What features/changes would you like to see in future Slackware?
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Just to point out there always be another opinion.
Why not to let things that can take care of themselves to do so? When upstream provides nice binaries, why should the distribution, in this case Slackware, care? For example, slackbuilds for Open Office and Eclipse do virtually nothing. Why not "include" both into official Slackware by simply creating an official repository for such zero maintenance slackbuilds? More so, things that install themselves just fine, like Firefox and VirtualBox, may be "included into official Slackware" by just creating a page with links to official sites. This does not add any extra work for developers, even removes some. for example, the firefox package may be dropped.
I'm doing some diskless workstations for the university I'm working into: I'm using a slack64 as dhcp/dns/pxe/bootp/tftp/nfs server.
mainly:
- I export via nfs (read-only) a dir with an ubuntu root filesystem (backupped with tar booting off a livecd).
- I have configured dhcpd to pass via pxe this menu (/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default)
- the /tftpboot/netboot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-13-generic is the stock ubuntu kernel and /tftpboot/netboot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-nfs is rebuilt to include in the init image aufs, nfs and network card drivers for the pcs I'm using it with.
- the append line above sets the boot from nfs with the nfsroot indicated. the aufsroot option tell the kernel to use aufs for the root filesystem so you can use it as it's r/w (same method used for live distros).
- homes are mounted via nfs (one can use also samba, or whatever he likes).
I think this can be done with no pain also with a folder, nfs-exported, that cointains a slack root filesystem
P.S. next step I'll probably take is to install freenx on the root image and to patch the kernel with mosix
"Pink" is how the Church of the SubGenius refers to the kind of corporate conformance that it is so strongly aligned against.
I haven't used KOffice much because it doesn't offer all the functionality I'm looking for (and the way its windows hog desktop space for things other than workspace really irks me).
OOo is available in a reasonably straigntforward package from SBo, so as far as I'm concerned, we already have it. I like the way it can open almost anything and that it exports to PDF, but it is big and sluggish and still doesn't replicate MS Excel's cell border tools (just offers a very basic set), and in the pink corner of my world this is Very Important.
Personally, for document creation, I usually use Mousepad or vim. If I need fancy formatting I prefer something like Scribus, though it's not exactly what I want either (my favorite word processer was always PageMaker). Scribus, Inkscape, FontForge, Blender and the Gimp are my must-haves.
The Gimp is already included (and that's all anyone *really* needs, isn't it?), but while the others are all available from SBo, their installation isn't always so trivial (because of their sometimes extensive dependencies).
Maybe I should just learn TeX!
If I really need something that works like MS Office, I'll use MS Office. That's what VirtualBox is for!
Oh, When Windows95 came out they kept saying it was more Mac-like, but we Mac users knew that it didn't look like any Mac we ever used. It wasn't 'Mac-like', it was NeXT-like. That's where they got the Start menu and the taskbar/quicklaunch bar. Mac OS X is a direct decendant of NeXT Step (they still use the NS- prefix on the class names).
They work similarly because they both come from the same source.
Distribution: Slackware64-current with "True Multilib" and KDE4Town.
Posts: 9,173
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by leeeoooooo
...(Mac OS X is a direct decendant of NeXT Step (they still use the NS- prefix on the class names).
They work similarly because they both come from the same source.
Wasn't Next Step built on Darwin?
I know if you open a console in OS X and run the uname command it reports itself as Darwin.
If I need fancy formatting I prefer something like Scribus, though it's not exactly what I want either (my favorite word processer was always PageMaker). Scribus, Inkscape, FontForge, Blender and the Gimp are my must-haves.
A person after my own heart! For years, PageMaker, Photoshop, and Freehand (but not Illustrator ) were my constant companions. I personally don't think that InDesign is a good substitute for PageMaker. InDesign has some great features, but the workflow feels too finicky. PageMaker's ability to have stories outside of frames and to flow the stories from one page to another made laying out, formatting, and preparing long documents exceptionally easy.
Scribus is a pretty good substitute for PageMaker. Like a lot of FOSS stuff, it seems that the most useful stuff is in the third-party plug-ins.
Back to the topic at hand. I think that Slackbuilds.org does a fine job of making stuff available that's not in the core Slackware. Maybe all that's needed is a stronger endorsement from Pat. If he simply stated that Slackbuilds.org is the official extra software repository, then Open Office, Scribus, and a whole bunch of other neat stuff will be included in Slackware.
I use Slackware as my operating system because it is stable, fast, and very secure. After almost six years of using Slackware I have *never* encountered a rootkit. I can't say that about other OSs.
I like to scan my Slackware boxes with Root Kit Hunter. This utility is available at SBo and I use it regularly. I think this small utility could be a good addition to the next stable release of Slackware.
Only one package for the kernel.
I think it is kind of a mess to separate headers, source, modules and the kernel in different packages.
It would also be nice to only have the generic kernel (on the installation DVD) and make it mandatory to always use an initrd. That would probably reduce the number of "kernel panic" posts as well..
Back to the topic at hand. I think that Slackbuilds.org does a fine job of making stuff available that's not in the core Slackware. Maybe all that's needed is a stronger endorsement from Pat. If he simply stated that Slackbuilds.org is the official extra software repository, then Open Office, Scribus, and a whole bunch of other neat stuff will be included in Slackware.
Sounds good to me!
I would also add that it would be very easy to slim Slackware from the current 10947 editors down to the most popular 2 or 3 and then put the balance into the "officially recognised" Slackbuilds.org, this would satisfy the "minimalists", the "don't change it ists", the "we need every possible bit of software in the world ists" and let "our benevelant dictator" continue making the speedy, stable, safe and sensational Slackware that we know and love.
Oh, "minimalist Slackware" is a jobs program for wannabe distro producers. Draco and several other Slack-based distros are specifically a reaction to all those editors and such.
I once lost out on a job because I couldn't help mentioning in the interview that, while I certainly knew Illustrator well enough, I found it to be somewhat counter-intuitive.
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