Why do I use Slackware? That's simple. Simplicity is a beautiful thing. None of this GUI package manager crap, it takes soo freaking long to do. That and all you need to get you up and running is one cd. Thats it. And it runs well on older machines. Yea, that and I can do things so much quicker in CLI anyway.. which is what it defaults to (whoo hoo!)..

I have tried Mandrake, Red Hat, and SuSE. I got used to RPM installation. Then I found a package that wasn't an RPM and that's when I had to start learning CLI. I attribute Mosfet's home page and FAQ's to my making the decision to change to Slackware. Mosfet (Daniel M. Duley) has worked on KDE development and wrote a really slick theme - Mosfet's High Performance Liquid. I tried to install it in Mandrake and it just crapped out. So I went to his page and that's where I learned about how Red Hat and Mandrake (and I assume many other distros) "rearrange" KDE to fit their tools in their distros. So I looked for a "purer" Linux. I had heard that Debian was for the hardcore coders and I wasn't sure that I was up to that yet. A little more digging on Distrowatch, and I decided on Slackware. I think I made a wise choice. Sure, I'll PLAY with some other distros from time to time, but Slack is the one I USE.

Well I'm using it cause it doesn't have all the sh*t that Redhat or the other major distros have. It fits what I need in one disc, and I have no complaints about too much shiznat being installed.

oh and i learned how to compile my own kernel too :D gotta love slack :)

cuz I can.

Ya liked that one did ya MasterC?

Because it was the only one that fitted the requirements...

I am resurecting an old PC, or rather cobbled it together with bits lying around:
mainboard: ASUS SP97V
processor: 333MHz AMD K6-2
HDD: 14 GB IBM DeskStar
RAM: 64 MB 72 pin SIMM
plus other bits & bobs (CDROM, soundcard, etc etc ...)

TinyLinux went in OK, but was too minimal for me at the moment.
Basic Linux wouldn't boot.
RedHat 8 installed first go, but seemed to be i n c r e d e b l y sloooo o o o w!
Tried to install SuSe 8.1 from a magazine cover disc - No good, install seemd OK, but got package errors with the kernal & yast.
Slackware 9 - installed OK, but wouldn't boot - got a series of 99's. Booted from floppy OK
VectorLinux installed OK, but wouldn't boot - got a series of 99's. Booted from floppy OK. But, I stuck with Vector (got fed up with burning CDs) & discovered it was a lilo problem - probaly the reason Basic wouldn't boot either.

But, Vector is up & running, & I'll stick with it.

I've used SuSE and Mandrake for a year (I celebrated my 1 year anniversary of Linux usage in May) and then tried Slackware. I was addicted almost immediately and now have only Slackware on my box. I had to learn how to get things running but learning is not a disease unless one prefers to remain ignorant.

Oh he!! yeah! It's one of the very few reasons anyone can argue with, and at the same time, it makes the most sense. Nice line, I didn't wanna steal it, so I quoted ya :)

Cool

my harddrive died, and when i got a new one i thought, hey, maybe i'll try linux. i grabbed slackware just cause of the name, and never found a reason to try another distro since.

ahahhahaha. neat.

well, i cant tell you why im using slackware, because atm, im not. but i can tell you why i will when i visit my box again. (on an indefiniate vacation)

I started to install ARKlinux. first distro i came across, before i eve researched wtf a distro was. mistake. not only did the install freeze, but it decided to format all the hardrive i had hooked up without asking. bad mojo. lost 5 game images to that. pissed me off....

researched, and read that mandrake was the easiest to switch from windows, so i figured sure, why not. i think i did a total of 9 installs with mandrake before i got it working for more than 2 days. i will never understand why i had to (learn to)use fdisk to format/partition when the installer has its own... It worked fine for about a month too, but now all the sudden im gettin funny little errors with bash, root doesnt log in right, and now it wont even boot. No doubt, its my fault, but i dont know what i did, so thats no good.

in between mandrake installs i tried slackware. i liked it, but i couldnt get into the gui (firend later told me i had to configure kde and/or xwindows to get it to work, but i formated before i was told this) but i liked what i saw so far (the funny little quotes when i logged in were hella-nifty) but i didnt know enough about the console to explore around till i got it. so i went back to mandrake

Was gonna try redhat, since some website rated it as the best linux distro, but for some reason i get the impression that mandake is a lot like redhat, just redhat is more sophisticated. so that went down the tube

was gonna try suse, but read somewhere that it was another good distro for switching to linux from windows

If i wanted windows, i would keep using winxp. I want linux. i trust my ability to learn linux because there isnt much computer-related that i havnt been able to learn. after reading this forum, im def going with slack. and now i am comfortable enough with linux to play with slack till i get the gui workin. then i think im gonna be in my element, and its gonna be nice...

i dont seem to be able to make a short post....

i started out with redhat because a friend had it. switched to slack because everyone said it was a good OS to learn from. 2 months into the linux world after i installed slack i tried to go back to redhat. it just felt like another windows to me. i got sick of it. i wanted to do everything from the command line. slack gives that to me. anyways. i uninstalled redhat and switched back to slack.

wow.... my friend has a RH install, I have a Caldera CD, but after what you guys have said, I think I will go with slack, it seems like a good distro.. thanks. I was scared, but no longer.

titanium_geek

Because everyone I talked to said Slack is "Too Hard"
:D