Yup, that's what I do. If there is no slackware package, I compile it from source.


Other than that, why do I use it, because it's the only distro worth using. It's stable, secure, fast, easy to use and configure, customizable, and no dependency management in the package manager. There's nothing more I could ask for.

Other distros were backwards to me. There is a great community of helpful people both here and a great resource at slackbuilds. No brainer start up script directory /etc/rc.d. All the header files are included with the packages (no retarded -devel packages). Black Box. Stability first, upgrade later. I could go on and on.

I had a similar post way back in 2006 :

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...6/#post2450360

My personal reasons:

Yes it takes some time and effort to set up a Slackware system the way you want, I mean the configurations, extra software etc. But once you do it you realize that

- You have learned a lot about Linux during the process
- The system works exactly the way you want it to work. Everything under control, nothing hidden.
- You don't need to install a zillion -devel packages to compile hello_world.c . Although the official package list and the repositories for Slackware are not as large as the ones for some other distros, being able to do installation from source code makes up for that.

Slackware encourages you to build the system that you want to have. There are plenty of binary packages pre-built for it, but the .tgz archiving scheme uses the same conventions as the very common .tar.gz format used to distribute compressed and archived source code packages. It is these packages that a great number of hard core Slackware enthusiasts use to get the latest versions of their favorite software.

Slackware-CURRENT contains a set of binary packages that are often quite a bit newer than the current released software, unless a release has just come out. You may find Slackware-CURRENT to be a decent place to get software until you are ready to grab software and build it yourself.

The build it yourself software method is often not that difficult at all. The sequence:

1. Download the software (usually a .tar.gz file).
2. Save it to a known location.
3. Extract the software (usually tar zxvf package.tar.gz is all it takes).
4. Move to the location where the software has been extracted. The cd command is used to change the working directory, for example, cd ~/Desktop/firefox.
5. Assuming the software is source code rather than binaries, the following routine often works:
* ./configure && make && sudo make install
* You will be prompted for the root password for the make install step, assuming all else works.

6. If all goes well, your software will be installed, probably in /usr/local/bin unless you or the software specifies otherwise.

If you are not quite ready for Slackware, Debian is another alternative that is very stable and quite flexible, but very different from Slackware.

This is yours. I wonder where is mine.

Booting to the command line was a big reason I stuck with Slackware. It's a minor detail since I nearly always use X, but I don't like a distro doing a lot of unrequested things like that. Plus I like Patrick's overall philosophy about keeping it simple and functional.

I'm about to switch back to Slack as soon as my stupid transfer finishes.

The reason I switched away from Slackware originally is that people tend to think "well, since he/she is a Slackware user, they must know everything about Linux". I couldn't stand that statement. I have over 2,000 posts. Most people don't understand that over half of my posts are questions, not answers. I really like Slackware, so I'm going back to it, but this time I'm putting something in my sig to scare off those people that think that since you use Slack you know everything. Maybe all the other Slackware users do, but I know I sure don't.

Masinick,

1) You make some good points, but I have two quibbles. I don't think sudo is enabled by default in Slackware.

2) The build method you describe is (of course) technically correct, but it does not build a package than can be easily upgraded or removed with Slackware's package tools.

Being able to remove or upgrade a package is the reason I recommend Slackbuilds.org (using Sbopkg) and Src2pkg.

Regards,
-Drew

There are several people here on the LQ Slackware forum who really are Slackware experts (Eric, Robby, and Mr.V. come to mind). Like you I enjoy learning about my favourite distro (I'm certainly no expert). I'm never bored with Slackware:-)

Dude, I'm as dumb as a box of rocks, nothing is too hard, just as long as know how to look for the answer and ask questions properly. I have been using Slackware since 8 and still don't know squat, I always refer back to my years of notes............

Incredibly bad idea. "make uninstall" is often unsupported, so this will turn your system into mess. NEVER use "make install", always make package first, then install package with package manager. Also sudo won't work by default.

Better way:
1) ./configure
2) make
3) mkdir pkg
4) make DESTDIR=`pwd`/pkg install
5) cd pkg
6) su
8) makepkg programname-programversion-1xyz.tgz
9) chown `whoami`.users ./programname-programversion-1xyz.tgz
10) mv ./programname-programversion-1xyz.tgz ..
11) cd ..
12) rm -r pkg
13) Ctrl+D (exits "su")

Or use slackbuilds, src2pkg, checkinstall or anything else.

This way you'll get package you can install/remove with pkgtool

Notice:
1) step 4 won't work for all programs. To be precise, it won't work for hand-written makefiles, unusual build system and scons-based projects.
2) you can use any 3 letters instead of xyz. I use my nickname.
3) "DESTDIR" might not be supported for very old software.

slackware is incredible, thats why people use it. it is certainly not the easiest OS to master, but speaking as a 'nub' to slackware it is very rewarding getting it up and running, and really the hardest part is the time investment. once you begin to learn how to use it you will feel rewarded when you begin to make things run from scratch. It has great documentation both included on the disc, on the internet, and on forums. the lack of point and click will have you thinking for yourself and learning linux.

With all respect, the the laziest acceptable slack method for installing packages from source if you may uninstall it later.

But then that is even lazy for me... I take the time to make 'good' build scripts for everything that I want and isn't already at slackbuilds.org (seriously... can anybody make a counter to show how often people give that website a plug?). I like that slackware defaults to not configuring sudo for a user. It let me learn how to do it my self and why you may (or more likely may not) want to do it.

I mean honestly, why the hell would any GNU/Linux distro not have a password for the root user and force people to use sudo? not like you just can't go 'sudo su' (I'm sure there is some way to disable that)

Out of spite everybody with a non root password system! type 'sudo su -c "passwd"'

V is the real expert; the rest of us just play one on TV and stay at Holiday Inn Express occasionally... ;-)

Seriously, while I won't speak for Eric, I think the term "expert" goes a bit too far when used in a sentence with my name, unless there's a negation operator present between them. There are certainly areas in which I'm pretty damn good, but there are far more in which I just plain suck. The only "expert" qualification I might have in that regard is knowing that my *writing* should be in the former and my *reading* should be in the latter -- far too many people seem to get those confused... :-)

Each of us on the Slackware team have our own "specialty" areas, and the sum of that knowledge is probably a big part of what makes Slackware what it is.

Darn it. My backup is taking soo long. I keep reading this thread, the more I read, the more I want to get away from Ubuntu. *sigh*