I am doing the typical newbie thing and stumbling around testing distros till I figure out that trying to be a hacker is not as easy or glamorous as Hollywood makes it look... then I'll run back to my Windows cave and hope the Linux gods don't smite me.

In any case a guy on the forum who thinks I am more competent than I actually am suggested Slackware. I was just going to dl it... throw it into a VM... and take it for a spin. But the 4 Gig dl size gave me pause to waste your time with the following question and the preceding statements.

4 Gigs is a little beefier than the distros I have tried so far. Does it require much in the way of system resources. The Lappy has an intel core 3 processor and 4 gigs core (I think Linux people call it core and not ram) which should be fine. I am more concerned about the resources of my netbooks which have Intel Atom 1.66 GHz processors and 1 gig ddr core each.

Actual Question: Do you believe my netbooks will be suitable for running Slackware?

Curiousity Question: Why is the Slackware distro so huge compared to some other Linux distros?

Apologies for running off at the mouth... I have been trapped in my cave all day reading tutorials. The tutorials are fascinating until I hit the parts that look math-related and my brain shuts down. Z/Z

Slackware is relatively unique in that it has no official non-default package repository (by which I mean a 'full installation' includes every official Slackware package, with the exception of a few in the extra/ directory on the install media). Other distributions have core installations with large repositories of extra packages. You can always pick and choose which packages to install, but for someone new to Slackware I would recommend a full install (with the possible exception of the kde/ series if you want to trim it down without breaking anything -- though this will reduce desktop functionality for some). That 4 GB on the DVD also includes source code (which isn't necessary and isn't usually included with other distributions' ISOs), but *when installed* the system will probably take up 4-5 GB (assuming you install kde/).

As to your performance questions, I would guess that Slackware would run at least as good as most other distros (if not better than some chunkier ones). Just because a lot of packages are included in the installation does *not* mean that all of those applications are run at once. Slackware cuts out a lot of cruft that is present in other distros (no pulseaudio, for example). Any of the computers you listed would run Slackware just fine (though the netbooks may benefit by using a lighter Desktop Environment/Window Manager than KDE, which is relatively resource-intensive. XFCE may be a good option, which is included by default in a full Slackware install).

As for third-party software (software outside of the scope of a full Slackware installation), I'm too lazy to type it out again so I'll just provide the first link I found in a search.

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Yes. I am happily running both a stable Slackware-13.37 with KDE 4.5.4 installation and a Slackware-current with KDE 4.7.4 installation on my netbook with Intel Atom CPU and 1GB RAM.

The full Slackware installation media includes KDE internationalisation packages as well as the full Slackware source. This increases the size, but is not necessary to run Slackware.

For an installation walkthrough, look at this. http://elevenislouder.blogspot.com.a...re-primer.html

Coffee!

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The DVD includes all of the source code, including the scripts which were used to build everything.

In terms of resources:
Note that Slackware is designed to be a fully self-contained Linux distribution. You can easily add other things to it, but all of the "official" packages are on the DVD.

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Thanks everybody. That was very helpful and informative. I reflexively avoid google for subjective evaluations as word of mouth from imperfect humans is often more reliable than the perfect answers from most media sources. I visited 4chan for the first time in quite a while and the quote below had me laughing for hours. Z/Z

"Because when I think Quality I think 4chan"
-- quote from the megaloop in the flash archieve

I recently installed linuxmint-11-lxde on an asus eee pc 4g.
It's a nice looking light distro you might want to try.
Here is an account of my bungling installation with the help of linuxquestions:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-32bit-918566/

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All the Linux distros still being worked on are very good. I don't like labels because they limit each distros capabilities but I put Mint 12 on my lappy a little while back and it helped a great deal with my transition from win 7... at first I was uncomfortable in the no OS environment but now I almost never switch over to the win 7 side of the dual boot. The 32-bit version of Mint is ok for the netbooks but there is a minor problem with the 10" screens during install (the final install prompt is cut off at the bottom forcing me to use tab to select the install option). One of the gurus at the Mint forum gave very excellent instruction for doing a dual boot as well.

Besides the very excellent name for the Slackware distro I have read the Slackware distro besides being excellent is probably the closest in feel to a traditional Unix OS so I want to throw it into a VM and try it out on the off chance I decide to make in-roads as a Unix sysmin (I think that is the term) or in a similar field. Just because I am a slacker now doesn't mean I will be one forever Z/Z

May I also suggest Vector Linux 6. It made my transition from Windows quite painless. Unfortunately, I only had 128 core (your word) and couldn't access a few web-sites (esp. Yahoo mail!) I'm back to windows until I get enough ram and learn WinXP. I did have multi boot to Vector 6, Vector 6 Lite, Dos and Win98 on my system.

It is a slackware derivitive. In addition to the Gold (regular) edition, it is available in light, live (runs from CD to try it). They also have a KDE version (I really enjoyed xfce) and have incorporated a lot of outside applications which can be added.

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If you are going to upgrade your RAM (Windows terminology) slash Core (Traditional Unix terminology) you may consider boosting up to about 1 GB ... if your processor is 1.5 + GHz then you can skip to Win 7 starter... starter is less feature rich than the normal Win 7 but XP is being phased out and you will have little to no problems putting newer windows programs into 7 starter ... don't put in vista! ... and you can use the readyboost utility to improve system performance.

If you still intend to use XP there is a program called eBooster for XP that is "supposed" to have the same page filing functionality that readyboost does for vista and 7. I spend all my time on the Linux side now except when I need to play ro or something like that. Good luck with your upgrade. Z/Z

I'm not sure why Slackware keeps getting recommended to newbies. It is not newbie friendly and assumes you have some familiarity with the unix command line. Try setting up wi-fi, for example.

To the OP, try Ubuntu or Kubuntu where you will have your hand held for most of the way through, and where there are lots of GUIs to make your life easier.

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Got banned from the Ubuntu and many other forums for that matter... to be moar precise I am banned at just about any forum I spend any time on or the forum disappears... whichever comes first. On one forum I think I freaked some people out when I put a humourous signature on my posts written in BASIC (not shouting... that is how the language is generally written) ... I thought they were funny anyways but most people rarely get my sense of humour.

Don't understand the wifi reference... my wifi is working relatively well considering the network manager freaks out from time to time. Actually besides the Mint forum this is the only Linux forum that was patient enough to show me the ropes BEFORE ( intentional capitalization ) they started flaming me into a charcoal briquette.

As internet forums go this one was exceptionally tolerant of my initial ignorance (I am still ignorant... mostly I am just more aware of the demands on senior members and know a bit more about Linux netiquette).

Obviously nobody is reading every single one of my posts but I made it clear I was going to test Slackware in a VM and not go toe to toe with Linus... not yet anyways Z/Z

Not all Linux beginners are the same. If you really want to learn things and aren't afraid to step out of your comfort zone, then Slackware is a great choice. Oh, and wifi is pretty easy to setup, once you install wicd from /extra.

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This is the first time I hear about a confusion between core and ram. Does that distinction really exist? I remember fedora core since fc3, but I didn't know it referred to ram. Can someone straighten me out on this?

Wicd was pre-installed in BT5 (The distro I started from) and it did not detect the presence of my external wifi modem. I received many conflicting accounts of why it did not work and implemented many suggested resolutions over the span of many months ( way too many details for me to cover ) which brought me to this forum initially where I got a resolution that actually worked. I was advised that switching Linux distributions would resolve the issue and I could still continue my wireless research by installing programs usually associated with BT5. BT5 is a very excellent distribution but I currently lack the technical knowledge to utilize its full potential. This was actually a fortunate circumstance as some experienced Linux users here gave me links to very interesting and helpful documents concerning Linux fundamentals and forum protocol.

In Mint it appears I cannot access some directories from the GUI... I suspect they are in root or I am just not familiar with the standard Linux filing system yet. I have used dos in the past so accessing directories in root from the command line should not be difficult for me to accomplish.

Thank you Z/Z

http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Unix-and-In...O/anatomy.html ... The first couple of sentences explain the origins of the terminology. Z/Z