Post something that you do not like about slackware
 

Post something that you do not like about slackware or it should change from slackware.

It's too good. I can't stand anything that's perfect, makes me feel inferior. :)

gxine.

I had problems with gxine with sound while playing .flv files.

nothing at all. maybe the clutch of hobbled media players should be removed from the default install, thereby forcing people to compile and/or install a real one.

I'm with BrianL.

samac

yeah, but I don't use it, so that doesn't matter. I use mplayer.

I don't like:
The basic philosophy of have no dependency-checking package manager by default.
The approach of starting with a full install and then removing what's not needed. (opposite extreme is Arch, which starts with nothing.)

installation of softwares ....
I don't like installing from "tar" files.
download -> extract -> ./configure -> make -> make install

I like GUI based installation.

open package manager, select s/w, click to install.

It's only rarely you would have to do that, anyway. If you can't get a ready made package, or a SlackBuild, then there's src2pkg to help with compilation.

That's not a Slackware approach.
Slackware is a complete operating system consisted of applications which are configured to work together and for the most part, out of the box.
The Slackware approach is do a full install and stay with it.

One thing i dont like about Slackware is that it doesnt have its own forum and it relies on LQ so we have to put up with moderator trolls. :)

Something i don't like about slackware ?
It's not as popular as it should be.

I also use mplayer.

I don't like that Sendmail is still the MTA that comes with it. I'd prefer that it shipped Postfix instead.

I am my Slackware's dependency-checking manager, a very reliable one. :)

Slackware doesn't have it's own forum.:)
What would happen if slackware has it's own new forum in future not LQ?

Be careful .... :D
Most of the "senior members", "guru's" in LQ are using slackware.

Heh,:D
LQ is the home of slackware.

We wouldnt have to read pixellany's Slackware does foo but Arch does it better posts.

I like every bit of Slackware and second brianL and samac.

Is there any possibility to have a new forum of Slackware of it's own?

If there is new forum for slackware in future , will all threads and posts from LQ be merged with the new forum?

It's unlikely that Slackware would ever leave LQ. Pat and his very small team already have far too much to do as it is just building/maintaining the distro.

I am not suggesting having a seperate forum.
I like LQ a lot and appreciate the work most people do on all sections of the site.
But on dedicated Slackware forum trolls like pixellany would eventually be kicked out.

Slackware has AOLS which is a dedicated discussion resource already. :)

Even if slackware starts an official forum..... LQ will on the top.
Because we had grand grand users of slackers are here in this LQ. Many of them are became Guru's , LQ addict's, Senior members .... If they move to "newer forum" -> they became newbie's ........

so will they use that forum as same as LQ ?? i think "NO"

I think "YES"

then ....

raju & repo are newbie's in that forum ... hehe:D

Everybody will be newbie.

Hi,

I left AOLS for the lack or ethics, morality and down right rudeness from the trolls. At least on a moderated forum you don't have to contend with rude, absurd and downright vulgar people.

:hattip:

I don't like the bi-monthly alien probing, but other than that, it's all good.

cheers,

Hi,

Apparently you don't understand the Slackware way or mindset. I participate primarily to give back to the Slackware community, my venue just happens too be the LQ Slackware forum among others.

'newbie' is actually a poor term. No person should be labeled but tagging does give us a way to identify skills. I guess that my age should tag me as a oldie but goodie. :hattip:

pixellany,

Dependency resolution is highly overrated. Dependency resolution is a fine thing *if* it reliably works. I much prefer the Slackware way of doing things. In 30 minutes I can have a working system installed, up and running ( all dependencies met). If I want to install third party applications, the dependencies are clearly listed at SBo. Everything works properly. The first time. I like to be in complete control of my system. Slackware gives me that control over system administration. It is not inconvenient for me to manage my own dependency issues. I prefer it. Each to his own, pixellany. :)

respectfully submitted,

hitest

Member titles, posts counts etc. are all just superficial nonsense. I seriously doubt they'd act as any sort of 'lock-in'.

Besides, a new forum might offer to give us all titles of "Gods of the known Universe" to entice us over, and Guru pales beside that! ;)

But there isn't a new forum, so this is all just silly talk.


@sakho,
The Association of Ontario Land Surveyors (AOLS) talk about Slackware?
Cool! ;)

Been around 12 years or so since I posted/read anything on usenet. I stopped when it started to degenerate. It's hard to say this without sounding elitist, but the Internet was much better when it was hard to access and only the people who really wanted to be here were doing online communications stuff. I miss dial-up BBSes and zone mail hour. :(

I don't know but suspect that having all packages loaded with admin privileges is a security risk. Though this might be more of an issue with the slackbuilds.

No, you're right it's a valid concern. Which it's why it's important to check the gpg signature files before you install the official packages and in the case of slackbuilds or other 3rd party packages make sure you trust the person providing them and for that matter the source they're built from.

Unfortunately, it's not something that can be easily avoided.

I wouldn't 'mind' having more transparency in the development cycle. It may be pointless since such a small team, but I'd still be reading over any dev mailing list ;) It may help the team get more contribution from it's users. It could also just piss them off more.

If there is such a thing, and I've just been missing out over the last 5~ yrs of using slackware, I'll be bitter...

I have no problem with PV, Eric, Robby, and the members of the Slackware team being solely responsible for the development of Slackware.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I trust the Slackware team.
Also, if there are any problems in -current they are reported to the lead developers and the issues are quickly resolved.

You are not required to read ANY of my posts!!! But, if you actually did, you would see that I often say GOOD things about Slackware....

Your issue is with the person that started this thread.....I'll make you a deal: Start one on what you don't like about Arch---I promise to answer......;)

Of course it is a Slackware approach--SW is os one of the majority of distros that does a complete install, but the SW community also is big on customizing and optimizing. My only point is that I prefer to optimize by adding things, not by removing them. Maybe that means I should really be using LFS.

"moderator troll"----I like it--please ask Jeremy to add that to the list of available titles. But does one attain this before or after--eg--"guru" or "moderator"?

It's not that I do not trust them. If I didn't, I wouldn't use slackware. It's more of a curiosity thing.

OTOH, the 'surprise' of 64bit was kinda cool.

I have been using SuSE for many years, that comes with Postfix. It's an excellent MTA, and in my early days with Linux it was a real relief, as it was much easier to set up than Sendmail.

But in recent versions I found that the configuration of Sendmail has benn greatly simplified. I can set it up now by modifying the M4 scripts (well, that's something the value of which could seriously be discussed...) just a fast as I can enter the configuration details into YaST for Postfix on SuSE.

Plus: Sendmail is currently faster than Postfix in my environment (not a lot, both are capable of transferring tons of messages in a short period of time), and it can, surprisingly, extended with external modules, a bit easier than Postfix.

Also, I somehow like the "Bat Book", and as Slackware is the oldest distro in service, it somehow fits that it comes with the "original" mailer. ;)
That's, as long as it is competitive. Some years ago, it was not, and if Slackware had switched to Postfix, QMail (well, Bernstein is a bit of a character, it seems...) or some other good mailer, it would have well been justified.

But in recent years there seem to have been a few more security problems in Postfix than in Sendmail. No one would have expected this five years ago, when Sendmail was the Swiss Cheese of MTAs.

gargamel

Agreed. That was very cool indeed! :cool:

I don't like that quality, useful programs don't respect Slackware and insist on using gnome libraries to compile. e.g. gnucash and inkscape.

All the gnome libs are so interconnected you have to be extremely careful that you get the proper version that is designed to work with the GTK and other very few packages that slackware installs from gnome.

One sad thing being the transition of programs forcing the requirement libgsf-gnome which is a subset of libgsf installed with Slackware. Hopefully the libgsf maintainers realize this and separate the package.

I suppose that's more of a complaint about other programs in relation to Slackware... Maybe what Slackware is missing, is a good method to auto recompile all the packages (minus tool chain) specific to your processor. But it's arguable that the potential loss in stability and quality is not worth the potential speed increase.

Oh! I know. autofs doesn't come with an rc script designed for Slackware. That's annoying.

Doing my own dependency checking was something I was intimidated by before I switched to Slackware. Since then I've started to wonder what the big deal is. I find it much easier to control and understand my system when I do all that myself.

I'll agree with this. I prefer starting with a blank slate and adding what I need.

This is everything i do not like about Slackware... :D

Its empty... meaning there is nothing that i dislike...

IMHO there are three distros i may consider "sane" :

Slackware, Arch and Crux...

In growing required skill to master them... :)

Being a Slacker, I may "try" to be an Archer... but being a Cruxer is way beyond my level of expertise yet...

... maybe when I become an Archer I can dare to tinker with Crux...

BRGDS

Alex

...and miss the opportunity to understand exactly what's on your system, and how it works. On Slackware, installing from source is usually a breeze. I find it much easier than using any of the automated tools I've used. Using those tools, it was easier in the short term, but much more difficult in the long term since so many of the details of what was being done to my system were hidden from me.

I agree with you - I HATE HATE HATE HATE having to use anything that depends on Gnome libraries. Hate it.

But this isn't a problem with Slackware, it's a problem with the programs that depend on Gnome libraries...

Hi,
I like it!

I'll bet you have to even use 'USENET' to get to that status.

:hattip:

Unless I run `chmod -x /etc/profile.d/xfce.*`, I get the Xfce run box in KDE when I hit Alt-F2 :(

Quote from http://www.gtk.org/features.html
I think that's one of the biggest problems. If gtk+ was a self-contained standalone widget library then a lot of these problems would go away.

Then of course, there's stuff like gconf. Ideally, Application developers would leave this to be a compile time '--enable-feature' on ./configure. and code it so that it would fallback to the traditional .programrc files and Xresources when not enabled. Unfortunately, developers can't be arsed to put the effort into coding this and therefore the need for gconf is forced upon everyone just so that one silly little program can get something trivial like its font settings or colours from gconf.

Part of it is down to the application writers, but part of it is also bad library design and separation of function.