Just turned on tor, with an exit node in the US, no problems accessing the site aside from the Cloudfair checking your browser crap. I also notice a few sites I normally access are blocked too. Turning tor off now.

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another fine remark...

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Well, yes, the lack of dependency resolution is a feature. Still, I’m not all that sensitive to when anyone states that dependency resolution is “missing” in Slackware, while in other distributions, it’s a pretty handy feature.

I mean, good heavens, dependency resolution is a handy feature if you want easy system administration.

But: if you’re really going for easy system administration, then you will have to refrain from playing “tricks” with your package manager, and you should stay well within its “normal” usage patterns. Once you step outside such normal usage, you enter uncharted territory, and you’re basically on your own.

Having said that, I fully approve of what the article says about the subject of dependency resolution and how it does (not really) apply to Slackware:
To me, that sounds like a perfect summary: there is logic behind the lack of dependency resolution, and that logic means that you’re in charge of your system. I find it hard to imagine that anyone who is attracted to that idea, won’t get that message from the article. But, granted, I could be wrong.

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Asking for automatic dependency resolution in Slackware is like walking into an all-you-can-eat buffet just to order a Big Mac with fries and a McFlurry.

I feel like this reviewer knows that, and applies the same logic to the other distros as well. What are they trying to achieve, and have they achieved it?

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https://linuxiac.com/best-systemd-fr...distributions/

Slackware is number one on this list and the author even properly describes Slackware's "dependency resolution."
For the full article see the link above.

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That is a good article. Thanks for posting the link.

I'd like to put a finer point on Slackware's apparent lack of dependency resolution though, because it seems to be something that many people don't understand. It is often mentioned in articles about Slackware.

As at version 15.0, the Slackware Linux distribution is officially comprised of 1,590 packages (excluding the stuff in 'extra'). If you install all of the packages (as you probably should), then all of the dependencies of those packages are met.

With Slackware the whole system is "in the box." It doesn't have dependency resolution because it doesn't need dependency resolution.

Also included in the box are the tools required to add, build & modify things for yourself... BUT you are responsible for resolving the dependencies of anything you add from outside the official set of 1,590 packages. I guess you could say the same about any other distro, with the difference being that other distros have much larger official package sets.

EDIT: With all of that said, if you don't want (or don't know how) to track down dependencies, etc., then there are many tools available which will enable you to add these capabilities to Slackware. It's quite easy to find them.

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That was a decent article. Spot on @rkelson. I view lack on third party dependency resolution as a feature. Let me decide, not someone else what the depends are.

I had to switch on tor (US exit node) to read that.

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Honestly, I believe that the lack of dependency resolution is a huge pain in ass.

I've never bothered to customize the installed packages set, and I install the whole hog of 15GB in my Slackware systems. Life is too great to waste it with tinkering with dependency resolutions which should have been known by developers, not by me, as desktop user.

However, from the POV of a desktop user, the OpenSUSE or Ubuntu can give you in a 5GB space consumed what Slackware gives with its 15GB . I'm not sure if we shall be proud of this.

Did you know that in the World they still sells netbooks with 16GB storage in eMMC, and they advertise them as Linux netbooks?

True, they have enough storage space for installing Linux. Ubuntu Linux.

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Are you talking about this:

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The netbooks with 16GB of storage are not nearly as common as desktop or laptops with hundreds of gigabytes of several terabytes of space. 15GB is nothing for those systems.

If you get a netbook with low specs, Slackware is not a distro that's designed to run well with it. If you really like Slackware and want something similar, go with something like Salix, which follows the one app per task philosophy. This has never been something Slackware follows... it has always had the "and the kitchen sink too" philosophy.

By definition, the "and the kitchen sink too" philosophy does not work well with low-powered, space-limited systems. Simply put, Slackware is not designed for those systems. Can you make it work? Absolutely, but that's going to be an exercise for the user, not Pat.

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Yes, about this I talk.

Believe or not, this kind of messages has a great usefulness for an Ubuntunian.

Because this means that the consistency of your remote repositories is broken. May mean a broken third-party remote repository (PPA) or that the user himself forgot to add a remote repository which contains those dependencies.

Anyway, this is much much much more useful and faster way than "the Slackware way" which seems to be:

1. The user install the package WhateverCrap from an obscure site, not bothering about dependencies because on Slackware everything works without them, right?
2. The user discovers that WhaterverCrap does not work and creates a new thread here, without bothering to do at last a search to see if something similar happened to someone else.
3. The user avoids to offer meaningful information with a stubbornness which would raise the respect even of professionals from Lefortovo (a famous KGB jail in Moscow, traditionally used for hard-core interrogations)
4. Several weeks later and worth of 15 pages later, the other forum users figures out that in fact OP uses Intel Iris and not NVIDIA blob like he claims, and also that OP has a partial installation and he did not installed several critical dependencies.
5. The OP finally marks the thread [SOLVED] happy that the WhateverCrap works. More or less. Or re-installs the system from scratch, because he discovers that it's already broken and has no idea how to recover it.

No offense intended to anyone, but "the Slackware way" seems to be terrible inefficient.

BTW, today I started a box with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed which I ignored since over a month. After arriving in Plasma5, an icon on systray told me that I have over 4000 packages updates. So, I clicked a button and I continued my work. Half a hour later, I've got an popup that said that for using the new kernel, I should restart the box - and yes, it also already updated the initrd from UEFI's ESP partition. That's all and that really means packages management today.

I'm scared to think what would mean to upgrade over 4000 packages in Slackware and how many /etc files I should consider manually. Oh, I should NOT forget also to update my bootloader! Many times I forget this, that's WHY I have 2 (two) external USB hard drives sporting full installations of Slackware 15.0 and current, and each one carefully kept updated.

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Those netbooks was just an example. There are many situations where an user wants to install just what he needs.

Not for me. I respectfully install each time even the complete LAMP stack, even I did not started it in my entire life.

Believe or not, those low specs netbooks are enough to run fine a Plasma5 in Slackware 15.0 - the single issue may be the space.

Yeah, I noticed that Slackware is designed to be installed fully.

That's why I do not wonder when people laments that Slackware is very hard to be customized. Did you remember what that University Professor said in this forum? That Slackware is too complicated to be used in Universities, even he tried honestly?

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When I think of distros that are proud of low (5GB) disk usage in 2022 I start contemplating the definition of "Pyrrhic victory".

Also and just FTR, my Open Suse Leap 15.3 install uses just shy of 80GB, despite several large libraries, like Games, being on their own partitions and symlinked in all my systems. Slackware is by far the least pain to install new packages and maintain the system.

My main Slackware system has just shy of 2000 installed packages using over 700GB in a similar configuration with symlinked directories and it is very rare indeed that I even for a moment consider "lack of dependency resolution a huge PITA". In my case it is one of the features I appreciate most. It does what I tell it to do, no more, no less so I never have to guess "What just happened?".

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And they are welcome to do just that. However, since it isn't designed with partial installs in mind, it will be up to the user to determine what needs to be installed vs what can be removed.

I didn't say they couldn't run it, but it isn't designed to be installed on devices with limited space that would greatly benefit from a partial install.

Slackware is very easy to be customized, however, if that customization involves removing official packages, then yes, there is extra work since Slackware isn't designed for partial installs. However, Slackware makes it easy since removing a single package won't cause a removal of an entire desktop environment (don't ask me how I know).

If someone really wants Slackware with dependency management of official packages, use Salix. It's about as close as they're going to get.

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That I can agree with.
It has been a common problem as I once mentioned here, https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6130720

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