GCC uninstalled by default? This is definitely shipped by default in Debian. Are you actually using Ubuntu? I think Ubuntu is a mess anyway, sometimes it is too buggy to even install completely, but that's a different story.

This is actually another example of what I see as "incomplete", as it has in fact been included in Debian for years. Google also turns up the SlackE17 project for installing Enlightenment in Slackware easily, but this is a separate initiative and not included in the distribution itself.

I'm not trying to herald Debian here in the Slackware forum though! That is a recipe for disaster

I'm glad that you find it useful. I keep them under the "Slack propaganda" directory of my FF bookmarks .

Being in repos doesn't mean it's installed by default. We can't say that in gentoo everything is installed because this everything is in portage. I was talking about primary/secondary Desktop environment like KDE/fluxbox.

Nope, haven't been able to find the complete list of appends to get ubuntu to the command prompt yet . It really doesn't like my system lol.

I did the Debian Internet installation. Maybe it has something to do with that. gcc and its dependencies were definitely missing though.

To add my
I, like several people here, have experimented with many, many distros. And at first, I do like the changes of some. I stuck with (K)Ubuntu for a couple months, and I have really tried to find something good about Xandros (no such luck!). Vector Linux was another; and SUSE; and Fedora (the worst of all, IMHO). And the list goes on.
However, in the end, for some truly unexplainable reason, I always go back to Slackware and it's so nice when I do. In a way, maybe I like it more because I know that I have made my system what it is, rather than an updater and package installer doing it for me. I don't know. All I do know is that, given time, Slackware proves to be the most enjoyable and most stable distro I can find. And if you do want GNOME, Dropline is the perfect addition to Slackware.

Food for thought: The sorry state of open source today. Very readable, criticizing and hilarious (sometimes). There are 25 articles, but read especially the last one (Whereto?).

Ya when I started with linux I was
using pclinuxos because that was like the only distro that would work with my hardware out of the box and I used it and it was fine. But I never really liked the distro because it was slow and crashed sometimes and had auto updates like ubuntu and everything.But always in my heart while I was
still using pclinuxos I was jealous of slackware because I thought it was hella "cool" and it had a attitude to it unlike pclinuxos or the other "easy-to-use-distros".The only trap that was holding me back is that alot of people claimed that slackware
is way to hard to use, it's only for linux vets,
bla bla bla. So one day after doing some research and finding the positive reviews and how fast it was I went away to D/L the slack11 dvd. I went on
to install it and it was easy to install unlike what
people said and then after doing a full install
rebooted.Lilo started up and luckly window$ was still there along with slackware on the top. I booted up slack and ran startx and it started up on vesa mode at 1024x768 res. I researched and ran
xorgconfig and setup my video card mouse etc and
everything worked after that. So I'm very happy that I took on slack it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Yes there is tough times sometimes
when something doesn't work, but I always can ask
here on the forums or at #Slackware where the guys
always will try to help me with my problem.

Slack ROCKS! thx guys (and ladies)

that can be a really BIG "one liner" if i want the dev packages for everything in a typical install of debian...

no wildcards that will get ALL the dev packages for ALL installed packages?

i think i will stick with trusty ol' slackware

Yeah, actually you are. But it's okay. I promise this will be the one and only time I bring it up. Now, on to beating that dead horse.....

These are the reasons why I use Slackware:

1) Stability = good

2) Pat V doesn't muck with the kernel. That's for me to do, should I so choose. The last thing I want is for some distro specific kernel patch to get in my way of doing what I need to do with my PC's.

3) Manual dependency checking is a good thing. Installing package 'A' and having packages B, C, D, E, and F installed automatically in the background in the name of dependency resolution is a good way to bork your system and be left without a clue how to fix it.

4) The ultimately in flexibility. I am currently using Slack on a desktop, on a laptop, as an ssh/print/file server, and as the base OS for a MythTV box.

5) I got tired of the OS - Windows I'm looking in your direction - making decisions for me (see items 3 & 4) .

6) BSD style init is a better way of doing it (IMO).

The above points are based on my experience. Your experience may vary.

This was a good read. It makes me think that one of the more important functions that distributions provide is to shield the user from the politics and new "features" (after reading the section on kernel 2.6.20) of the individual components. Some (i.e. Slackware) do a very good job of this and always provide a reliable system, while others (i.e. the gong show that is Ubuntu)....not as much.

In the interest of not fueling the flames I'm not even going to respond to the more provocative posts. A lot of people have responded pointing out what makes slack great, which was just what I was looking for. Thanks

my 4 years experience from LQ -slack forum, this question is asked many times in many forms, everytime there will be plenty of post for the corresponding thread. , their perspective changes as time goes by.

every time they will have something to say positive from a different angle,

You either get slack or you don't. For me, every other distro feels clunky and awkward. As a minimalist, Slackware fits my mentality perfectly. Nothing annoys me more than simple things being made overly-complicated for the same result.
It has supported the 2.6 kernel for some time now. The next version will be 2.6 only.
Personally, I find automatic dependancy resolution to be more trouble than it's worth. I'd rather be 100% in control of everything. Slackware gives me that ability.
Meh. KDE is better. It certainly seems to better fit the Slackware philosophy, anyhow.
Nope.
We can try, but if you don't get it, you never will.

I have to agree with everyone here.

stable, clean, and straight forward.

I like the fact that slacktools like installpkg, removepkg, pkgtool, etc. are all in bash. Once less security hole i have to worry about in bad programming. You can't buffer overflow a script.

The packages are easy to create, modify, and understand.

the entire install is done in sh scripts. that awesome.

slackware has been around forever and its not going anywhere. Its stable, secure, and clean. nuff said

My background stems from the days of CPM - DrDos - MSDOS - Win 3.11 - etc , 20 years of IT experience. My Linux experience started July 2006 as I was curious - I had experience of SCO Unix in one of my jobs and the whole paradigm interested me as I had no knowledge of Unix (well a bit of AIX) prior to this. I found the only live CD that would work 'out of the box' was Slax. This introduced me to the whole Linux concept and prompted me to d'load Slackware 10.0 and install, as a dual boot, to my machine. OMG - this was like stepping back in time - I could once again be in control of my machine and get down at a low level to what was going on with my OS. This brought back memories of my early delvings into assembler and C coding - I could delve low into the workings of my hardware and really see what was going on. This revelation prompted me to experiment with other distros - FC6, PcLinuxOS, Ubuntu etc but sadly the aforementioned OS's seemed to be trying to be Windows'ish. Keeping the inner workings from the user - even if that user was an administrator - with the intention of simplifying things which cannot be simplified as control was lost. As much as I learn through my experimentation with Slackware only shows me how much I don't know. The whole learning process involved with Slack gives insights to the bigger picture of OS abilities in general. I have yet to come across an insurmountable problem with Slackware, in fact, my attempts to solve glitches has massively increased my knowledge of low level topics. Slackware has been (in my relatively short experience) a unique learning tool and a satisfying one to boot. I have my heroes when it comes to software development and Patrick V. is up there with the best.... Long live Slackware - you have renewed my faith...

I think a good way to put it in a one-liner

"Slackware users know linux, Others use linux"