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Old 09-10-2014, 01:32 AM   #31
moisespedro
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Ok, it was a rant and yes I used bloated in the wrong way, sorry
 
Old 09-10-2014, 01:38 AM   #32
moisespedro
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gezley View Post
So let's say we trim the list of packages by a couple of hundred. What then? Trim the 15+ million lines of code in the Linux kernel? You don't need SE Linux and Tomoyo Linux after all, do you? How about all that stuff in the kernel for milking cows, powering nuclear submarines and driving the Large Hadron Collider? Need that stuff, do you? Nah - just go through the code and dump it then.

And when you're finished, come back and tell us how it went. Preferably in one of those blog things people like to use, not here.

Alternatively, go to Windows, where they have only 50 million lines of code in their latest kernel. Or one of the BSDs, where it's probably only 10 million lines of code or so.
I was't going to comment anything beyond my last post. I recognise the thread wasn't really well thought but this post I can't ignore because it was seriously stupid (to say the least).
 
Old 09-10-2014, 02:41 AM   #33
brianL
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That's an overused word on LQ forums: bloated. A full installation takes about 7 GB, that's less than 20% of my relatively small HDDs. I don't use all the software now, but may do sometime. Even if I never use it (whatever it is), if it's not running it's not bothering me. If I wanted as comprehensive a system with any other distro, I'd have to waste hours apt-getting, yumming, or whatevering. Then there's: already got libwotsit? Oh, you need libwotsit-dev as well.
If you're not happy, use summat else.

Last edited by brianL; 09-10-2014 at 02:42 AM.
 
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Old 09-10-2014, 02:49 AM   #34
Didier Spaier
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moisespedro View Post
Don't you think it would be nice to drop some packages? If they are really needed people would take care of them (community).
La nature a horreur du vide. As soon as you will drop something someone will request that another (or maybe the same) stuff be shipped in Slackware.

Quote:
It would be better for the Slackware team (maintenance) and the users (security, bandwith, space in disk).
Well, we can avoid to see these arguments to surface anew from times to times, as already pointed out with humor by the Slackware Maintainer in post #15

Short answer: don't worry, be happy.

Last edited by Didier Spaier; 09-10-2014 at 04:50 AM.
 
Old 09-10-2014, 03:00 AM   #35
brianL
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Quote:
And lo! Brian sayeth unto them: "Oh ye that criticize Slackware, beware of the Wrath of "Bob"!
-- St Brian's Epistle to the Moaners, Ch.187, v.3935
 
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Old 09-10-2014, 04:24 AM   #36
ReaperX7
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Never question the great and power Patrick unless asking a question. Hail Bob!
 
Old 09-10-2014, 07:03 AM   #37
michaelslack
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A New Appreciation for slackware

After tinkering with some other systems I've recently developed a deeper appreciation for slackware, which is a big deal because it was pretty deep already. The main reason is that while many other distributions have massive repositories of applications, they are of varying quality. The slackware system on the other hand is near perfect. I can't remember the last time any application in the supported release broke at all. The only things that have ever misbehaved have been third party stuff.

The recent experience that led to this was my trying OpenBSD on an old iBook G4 I've got (over 10 years old now). It's got debian on it as well. The core OpenBSD system after an install is very minimal, comparable to the slackware A series I guess. Everything else needs to be installed as packages (or built from scratch using the ports system). It was all going fine until I tried to install alpine. It didn't work. And I haven't had time to really look into it to try and see why. I tried installing in a virtual machine on an intel machine just to see if it was a powerpc thing, but no it didn't work there either. There is something wrong with the alpine package.

This would never happen with any application in a slackware release. The beauty of slackware is that every application in a release gets top shelf support. While other distributions may have massive repositories, I'd be surprised if they could compete with slackware in the sense of how broad a range of applications get top shelf support. My understanding is that Pat expends a lot of effort to make sure everything in a release works perfectly together. If you were to install the same collection of applications from packages in many other distributions, something would surely misbehave.

Cheers,

Michael
 
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Old 09-10-2014, 07:41 AM   #38
gor0
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kikinovak View Post
site on web???
 
Old 09-10-2014, 10:19 AM   #39
onebuck
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Member Response

Hi,

Quote:
Originally Posted by gor0 View Post
site on web???
Yes, link to MLED README.txt;
Quote:
Microlinux Enterprise Desktop 14.1 64-bit =========================================
The Microlinux Enterprise Desktop (MLED) is a full-blown production desktop based on Slackware Linux and the KDE desktop environment, with many enhancements. It is currently used by various small town halls, public libraries, schools and local radio stations in South France. MLED is not some derivative Linux distribution. It consists of a collection of over 100 custom packages installed on top of a trimmed-down Slackware base system. A handful of KDE-related packages have been rebuilt for enhanced functionality or visual consistency. A complete collection of codecs, plugins and fonts provide a seamless desktop experience. Despite the use of KDE, MLED tries to stay light on resources. The basic KDE desktop has been reduced to a functional minimum, while resource hogs like indexation or graphical effects are deactivated in the default user configuration. This allows MLED to run satisfyingly even on older hardware, consuming roughly 200 MB RAM with a loaded desktop on a 32-bit system. Some KDE-specific applications like Konqueror, KMail, Calligra, KTorrent, Kopete or Amarok are replaced by more lightweight and/or intuitive counterparts like Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Transmission, Pidgin or Clementine. MLED follows a one-app-per-task policy and strives to find a good balance between stability and functionality. All non-KDE applications are visually integrated using the Oxygen-GTK theme.
'kikinovak's' well written MLED document to setup the Desktop. Be sure to read the entire document if you plan on using MLED. We do not want you to have any gotchas because you skip important points of information by not reading!
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
 
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Old 09-10-2014, 10:23 AM   #40
moisespedro
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@brianL I definitely don't want to use something else
 
Old 09-10-2014, 10:27 AM   #41
rokytnji
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Don't take me wrong, he says, as he http://syacartoonist.com/art/political-cartoons.jpg
 
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Old 09-10-2014, 10:37 AM   #42
moisespedro
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One serious question for Pat (if he is still reading this): how do you manage all of this (+1000 packages) while keeping your sanity?
 
Old 09-10-2014, 03:37 PM   #43
volkerdi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moisespedro View Post
One serious question for Pat (if he is still reading this): how do you manage all of this (+1000 packages) while keeping your sanity?
Simple. I don't really worry about keeping my sanity.
 
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Old 09-10-2014, 03:52 PM   #44
CTM
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Protip: if there's stuff in ap/ or xap/ that you don't want, don't install it. The packages in those series are rarely dependencies for other packages, and the slack-desc files are descriptive enough that you can figure out whether you want to keep them. You can strip out an enormous amount of the official installation without causing any problems: I currently have 640 of the 1347 official Slackware packages installed on my laptop, and that's without trying particularly hard to remove the stuff in l/ that I don't use, because the libraries take up a few hundred kilobytes each and the time/reward tradeoff makes that particular endeavour unworthwhile.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gor0 View Post
btw: pat IS NOT 'GOD' !!!
[citation needed]

Last edited by CTM; 09-10-2014 at 04:01 PM. Reason: Added number of packages in offical Slackware 14.1
 
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Old 09-10-2014, 04:15 PM   #45
michaelslack
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Also, dont forget about sbbdep, a third party tool for determining dependencies between slackware packages. If you only want to run a small number of things, this is one systematic way to work out what other packages you need. I found out about this via AlienBOB's blog.

However for most users, installing just the software series you want is probably "granular" enough, sbbdep is probably overkill.

Last edited by michaelslack; 09-10-2014 at 04:22 PM.
 
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