful it is.

Slack has, in the past, made little effort to make the installation process more utilitarian. It wasn't until the likes of RedHat, Mandrake, Suse, and others started to make the installation less painful, that Linux started to have a reputation as being useful to more people. Slack may be changing to something less painful, thankfully, but it still won't be in my plans for use ;) .

How can I forget ;0)

Did you sort out the XF86Config file in the end?????

Yeah, everything is just fine now. KDE works like it should and I'm happier then ever :).(Although I don't spend a lot time in KDE it's still great that it works)

I believe Slackware is a very good choice for newbie... it isn't that hard, it's only text mode... most progs will install with 3 little command (./configure make make install) instead of one (rpm -option), except if you use easy install tgz (what I hate to do).

The only hard way is to learn and remember all useful command first. With GUI distro (Slackware has a GUI of course, but it's not used for config) most of time you only have to point and click.

Newbie think Slackware is hard because they are brain-washed by Windoze-point-and-click installation/configuration. But even with Mandrake, installation and configuration will, a day, take you a little more reflection than only point and click. I think it's a better idea for a newbie to start first with the "hard" text mode way before trying something that LOOKS easier. The newbie will probably have 1 or 2 months of headache (until he learns the basic stuff he need), but then, he will be able to get out of difficulties by himself.
And you will no longer see treads like "Cannot start my something.exe please help" here :D

Slack is not hard to learn if you already have some Linux knowledge, but it does make you get your hands dirty and makes you learn how an operationg system works. Yes its true, Red Hat and Mandrake are easier to learn and install, but you will never learn that much with these distros than with Slack. So if you feel adventurous and hungry for some knowledge, go ahead and try it. I tried Slack after using Red Hat and Mandrake first, and I am not going back. The diference in speed and stability is noticeable. But if you feel like being boring and not so adventurous stay with RH and Mandi.

I guess it depends. I got really used to the Hat's way of rc.anything so the switch to slack was a bit of a culture shock, but then again /etc/rc.modules makes life soooooo much simpler than other distros way of handling things, and I guess I had really gotten hard into slack before I started looking for answers on places like here, but for the most part yeah, its got a steeper learning curve, but you either hold on and learn a lot more a lot faster, or give up and let Mandy's buggy GUI tools break things for you.

Cheers,

Finegan

Slackware doesn't do the hand-holding that RH or Mandrake do, but it is straight-forward, and much easier than Debian.

LOL that's why I LOVE Slackware... and why I hate Mandrake :D

DISTRIBUTIONS SECTIONS

who are you hackers_ ? You maybe not notice but you're NOT a mod. And until now, 2 mods and a LQ addict reply to this post. Calm down and find somewhere else to have cops-like power trip. If there are a problem, mod will take care of it.

I hate these little people that want to govern others when it's not their job.