i also recommend SLACKWARE or DEBIAN(yes i prefer debian for internationalisation and apt). Both are very good. If i don't have debian available for a new pc, i will choose automatically slackware without hesitation instead of mandrake or something else.

However it is still a matter of taste.

My needs are : speed and ram usage, disk space, easy upgrade or decent management of packages, possibility to install only what i need(no X if i don't need it, etc...). I don't really need an easy to use distro but i don't mean i want to build LFS and use it.

What are your needs?

I have been looking into learning linux for a while now, but the bewildering variety of distros out there makes things far from simple. I am no noob to the pc, and have been building and repairing them since I was in my early teens when I picked a billion tin cans out of ditches to land my own Tandy model one! In the past few years I have gotten tired of dealing with Microsoft products, and in addition to many of the obvious reasons, probably the biggest one is the fact that as a tech I have to re-learn their OS every time a new one comes out. The setting stays the same, but its location and or name changes, so you get to be a noob over and over again... that sort of thing drives me nuts, and as I have come to realize with a month or so of Mandrake experience, it isn't much different in many respects, and the dependencies are getting me down... Don't get me wrong, now that I have learned some of the nuances of Mandrake 9.1, it runs well and gets me by well enough to have convinced me that linux is for me, but I don't want to learn one particular distro and still be clueless about the rest, and it'd be nice to get away from reloading my system every time there is a new release. Needless to say, this thread has me thinking I should download and try Slack at once, as the attitude taken by the curators of this distro are obviously on the level... should I? Here's my situation...

I have pretty modern hardware, Athlonxp 2800+, 512 DDR, Nforce2, 80 Gigs of disk, Geforce 4 Ti4200, Audigy platinum, and I love my 3d games, mp3s, videos, net surfin, instant messenging and email, but my office needs are minimal. Should I risk further warnings and harassment from my ISP about excessive bandwidth useage in order to try it? What version in particular might be the most suitable for my needs? Will it like my hardware?

sorry it's such a novel... too much time on my hands these days!

philosphrstone,

One of my biggest regret in life was that I got my introduction to Linux via Red Hat. I hated that damn installation that it got me back to Windows in almost no time at all.

Slackware changed all that. Red Hat tried to "wean" me through the process by acting so Windows-like, but at the same time sucked at it. Slackware on the other basically put things straight into my face. I could have sworn the installation screen subliminally said to me, "Look here boy, this is how we do things in *NIX-land, forget all that you've learned under Windows and concentrate!".

If I had started with Slackware, I might have been really Guru-ish like Tinkster and trickykid by now

So you're saying you think it'd work for me, cool beans man... however, I still am a little apprehensive... what version would be the one to try? Will it be friendly about my hardware? How's Slack handle the games? I generally get into UT and its variants, AAO, Neverwinter Nights, Wolfenstein series, and after experiencing the adware hell that is Kazaa, I have grown to love Limewire in no time!

I'm no gamer, but I've played UT and AAO. It ran on par with their respective Windows installations (if not better).

I've also gotten GTA Vice City running under winex with no problems whatsoever. I'm a footy fan, and have gotten Championship Manager 04/05 to run under winex as well. However, the "field view" mode is as slow as molasses! So I have to accomodate with just text commentaries.

With your hardware specs, you should have no problems running Slack... however I do recommend searching these fine forums regarding more info on the Audigy. I suspect that it's the only hardware that might need some tweaking to get it running properly... however, I may be highly mistaken.

About games there is no problem. I also love Neverwinter Nights and all and get it all running fine. Your hardware will be fine. The version 9.1 of slackware is much more hardware friendly - I mean, it automatically configured my sound board and and video automatically... but you'll need to install the nvidia drivers for games, think you know that. I agree with Azmeen that maybe the Audigy may bring you some trouble - nothing from hell - but I have a friend who use an Audigy on slack and if you decide to use it and have problems I'll be glad to help you in all the way I can.

Well, that's very encouraging, thanks for sharing your expertise. I will get on aquiring a copy of 9.1 asap. Hopefully the audigy won't give me too much grief, but if it should, I'll be happy to scream "help" !

Thanks for the timely input, greatly appreciated.

thank you all for your comments, and most to frandalla. slack is in all my linux way the only distro who have detect automatically mi onboard soundcard, most cause it use the oss in the kernel, and not only alsa. it was a big pain for me, whit mandy or redhat or suse, to configure my soundcard whit alsa. i still don't get very clear the point if all the linux distro use system V boot up, including slackware, why slackware use BSD boot script? that confuse me a little. by the way i could recommend slack to every people who want to try it out, it sure not user friendly like the most. but it is user friendly in the way it detect your hardware, and the fast way it runs, and the very fast way it give you stable patches every time a new bug is release. others friendly linux give you new patched of the same thing you are using, and not counting the time you have to wait to the release of that patch, not like slackware new bug immediately new patch.

by the way, does someone knows how i put termcap-BSD to be my default user terminal? i can do it in the X interface putting in console properties the path konsole --tn termcap-bsd but i want it to be the default even in Non graphical mode. which file i have to modify to put this only to my user not to root.

Actually, two tips:

1. Choose the "Newbie" setting when you install it. It isn't as fast as just selecting to install everything, but you'll learn a LOT, if learning is what you're after. The explanations for the packages are great, and with the Newbie setting, Slack will install the things you need by default, letting you choose the other stuff if you want it.

2. When you are offered a choice to install CUPS and LPRNG for your printing, choose one, or the other, but not both! There's a conflict between the programs. It caused me no end of grief until I figured it out with the help of this forum.

Happy Slacking!

Siri Amrit

Ok, I will keep that in mind, as I am interested in learning. Part of my motivation is not only for my own needs, but I am sick of having to fix friends and relatives ailing virus infected glitchy windoze systems... so if I ultimately want to learn linux well enough to support it. Once that is the case I can start converting all those poor lost souls I know!

With regards to the printing, thanks for the tip, I think I'll go with CUPS... unless there is a good reason not to. I have no idea what the difference between the two systems is...

I am going to spend some time doing some reading before I install it, but I downloaded the two iso disks of Slack 9.1 last night... now hopefully my ISP won't freak out again about all the bandwidth!

Am back, tackled the install today, and got all the way through after making mistakes on the first couple of attempts. You gotta be slow and careful because there is no "back" buttons for when you mistype "home" and it wants to give you a "homr" directory instead! The system is installed, and I got through gaining user access to my windows data partition, and getting my logitech wireless usb mouse all working in X. I also got the slack updates, installed them, and set up a firewall. The machine is now online, and the usual programs work well. I like yahoo messenger though, and the rpm that yahoo provides kinda pushes me into using something else on this distro however... grrrr! Gaim hooks up ok, but I just don't like the look of it! Maybe it'll grow on me, hope so, I have a lot of friends on there...

Anyway, I thought I'd report in and let ya know it wasn't that bad to get slack up and running, and my head already wants to explode from all the learning I have done!!!!

tomorrow's project is to get the nvidia drivers going, and put on a few games! ;-)

There is a kernel update, but I am wondering if it is worthwhile to attempt that right now, as I am still pretty noob to the whole compiling thing... I have 2.4.22 and it is 2.4.24, but I'm thinking if I'm going to go to all the effort I should try the 2.6.x instead... or should I even worry about it? any thoughts?

One more thing, the audigy works well so far with the alsa drivers... getting it working wasn't a problem at all after I figured out I had to download and install, complile, insert, and then change the /dev/dsp permissions and unmute the alsamixer... !

Slackware still has dependencies. Just the packages dont check or ask for them. Good example would be to install mozilla but have no gtk installed. Mozilla will install fine from a package, but will not start.

Slackware does NOT use system V init.

Definitely install 2.6

All linux distros are the same. It is a linux kernel with GNU programs on top of it. Differences are package system and init style. Of course there are few other differences but those are the two main ones.

Slackware is definitely my favorite linux distro. Very simple and straightforward.

You really HAVE learned a lot. Way more than I know, and I've been using Slack for a year...

I've gotten to where I actually like the Slackware installer better than any other distros'. It isn't pretty, but it does what it's supposed to and works flawlessly. Pretty much like Slackware itself.

Siri Amrit

I orginal started using Slack back when 3.3 was out. I have noticed alot of advancement. To the newest build. I was always confussed regarding this. I am still new to linux. But want to get back to using Slack for speed and stubility. Ok Since Slack does not use RPM and most programs installed with Slack have to be compiled. I will still be able to run any linux program as long as I get the tar.gz and compile it. I am looking to make a lean running machine for some work but mostly games. app I will be looking to run are (FluxBox, Some KDE/Gnome apps not many, WINE and both PC and Linus game, explain utk2004 and scorched 3d) I found some of the app listed on the web page listed above for packages. But if a app or program not listed there will I sill be able to run them using slack. I am like I said a newbie and this might be the correct forum. But i would like to know. Thanks in advance.

NecroScumBag,

You don't need to compile everything you run. Slackware uses tgz packages, and you install them using the command installpkg. Although, basically it's still a tarball... it's not a source tarball but a binary one instead.

All of the Open Source apps you mentioned in your post are available as slackpacks. A good site you might want to bookmark for your slackpack needs is LinuxPackages.net. There are tons of useful packages there