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-   -   Slackware 'like' OS Choice? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/slackware-%27like%27-os-choice-548482/)

DragonM15 04-23-2007 10:58 PM

Slackware 'like' OS Choice?
 
Hey All,
I have been running Slackware for years. I have been craving something new. In the past I have tried Redhat, but i didn't care for it much. Fedora doesn't boot. I was recommended by a friend of mine who had used Slackware for years to try PCLinuxOS. I will give PCLinuxOS credit. When they say everything will work on boot, they mean it. However that is part of the problem. EVERYTHING works. What does that leave me to fiddle with? NOTHING. Also, while using PCLinuxOS I came to the conclusion that RPM's suck. REminds me so much of Windows. Oh, lets click on the exe and let it do whatever it is programmed to do.... ON another thought, with PCLinuxOS you CANT install ANYTHING from source. That kinda pisses me off!

Anyways, here is what I am looking for. Like I said I have used Slackware for years and I love how it works. So I am hoping to find something that is at least Slackware-Based. I have heard of Vector Linux. Anybody have thoughts on that? Are there some others that somebody recommends? I love using linuxpackages.net, so an OS that uses TGZ's would be most preferred. That kinda goes with Slackware-Based. That is what I am looking for. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
DragonM15

rickh 04-23-2007 11:13 PM

I think I'd recommend Debian Sid and dipping into Experimental. Debian tends to work, but running the cutting (bleeding?) edge Sid and Experimental packages will keep you on your toes. You might find that .deb packages are as enjoyable as .tgz packages, albeit certainly different.

Before installing Debian, do enough studying to learn to do it right. Install only the base system, then only the particular X applications that you want. Build a system designed to your specifications rather than a "fat and flatulent" newbie distro that gets in your way more than providing for your needs.

rkelsen 04-23-2007 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonM15
However that is part of the problem. EVERYTHING works. What does that leave me to fiddle with? NOTHING.

Hehehe.

Try as many other distros as you can. You'll be back to Slack in no time.

adityavpratap 04-24-2007 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkelsen
Hehehe.

Try as many other distros as you can. You'll be back to Slack in no time.

That is definitely true. No matter how many distros you try, you always end up with Slackware.

slakmagik 04-24-2007 01:24 AM

I've just recently gone on a distro-experimentation binge, myself, which I haven't done in ages. Some of what I've played with this time are:

Vector - based on Slack, but seem to be drifting apart. I've tried this probably 3 or 4 times and like it less each time. There's something I can't put my finger on, but I just call it 'clunky' to myself. However, it should appeal to many Slackers, especially on older boxes. And it may be that this last time I tried SOHO - maybe the plain Vector would be better.

Zenwalk - also based on Slack - have to admire the thoroughness - they've basically decided 'we are going to build a stripped Slackware devoted to xfce (only slipping a tiny bit of gnome-isms and a few Zenwalk-specific things). Very limited and you have to love xfce (which I definitely don't) but if you are a Slack/xfce fan, you might enjoy it a lot.

Frugalware - a kind of unholy alliance of a modified pacman (Arch's package manager - and they improve it quite a bit IMO) and Slackware. It's really more like Arch than Slack at this point, but it's my favorite of the three.

That said, you might even try Arch or, better yet, Crux (which is basically what Arch is sort of inspired by/descended from, though it's technically an LFS-spinoff, IIRC). These are very stripped down and simple distros that appeal to the 'gimme my shell and editor and lemme do it' attitude, but have a spiffy package-management system, if you're into that.

There's also all kinds of other Slack-derivatives - from floppy distros based on ooold Slack like BasicLinux to things in the Vector ballpark. Check DistroWatch or the like for more.

And all *that* said, I'm playing heavily with Debian at the moment. I'm honestly really tired of compiling a third of the system myself and don't trust 3rd party Slackware packages (though why I should trust debs any more, I dunno) and there's been some bloat and weirdness going on in -current that I don't much care for. So I temporarily agree with rickh, except that I'm firmly on 'stable' at the moment, after anticipating 4.0 with 'testing' for a bit. And, ultimately, I agree with the guys who say you'll just end up with Slackware again. :)

Randux 04-24-2007 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonM15
Hey All,
I have been running Slackware for years. I have been craving something new. In the past I have tried Redhat, but i didn't care for it much. Fedora doesn't boot. I was recommended by a friend of mine who had used Slackware for years to try PCLinuxOS. I will give PCLinuxOS credit. When they say everything will work on boot, they mean it. However that is part of the problem. EVERYTHING works. What does that leave me to fiddle with? NOTHING. Also, while using PCLinuxOS I came to the conclusion that RPM's suck. REminds me so much of Windows. Oh, lets click on the exe and let it do whatever it is programmed to do.... ON another thought, with PCLinuxOS you CANT install ANYTHING from source. That kinda pisses me off!

Anyways, here is what I am looking for. Like I said I have used Slackware for years and I love how it works. So I am hoping to find something that is at least Slackware-Based. I have heard of Vector Linux. Anybody have thoughts on that? Are there some others that somebody recommends? I love using linuxpackages.net, so an OS that uses TGZ's would be most preferred. That kinda goes with Slackware-Based. That is what I am looking for. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
DragonM15

I had a feeling like this after running Slackware for about six months. Even though Slackware was great and there wasn't anything at all I didn't like about it I thought there must be something else worth trying.

I tried Debian (hated SYSV init to the point of tossing my PC off a bridge) Arch (just too wierd back then and no user community but I think things have improved alot since then) Gentoo (no luck there) and a few more. I decided there's NOTHING like Slackware. Everything works. You can make your own packages easily, you can build any Linux app with ease, it's just so good there's no other Linux distro that you can use after you become a Slacker ;) If you think Slackware is boring because there's nothing to do, Debian is 100 times worse in that way. The one thing that is nice about Debian is it's really quite lean for a Linux distro. Not lean like Slackware, but leaner than 90% of the other big distros that have package systems.

I like BSD alot too. I started with OpenBSD and I'm glad I did because in many ways it's the simplest of the BSDs to install and set up even though they try to scare you off. I also have FreeBSD and NetBSD systems. I see a lot of crossover from Slackers to FreeBSD many guys seem to run both.

I would say unless you're using Linux for your job and need to be knowledgable on a specific distro like RH or SUSE then just stay with Slack and start looking into BSD. There are a couple of problems with BSD that Slackers may find hard to take. FreeBSD and NetBSD use a special system of build scripts which manage dependencies so if you build the same apps on one of those as you have on Slackware, you will be using more disk space and have more crap lying around on your system then you would on your Slackware system. That really bothers me but other people don't care. The other thing is that since the main c/c++ compiler and build tools in the world right now are GNU and GNU is Linux (yes we all know GNU means GNU is Not Unix!) it's sometimes much much easier to build an app on Linux and if you just download the source on BSD and start compiling like you did on Slackware a lot of times it doesn't work and it's really annoying. FreeBSD has thousands of build scripts so you can build most apps with no problems. But just grabbing source like you can with Slackware is not a slamdunk on BSD. There are many good things about all the BSD, I haven't tried any live CDs but I run the three main BSD flavours and they all have their high points.

Like some of the guys said Once you Slack you can never go back ;)

Randux 04-24-2007 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by digiot
simple distros that appeal to the 'gimme my shell and editor

Gimme shell/tor ;)

rkelsen 04-24-2007 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randux
Gimme shell/tor ;)

Sing it Randux!

onebuck 04-24-2007 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonM15
Hey All,
I have been running Slackware for years. I have been craving something new. In the past I have tried Redhat, but i didn't care for it much. Fedora doesn't boot. I was recommended by a friend of mine who had used Slackware for years to try PCLinuxOS. I will give PCLinuxOS credit. When they say everything will work on boot, they mean it. However that is part of the problem. EVERYTHING works. What does that leave me to fiddle with? NOTHING. Also, while using PCLinuxOS I came to the conclusion that RPM's suck. REminds me so much of Windows. Oh, lets click on the exe and let it do whatever it is programmed to do.... ON another thought, with PCLinuxOS you CANT install ANYTHING from source. That kinda pisses me off!

Anyways, here is what I am looking for. Like I said I have used Slackware for years and I love how it works. So I am hoping to find something that is at least Slackware-Based. I have heard of Vector Linux. Anybody have thoughts on that? Are there some others that somebody recommends? I love using linuxpackages.net, so an OS that uses TGZ's would be most preferred. That kinda goes with Slackware-Based. That is what I am looking for. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
DragonM15

Hi,

Why don't you try 'LFS'Linux From Scratch Forum. You could use Slackware as your base. The 'Welcome to Linux From Scratch' site would be another place to start.

trashbird1240 04-24-2007 08:13 AM

Anything?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonM15
Oh, lets click on the exe and let it do whatever it is programmed to do.... ON another thought, with PCLinuxOS you CANT install ANYTHING from source. That kinda pisses me off!

That would piss me off too -- if it were true. What have you tried to install from source? I've installed tons of stuff from source on PCLinuxOS. It's why I switched from Ubuntu ;)

Now, on the other hand, since PCLinuxOS was my first system, I should tell you I'm thinking of ditching it in favor of installing Slackware at home. The Control Center has just stopped working, and I'm having serious trouble finding the configuration files to alter in place of using the GUI. Plus, the documentation for PCLinuxOS leaves much to be desired.

Yes, Slackware will KILL your desire to find something better; it strongly corroborates the idea that ...

It's the best Linux distro ever and will continue to be for a long time.

Joel

hitest 04-24-2007 08:26 AM

If you want a Slack-like distro perhaps give FreeBSD 6.2 a try; I ran BSD for quite awhile. In FreeBSD you have the choice of installing packages or you can compile from source. I also run Debian Etch at the moment, it is a solid distro.
However, once you're a Slacker, you're always a Slacker. Nothing is as good as Slackware.

H_TeXMeX_H 04-24-2007 09:28 AM

I agree, if you want Slackware-like ... try the BSDs.

ferradura 04-24-2007 10:31 AM

Crux
 
CRUX is very nice ;)

phil.d.g 04-24-2007 11:23 AM

I used to be a Slackware only person, but FreeBSD has kept Slackware off my server, and Arch, Slackware off my desktop for a significant amount of time now and I've not really felt the desire to return, unlike when I tried out other distros. Therefore I'd recommend either as an alternative to Slackware.

MannyNix 04-24-2007 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragonM15
Any thoughts?

Hi, yeah!
* I don't get why you like using linuxpackages.net (Nothing Wrong With It) but if you've been using slackware for years you'd probably prefer slackbuilds or rolling your own :cool:
* I didn't like compiling a vanilla kernel nor installing nvidia drivers when i tried Vector, probably different now. It "gets in the way" too much for my liking.
* Trying Free/Open BSD could be enjoyable for a while, but for me (desktop user) FreeBSD pulls too much deps as Randux said, it didn't run as 'fast' as slackware and i ended up using linux emulation for lots of things (besides gcc as said before). I didn't take the time to learn from the porters-handbook, so finding a program on the web, grabbing the source and rolling my own was'nt as easy as it is on slackware or 'linux'. Anyway, the ports collection is huge! and their deps too :rolleyes: . I loved OpenBSD, but i also like some gaming+nvidia drivers, so gnu/linux fits my needs better. I'd definitely use Open or FreeBSD for a server.
* My vote goes for trying Arch, it is simple, has an apt-like package manager (pacman) and it's also easy to build from source with abs. 'rolling your own' seems easier than on *BSD. Here's Arch compared to other distros
* In the end, nothing matters till you try them all and make up your mind. I always keep a 4GB partition to try the 'next big things' or to check if the grass is greener somewhere else. It isn't, as they say, once a Slacker, always a Slacker!
Enjoy! :D


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