I do not intend to be rude, but what I have a problem with is the Windowization of most distros, as if Window$ was the standard that every distro was striving for. This is a very bad thing in many ways. This is why I ask that distros keep a certain distance from Window$ and not try to imitate everything about it (I'm sure this will even make it easier for M$ to claim intellectual property right over them). I have no problem with things working out of the box, in fact on Slackware most things actually do work out of the box with only minimal extra configuration sometimes. But, go ahead and use whatever you want, just don't expect every distro to be the same or strive for the gold standard that M$ sets and that so many people love. And don't bash Slackware while you're at it which is what I feel this thread is about. Don't start thread as: Distro #1 vs. Distro #2, and then bash Distro #1 and praise Distro #2 and then expect not to be flamed or start a flame war.

Aah, CPM and 8" 'Floppy discs' I remember them well. Along with, a little later in time, DRDOS, which I always prefered to the M$ variant
Still run a 286 with 640Kb RAM, Hercules mono graphics card with 2K of memory on board, and a 10Mb MFM hard drive which is still going strong, and sits in the corner of the room humming away as a printer server running Novell Netware 3.1

Only pity is I cant run Slack on it.

Anyway, back on topic, I have to agree with the sentiment of cwizardone, having used Slack since around 1990, and only just upgraded to V12.0, the whole process is, for the 21st century a pretty painful experience when you look at the alternatives out there. Indeed, had I the necessary skills, I would take Slack, because of it's stability and rock solid performance, and add all of the tweaks and easy setup GUIs a-la PCLOS or the like. (Maybe then release it as Slickware, any takers?)

Just my two pennyworth you understand.

Yes, DRDOS, was, IMHO, a better product. I remember installing windows...3.1... I think, on top of it and getting a message from m$ that if windoze was installed on top of a non m$ OS it would either not run as well or there would be errors. Something like that. Total nonsense, of course.
Still running a 286! That is amazing! Any particular brand or is it a garage clone?
Mine was a AST running at a blazing 10 MHz and you could slow it down to 8 and 6 MHz if you had older software that couldn't run at 10 MHz. Still have the case, keyboard, and a Monitor all labeled AST and someday I might make a "sleeper" out of it, i.e., put a modern motherboard in it, etc.

Thanks for clarification. I tend to differ though. But that is a question of how you define "M$-ish" or "Windows-ish" I think.

From what I've read about the trivial patents MS is filing over the time, you're absolutely right.

Accepted. Of course there are many different needs. Anyway I think nearly everyone here will setup some kind of automization that suits him/her, if it's GUI driven or if it's even some kind of bash script to repeat the same tasks.

My point of view was that cwizardone's posting was quite neutral and not bashing Slackware at all, but I know it might get read another way.


@ cwizardwone:

Good luck with Kubuntu. I installed it some time ago in a vmware image. It looked quite nice over all, but I soon got in dependency hell with one program (sorry, don't remember if it was vlc, PyQT4 or another). Someone with knowledge about Synaptic or apt-get might have gotten done that, but I was stuck with it. Your mileage may vary of course, and I hope so.
I guess you should test the second next Slackware release - Slackware 13.0 (?) with a rock solid qt4 and vanilla and solid KDE4 (along with the other stuff it has already) will be hard to beat.

microsoft didn't invent the GUI. It was first down by Xerox and copied by Steve Jobs who introduced it with the MAC in 1984.
It isn't so much "windoization" as it is an attempt to make the computer easier to use. Nothing more, nothing less.
microsoft's "day is the sun" is just about over and they know it so they are using their lawyers to try and continue their monopoly for as long as possible.

i thought the thread was b/w kubuntu Vs Slackware, not like winblog$$ Vs Linux,

suppose if kubuntu is user frienldy, why dont u try opensuse 10.3?
even 3-d desk works without any additional difficulty (that is, we can make it work within 1 min) and the interesting thing is it is not buggy,
2. boots within <25 sec
3. once click install, for any package
4. main menu, look and feel changed, green artwork
5. many packages included within the dvd, unlike kubuntu
6. ease of use, and yast!!!!!!
7. more hardware support
in these senses Opensuse10.3 better than kubuntu

regards rkrishna

You can change all the brown in Ubuntu - it's just exhausting to eradicate the last scraps. That is actually one of the advantages of Kububuntu - no brown!

You can also install the main menu that Suse uses. Still wasn't enough to keep me using it

Anyone get that working under Slack? I never quite figured how to configure it.

I think that is wishful thinking on your part. MS will be here for the foreseeable future; their monopoly is alive and well.
But, I don't care about MS, I'm a happy Slacker:-)
Btw, I'm happy that you're enjoying Kubuntu. The last time I used it it didn't play well with my unit, seemed buggy. I'm happy that Kubuntu has improved.

Ah Slickware.

Here is your path to follow forker.

Modify standard doinst.sh with if statement to execute postinst.sh if it exists.

Write postinst.sh to include

copy as setup.'pkgname' to /var/log/setup so it can be run again (don't forget BLURB description)
give user option not to run now.
modify configuration files, create additional links, make live easy
EOF

Use of NCURSES would be nice but bash is ok.

Looking forward to Slickware 1.0

Sure, I'm referring to the bunch of "one liners" that install and auto-configure suggested in the *buntu forums for fixing problems. Reminds me of the "click and pray" windows repair guides. Also all the *buntu specific ways of doing things (why the h*** do I need a command called make-kpkg to make the kernel?)

Besides a bit of Xorg and Alsa configuration, rc.local, and device drivers, what else do you need to get a System running?

As for other programs, after a bit with Slackware, you end up with a bunch of slackbuilds (+30 in my case) that need to be migrated to a new System. It's not the easiest way of doing things, but it gives awesome control over what's installed. Also, check out slackbuilds.org.

Hrm, in my experience, KDE on Slackware is way more snappy and responsive, as well as stabler than Kubuntu on a default install. Sounds like a fun bit of sleuthing to find your problem. Happy hunting.

That said, I tend to tell people to use Kubuntu or Suse if they want "The Linux Experience". Less free tech support needed from me.

The only thing (IMHO) which distinguishes Kubuntu from many other distribution including Slackware is the implementation of the wireless connection manager or applet that connects first time round, with little or no configuration. Apart from that I still consider Slackware the best Linux
distribution.

To get back to the title of this topic:
End User?
Definitely Slackware!
Having read his thread I actually don't believe you mean end user, but administrator.
There is a big difference between those two.
Slack can be a pain in the butt -especially for newbies- to manage. But, once configured properly, it's great.

I ran Ubuntu for more than a year and at first I was impressed.
Al this automagic stuff, wow!
Until you find out that the automagic stuff isn't always so fantastic. Even worse, that it can be a bigger pain in the butt than you can imagine (never completely f*cked up my system so bad as with the automagic Nvidia-driver installer...).

That said, Ubuntu is fine.
I'd love to see them make life hard on MS.

It's just not Slack...

Hey good point. I was trying to make the same point in my post, but you hit the nail on its head.

The end user doesn't really need apt-get, he just wants to use his comp without it getting screwed up.

thank good for linux distros. with out that we would never be discussing ford from chevy and goodyear tires or michelin. solarise bsd. you know we all like to drive thats what makes it nice.

I don't see what the problem is with having slackware the way it is, if you don't like it, then don't use slackware, simple as that. I think having slackware like ubuntu is like telling the gentoo people to use binary packages. Some people like configuring everything themselves and that is fine, much like how the gentoo users like compiling all their packages themselves.