Dear lovely slackers
as you Know I'm a newbie in linux world. I don't need learning linux at all. it's just my interest to learn new things and get new skills. after several threads and with your instructions I decided to try slackware as a most stable and most configurable distro for learning linux and build my OS from scratch. due to lacking slackware iso (recently I have purchased it)I virtually installed salix on my windows OS and simultaneously I am reading slackbook and other documents and guides about slackware. salix run on my system very well. I dont know whether the OS has the same behavior when installed directly on my system or not, but now it has excellent performance. I'm an amateur but I guess salix has all the capabilities of slackware without some of its limitations like dependency resolutions. it has same text mode installer let you install a core CLI based OS and configure what you need. it supports spkg and slackbuild, also it has slapt-get and slapt-src and their GUI based alternatives (Gslapt and sourcery) whith great respos and it is upgradable to next version. so dear advisers please tell me why I must learn slackware when salix exist? what are the advantages of slackware over salix? what is the philosophy behind the lacking dependency resolution in slackware? whats the reason of salix poor ranking in dsitrowatch table despite its great features?
I'm not a server administrator. I'm just an ordinary desktop user who just want to learn linux. does salix suitable for my need or I have to try slackware?

sorry for my english

8 members found this post helpful.

Hi travis82.

If you like Salix then "use" Salix. Just tonight I installed Salix to see if it would work for a neighbor to use. So far I'm liking it.

If you want to explore a little more "under the hood" then after using Salix for a while you could install Slackware and make use of the excellent Slackware forum here at LQ.

You could also explore more with Salix and make use of the Salix forum(s). If you explore Salix but ask for help at this Slackware forum, the LQ members here may just refer you back to the Salix forums as it's a different distribution.

Note that Distrowatch ranking merely reflects visitors to the site that selected that particular distribution to read about. It is only a "ranking" of visitors who went to a page, not a review of how good, bad, or popular a particular distribution is.

I hope you enjoy and learn in your Linux journey, whichever distribution(s) you use.

Salix may be good, but I still prefer the original. BTW, there is nothing that you _must_ do. If you are happy with Salix -- use it. I, personally, like Slackware's installer much more. When I tried Salix several years ago, their installer was too simplified, as if the system was telling me it knows better than me what I need. Nope. About dependency resulution -- you do not need it for the stock Slackware packages, as everything has been taken care of. If you install third party software from SlackBuilds.org, they provide dependencies information in the .info file of each entry. This can be easily used by third party tools like sbotools and sbopkg + sqg (available in /usr/doc/sbopkg-0.37.0/contrib/). So you get around the lack of automatic dependency resolution. Especially with the build queues generated by sqg and then loaded in sbopkg, this is done very elegantly in my opinion.

2 members found this post helpful.

With all due respect travis82, I think it's important that you use whatever distro you feel comfortable with, no one is trying to sell you anything here, however your contribution to the community from buying from the Slackware store has not only helped continue the development of Slackware but also Salix itself.

I think one important point to make is that, there would be no Salix without Slackware and even though I have never used Salix, one can assume that the major core updates to the Operating System are drawn from Slackware's updating schedule, like most operating system hierarchies in the posix world. Does that mean that FreeBSD is better than Mac OS, or Debian better than Ubuntu, absolutely not. However, each of those Operating Systems and their offshoots each have their own advantages and disadvantages, as well as a certain place in every user/developer/professional environment.

Obviously if you want a bleeding edge secure server with an unprecedented track record of security and stability you might choose FreeBSD, but if you want to make a hit record you would probably choose Mac OS.

Everyone has a different experience level and everyone learns at a different pace, therefore I feel as though you are the only one who can answer the question your asking by continuing your Linux journey by trying many distributions in order to adapt your mind to your new found interests.

Either way, you have brought yourself to the absolute best place, IMO, to learn Linux, and only by continuing to use it everyday will you learn to fully grasp its true power and ideologies. Keep slacking my friend, its a most rewarding experience!

5 members found this post helpful.

thanks Didier, and again sorry for this very long boring and useless thread

Lack of dependency resolution can be one of its best features imo

1 members found this post helpful.

About the dependency resolution question that pops up here every now and then: there are a bunch of distros out there that provide automatic dependencies resolution. Let there be one that doesn't.

3 members found this post helpful.

As has already been said, if Salix works for you, there is little reason to switch. Personally, I mostly chose Slackware because of the Slackware philosophy, which suits me quite fine.

3 members found this post helpful.

For me there is no point in using either Slackware or Salix, I actually use them both, Slackware on my main machines, Salix for fire-and-forget installations, for example for a low-spec computer acting as a jukebox that has only LXDE and Audacious installed. Those single purpose systems are particularly easy to set up and maintain with Salix, so that I don't have to bother with Slackbuilds and dependencies on them.

So it comes down to: Use whatever fits your needs, in general and for specific purposes.

3 members found this post helpful.

FYI - I know someone who installed VectorLinux on an IBM PS/1.

Horses for courses - but Slackware definitely seems to have been the basis for the most interesting distros. Slax is another example.

And Salix is a good example - it is, I believe, the only distro which also has a version which offers Ratpoison as the WM. I use RP as my WM on my Slackware and I luv it !

Hello Travis82 and welcome to both LQ and the Slackware neighborhood. Don't take comments about this sort of thread personally. It's just that while it is new and fascinating to you, for old timers it is so commonplace that there should be form letters to answer them.

Actually there are in the form of previous threads but it is sometimes hard to find the right keyword to get to them, so the upshot is... Here we are again on basics and to add to that (though your post was not only polite but gracious) you apparently don't realize that Slackers find it moderately offensive when people refer to auto-dependency resolution as lacking as that carries a negative connotation.

It's probably safe to speak for most and say "That's not a lacking, that's a feature and a very important one at that". Although automatic systems have improved a great deal over the years they still break from dependency issues, sometimes in a big way. But more important than that is the arcane twists and tweaks that distros have to go through to allow such dependency resolving without (hopefully) causing conflict with basic *Nix principles and patterns.

This often means users of those systems are absolutely stuck with certain repositories even for the most basic of software including the kernel because the environment is no longer friendly to compiling vanilla.

Some engage in wholesale reworking of the directory tree and where things are kept and how they work. This creates compatibility issues for applications and packages. Slackware is perhaps the most compatible distro in existence and it is exactly because of not using algorithms instead of an admin to handle dependencies.

Anyway Salix is a decent distro and if you like it as a Live platform, you'll love it as a real hdd install. Ideally, install Slackware too and learn from both and maybe you will come to see that not resolving dependencies automatically costs Slackware users almost nothing and the gains are immense.

Again I welcome you to the neigborhood and I hope you find a home here.

4 members found this post helpful.

I have to disagree here. I use Slackware exclusively and 90% of the time I don't miss auto-dependency resolution, but I can perfectly accept and understand that users prefer to have it. Why feel offended? Are we a sect? I hope not.

From a more practical perspective:

1. The best explanation about that topic regarding Slackware is Package and dependency management shouldn't put you off Slackware from Ruarí Ødegaard aka ruario.
2. When I feel the need for it I use sbopkg in conjunction with queue files generated wth script sqg provided by Chess Griffin aka chess. That's generally when I want to make a package for which a slackbuild is available @ http://slackbuilds.org but that has many dependencies and I feel lazy

Again, use Salix or Slackware or try both as you see fit, regardless we'll stay eager to help you get the best from your OS.

1 members found this post helpful.

"...lacking dependency resolution" and "...limitations like dependency resolutions" are only 'opinions'. My 'opinion' on dependency resolution is - I'm *GLAD* there's a dsitro, Slackware, that let's *ME* decide what 'dependencies' I need or not and allows *ME* to do pretty much as I please on my own system.

IMHO, distro's that do the whole I'll-get-what-you-need-to-make-something-run-on-your-system, from who knows where and slapped together by who knows who, are caving to the let's-make-it-M$-easy, which in turn leads to the I'm-a-dev-for-this-distro-and-I-know-what's-better-for-you-than-you syndrome (it's all M$ hires and fires!).

2 members found this post helpful.

Well said Didier.

irgunII, although I don't completely agree with you, you have a good point. However, I believe that many of us might not even be using Linux if it wasn't for the developers who have made the many distro's so accessible for non developers.

I'm not a programmer and Linux was made by programmers for programmers, yet we have seen it explode onto the desktop, laptop, tablet, and cell phone. I remember having to deal with dependency errors on Redhat95 back in the day and still running into make errors and nearly pulling all my hair out.

Though specific distro's who will remain nameless seem to be competing and emulating MS and Apple software in many ways, I think this part of the overall maturation of Linux as a whole and is inevitable. There's certainly nothing wrong with using one of those operating systems as a starting point when trying to use open source exclusively while still trying to have a usable and headache free computer experience where you can accomplish work and be productive, in an attempt to learn and eventually switch to a more traditional or hardcore distro.

Creating an option for windows and mac users to leave the proprietary scene while still being able to use their computers effectively is extremely important IMO. However I think in 20 years everything will be cloud based anyway so whatever. One of the main reasons I chose slackware and have stuck with is because of this community here, I mean just look at the discussions and conversations we have, its amazing and beautiful, and everyone for the most part tries to be respectful and honest. I think this is what big companies destroy the community.

Here I can talk to someone who just started using Linux someone who is on a similar experience level as myself, and most important talk to damn developers who made this whole thing possible! All while learning a great deal. Not dealing with some elitist scumbags who think they should rule the world or be treated like gods. This is the part that is missing in many other Linux Distro's as well as proprietary os's and is a product of the class system throughout the world. If we can keep Linux truly free it will be unlike anything that has ever exsisted in the world before it.

2 members found this post helpful.