[Quoted from http://www.slackfiles.net/documentation/faq.php]
Is Slackware Linux a source distribution?

Not in the same sense as Linux From Scratch or Gentoo, you do not have to compile the whole system. Proponents of such distributions often believe in huge speed increases as a result of e.g. CPU specific optimizations. In practice the speed increase is very small, you might even not notice it, with the exception of a few applications (like MPEG-2 decoders and maybe desktop environments such as KDE). Slackware is normally precompiled, but if you want to you can still compile parts of Slackware yourself using the Slackware sources and build scripts. The advantage of Slackware compared with source distributions is that you do not have to compile the system, which provides much more flexibility and probably a more stable system (because some optimizations break things).

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Is that really the case than gentoo is slightly faster than slackware does?

Thanks.

Speed tests and benchmarks can show me all the bar graphs they want, in my own personal experience, Slackware was faster (and easier to use) than any other Linux distribution I've ever come across. This includes Gentoo, Mandrake, Red-Hat, Fedora, you name it. It might not be "make pretty benchmarks" fast, but its most definitely "you'll notice it" fast.

I think most people accept that gentoo will be slightly faster IF BUILT PROPERLY. Alot of people do not set their build flags properly. The real question is, does having your box tied up for hours or even days compiling the base system justify a split second speed increase hear or there. It would also be possible using and editing the Slack build scripts to recompile some of the key apps.

Thats what I was trying to get at. He pretty much summed it up.

I've successfully installed and used Gentoo from stages 1, 2, and 3 a number of times and have never felt it was any faster than Slackware, or Debian. In addition, compiling kernels from scratch has never made any noticable speed difference either, except for perhaps at boot time.

Having said that, Gentoo is the most time consuming Linux distro I've ever used, but I still like it - no better than Slack, or Debian, though.

Just my 2 cents...

To be honest I didn't notice a speed difference using gentoo compared to slackware/debian either. Gentoo has some nice features though, huge amount of ebuilds and great user forums. for example.

I use Slack because I like the fact that it leaves most things the way the developers intended them to be. I don't have time for Gentoo because like one of the posts above I can't afford to have a system tied up for hours or days just compiling software. Slack also has a lot of packages at http://linuxpackages.net and other sources so you don't have to compile everything.

I often switch between Slackware and Gentoo for my main desktop. . .

Right now I am using Gentoo. . .

I find that Gentoo is faster then Slackware, when setup right.

Gentoo has a great set of ebuilds. . . it is very stable, and snappy.
Slackware has a great set if packages. . . it is very stable, and snappy.



I guess Gentoo is like a sugar pill. . . you get this feeling of speed, like it is the best thing in the world, but in the end Slackware is just about the same speed.

It's kind of a piece of mind thing.

Thank ,every buddy.

One more question:
If we take maintainability, level of ease and stability into account also, will Slackware have any advantages over Gentoo? (One case with third party software, one case without third party software)

One more thing. If your PC is tied up for few days just compiling the software, you can get 'compensation' on what you have lost during compilation in long term in terms of performance. Doesn't it a good deal?

Why people usually failed to setup right? There is a handbook for Gentoo users.


I just want to decide which distro I should use in long term, tough I am still using Bill Gates' products. Sorry for asking so many questions.

people don't set the USE tags and such correctly. one of the main points of compiling from the source is not just the fact you can build to your cpu, but you can exclude certain occurances that happen in the compile time hence your program may turn out to a bit faster.

I think both are great distros. I don´t want to compile everything though, but I would love to have a BSD ports/archlinux ABS style system (I´ve tried arch linux, but it was too buggy and bleeding edge for me, promising distro anyway) for Slackware in addition to the normal binary package tools. Checkinstall is fine though, but a full system would be even better.

IMO, I think most users can take a hangten and feel bleeding edge by just testing some of the software in the /unstable trees...

But back to the gentoo.. I think one thing that should be compiled is the actual Linux Kernel... But it's far to tedious to compile all of the packages to your system.. People can spend a long time configuring the Kernel before they compile, but all emerge/portage is (if you dont make use of the compile-features and USE) is compiling packages which you could of just installed on slackware (tgz) in a couple seconds. But then, I'm not saying gentoo's bad, it just takes alot of time to go through all that mess.

If you are looking for a set of features to analyze and say "use Gentoo" or "use Slackware" I do not believe it is possible. A distro choice is a matter of user temperament not a hard set of facts. Unless there is some required feature that one has that the other does not, no amount of analysis of facts is going to tell you which is better for a particular user.

Try both for a month or two and then decide which you prefer.

Well said, Mephisto - - they all certainly come with their benefits and drawbacks. I tend to lean toward Debian, but I also really like Slack and Gentoo.

Slackware is like Gentoo without the 6-hour-wait to install KDE on you brand new system.