Now before I get severely flamed let me explain my situation. My friend and I basically chose to different linux distributions. I went down the slackware path because I figured that I had more computer knowledge than him and it seemed like it was the best one to me. Although he is pretty good with computers as well. We are both computer science majors. Anyway He chose Ubuntu now we are getting into this huge debate as to which distrobution is better. He essentially laughs at me. I recently saw his computer which is what I am typing on now.. Ironically. His computer is beyond being a function computer. What I consider functional to be is a computer that can...

-Able Use Multiple Moniters.(we both use 2 monitors or more)
-Have all sound & audio drivers working
-Network adapters usable Wireless & LAN
-Able to install and uninstall programs at will
-Customizable
-An Active memeber on the network
(we both have networks at our house's if you don't use networks then I guess this won't really matter much but it is usefull for file sharing purposes)
-Flash and plugins for Firefox, PDF (this way you can watch youtube videos and view some other sites that have flash or videos)
-Some sort of Open Office or Word so that we can do our school work
-As far as linux goes we both said we were going to get Comliz & Whine
-Also have our music & videos up on Linux as well.
-Security
-Also keep the system up to date.
-Able to Back up files
-Keyboard and mouse Fully function including smart buttons.
-Also something unique that sets your system apart.
-Fully function bittorent hehe it has its uses.

Anyway......... His computer is beyond function I feel as though things that in slackware are extremely complicated are made easy. Like I was asking him about like how did you get his sound working did you figure out about the terminal alfmixer. He was like basically I just installed it and everything worked. Meanwhile I struggled and still did not have sound I got sound to work easily on another computer but not my main one. I spent hours trying to install 1 single thing trying to read about creating packets and all of this stuff when he simply just went to his little packet manager. When I had problems with my GUI showing up his was straight forward already there. I am still using one monitor which gets really irrating when you work on duel screens and you are accustomed to use tri-screens and often dual at home.

His system pretty much put me to shame he is using quad screens. Everything works to perfection I was surprised even his smart buttons worked on his keyboard. My mouse and keyboard and mouse are on the most basic setting to get it to at least allow me to type and click. I don't even have any games on my computer. Meanwhile he even has a virtual console that enables him to use windows, linux and other distributions from Ubuntu and I am starting to covet his different operating systems on different monitors all connected.

Anyway at this point he is making the argument that Ubuntu is just simply superior so I was wondering what advantage or card do I have at this point. I nearly took the cd's from him. He is like why are you wasting your time with a outdated distro.

Personal preference I guess. I have tried them all, only gentoo comes close to my tastes. The last Ubuntu I tried was really annoying on the laptop and compiling a custom kernel was just... unnecessarily complicated.
Have you read distrowatch's Top Ten Distributions Some good points there.
Use what you want/like/need no matter what people say. The right tool for the right job

Ubuntu is superior for a n00b............

If you want to LEARN, keep Slacking.

"If you want to learn how to use linux use slackware."

Ubuntu is a linux distribution focus'ed on making things simple and easy for new comers and experts alike. Basically Ubuntu holds your hand the entire way. However Slackware is "hardcore" linux if you want the same functionality as your friend is getting out of Ubuntu you need to have quite a bit of linux knowledge. Ubuntu has quite a bit of popularity these days because its considered an easy to use linux. Their motto I believe is "Linux for human beings" instead of 10 years ago when you were considered a super geek just because you had linux. To sum it all up I think you made the right choice going with slack. You will learn more than your friend is because you are being forced to work these things out on your own instead of relying on programs to fix it for you.

Asking which distribution is better than which (and by this i mean any distribution) usualy incites a flame war and everyone will have their opinion. And I am no different so heres mine - once you learn how to use linux Slackware > Ubuntu. Slackware keeps to the linux traditions more than Ubuntu does. To me Linux is all about the command line interface and not point and click babysitting. Slacks the oldest surviving linux that focuses on security and stability. I've been using linux since 1998 and ever since then Slackware and Debian have pretty much paved the way as far as distributions go. If you dont like Slackware you might like Debian (Ubuntu is based on it). Don't get me wrong though Ubuntu is great too infact I use it on multiple systems but only for desktop use I would never put it anywhere where security is important like a server. I use Ubuntu on my laptop/desktop but I use OpenBSD on my server however I would never recommend Ubuntu to a new linux user over Slackware. Once you learn how to set everything up in slack you can go to Ubuntu and when the point and click or apt-get system fails you, youll know what to do. My suggestion is stick with slack for a good year or so. Learn the CLI like the back of your hand. Get your sound/hardware all working and learn your way around system settings and config files before you go into a distribution that does a lot of that for you.

If you want to learn how Linux works run Slackware, if you want Linux to just work, use Ubuntu.

Ugh. Again? Really? There is a search function in these forums. This debate has been beaten to death. My Slackware box does everything listed above (except I don't have a wireless card, and I don't have a second monitor -- though I know dual displays work fine).
Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Depending on your video card, you may be able to do this more graphically as well (for example, if you use the nVidia or fglrx [ie ATI] proprietary drivers).
I have answered this question more times than I would like. It is the most frequent question I have answered, and I'm not answering it again. Search the forums. You need to make sure the correct module is loaded (and depending on your sound card, you may have to pass options to the module to get it working properly). You should also run `alsaconf` as root, followed by `alsamixer` (turn up all of the volumes and un-mute everything using the 'm' key), followed by `alsactl store`. There is more detail to this, but search the forums for more information.
For ethernet cards, this is as simple as running `netconfig`. For WiFi cards, it's a little more complex. You can either take the hard (but default) route of following this guide or take the easy way out and install wicd (a SlackBuild is available at slackbuilds.org). This is a VERY well documented procedure -- search the forums. There are rare cases with obscure network cards that may give you difficulty, and with some you may still be stuck using ndiswrapper. Search the forums.
This is possible and easy with Slackware -- but much different than Ubuntu. They both have different philosophies. With Ubuntu, it's really an automatic process -- but you have very little control over the compile options of an app. For example, if you want the app to utilize a certain dependency that it wasn't compiled against by the person that submitted the package to the repository, you may have to recompile (or get them to include that dependency). This also results in a LOT of dependencies being absolutely required because the application was built to support as many as possible. If you know nothing about computers, this may be ideal. However, I personally don't like that much unneccessary clutter on my system, and so I use SlackBuilds and decide what I want on my system. Ubuntu is easier, but you get more control with Slackware (though you can compile applications in Ubuntu as well -- but you may have to prepare beforehand so you don't get conflicts with the dependency-resolving package manager).

The easiest methods of package installation in Slackware are using slackbuilds.org (and after finally testing sbopkg on another partition, I can say that this makes things SO much easier and faster), rworkman's repository, Alien Bob's repository, and slacky.eu (I trust that one less than the others, but I've never had any trouble with their SlackBuilds or packages and it is a good resource).

Again, package management in Slackware is different than most distros, and it's really a philosophical difference. It's your choice.
This one probably goes to Slackware. KUbuntu is more customizable than Ubuntu (though a little buggier, perhaps), but the level of customizability in Slackware is greater than both in my opinion. However, some of that configuration may involve editing text files. The text files in Slackware are all very well-documented, and it's a straightforward process most of the time, but if that's not your thing, there are always other distros.
This is easy regardless of the ditribution you are using. Search the web and the forums. NFS, samba, ftp, ssh ...
See the SlackBuild for Flash at slackbuilds.org. They also have a SlackBuild for Adobe Reader (or Acrobat or whatever they're calling it nowadays). I *hate* Adobe Acrobat and I just get PDF files to open with KPDF, which is MUCH more lightweight. Everything is faster with KPDF. However, you can get Acrobat to act as a plugin in your browser (see the SlackBuild).
I have OpenOffice.org installed (see slackbuilds.org), and I also have Microsoft Office installed through WINE, and also in a Virtual Machine (using VirtualBox). Copying complex stuff between MS Office apps doesn't work well (or at all) through WINE, but works perfectly through a VM. I have a shared folder between Linux and the VM which allows me to use Office fairly seamlessly.
See slackbuilds.org for both compiz and WINE. I'm not a fan of compiz, but whatever floats your boat. I've used it, and it works.
Slackware comes with Xine. slackbuilds.org also has SlackBuilds for mplayer, and Alien Bob's repository has a VLC SlackBuild (and package). Those three will play basically anything you can throw at it. You can also get browser plugins for either at the above-mentioned locations.
Both are pretty secure, and both can be made more secure using customizations. See the Easy Firewall Generator to create some simple IPTABLES rules that should keep your box more secure. slackbuilds.org contains SlackBuilds for rkhunter and chrootkit (I would use both) to check for rootkits. Remember to always run as your normal user, and try not to start X as root (I never have and don't plan on it any time soon).
This is precisely why I *hate* Ubuntu. Every time I turn on my mom's Ubuntu PC, it has to install TONS of packages, some of which require a restart (WHAT!? A restart required in Linux, even if you're not upgrading the kernel!?). It takes FOREVER! It's very frustrating. This is why I hated Windows (well, one of many reasons), and why I love Slackware. Updates in Slackware are really only because of security issues, and they are relatively rare. Plus, they're easy if you use rsync to maintain a mirror of the patches/ directory. I won't get into that, but I spend very little time upgrading packages. It should be noted that you do have to keep track of applications you install yourself in Slackware, unlike in Ubuntu which does it for you.
`tar` is great at this. So is rsync. There are also other tools you could install, like rsnapshot. Available in both (and all other) distros.
Search the forums. Both are explained. The extra keyboard buttons would have to be set manually, but that isn't difficult. Not all of mine are detected by `xev`, but most are (and the distro doesn't play much of a role in which keypress events are detected by the kernel, so my non-functioning buttons in Slackware would probably not function in Ubuntu either). Your mouse issue is a common question. Search the forums.

Basically, Slackware is easy, stable, and low-maintenance -- once you get used to it. Ubuntu is always relatively easy (depending on your hardware), and Slackware is always simple (but not necessarily vice versa). If you don't like Slackware, switch. Otherwise, we would be more than willing to help you fix your system.

Slackware is better, because doesn't hide internals. This is personal opinion.

I honestly believe this is true. It's so much easier to go in and edit and play with files and scripts in Slackware it seems. I've tried Kubuntu a couple times, and it just seems a lot more locked down for some reason. And really, like others have mentioned, I've learned SO much more about linux by using Slackware. And while it can be a nightmare or disappointing, you don't REALLY learn unless you've trashed a system

Slackware is the geekier of the two, so you'll do a lot better with the geek chicks.

IOW, you win.

cheers,

Well I boot both slackware 12.1 and Intrepid Ibex and have been pretty involved with both communities. It does not have to be a choice, you can have the best of both worlds :-)

Andrew

Thanks for posting this here, you troll, you're hoping to start another flame war ? Other than that is there any other point to this thread ? I don't see any questions or problems that you have. How am I supposed to help you ? Go use Ubuntu or Window$, I'm not stopping you, and no one else is either.

I'm hereby unsubscribing permanently from this thread, it is going to be a flame war, and I want no part of it.

Groundhog Day.

Advice: use whatever you like, and ignore anyone who disagree. This will save you a lot of time wasted in discussions.

At least 90% of this stuff is easy to do on any distro. So I see no problem here.

It would be nice if you wrote who exactly you think is a troll.
Otherwise your comment reminds me old saying that "A bullet can have your name on it, but grenades are addressed to whom it may concern".

The first lunux distro I installed was Ubuntu. I was (and still am) quite happy with Ubuntu. I started using other distros because I wanted to learn more about linux. I eventually settled upon Slackware. I have learned more about linux using Slackware than I ever could have learned using Ubuntu. This forum has been a great source of knowledge also. There are a lot of hardcore Slackers here who really know there stuff!
You will have to do some reading to get the most out of Slackware. Some suggestions:
http://www.slackbook.org/
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/
http://humanreadable.nfshost.com/sdeg/index.htm
And the Slackware LQ links:
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Slackware-Links

Also, Slackware runs faster and uses less of your computer's resources than Ubuntu. Ubuntu has become slower over the last few releases:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...nch_2008&num=1

Fine, I'll explain then I'll go. I think the OP is a troll because:

1) No specific question is asked. I don't see a single question in the OP's post.

2) Every other thread titled this way has ended in a flame war, and the OP also knows this. So why did they post ? Did they fail to see the others with the exact same title ?!@?!

3) The entire post is about how "good" Ubuntu is, and has very little to do with Slackware. Other than that it can be implied that Slackware is absolutely inadequate as a distro, is worthless, and should be put out of its misery. Obviously, Ubuntu is FAR superior is every aspect. So my advice: go use it, and stop trolling. If you have a question on how to get something working on Slackware I will gladly answer in, and so will everyone else. If you only come here to be a troll, rant and start a flame war. You are not welcome, at least according to me.