Hi there

I am a new Linux user. I took an into to Linux course this semester and am finding that there is a lot that I like about Linux better than Windows. And of course like so many others I've been searching for that perfect distro. I find that RPM based distos leave a lot to be desired though I have found Suse to be the fastest on my system and use it the most. I like the Debian based ones better in some ways but then they have drawbacks as well.

Anyhow from everything I have been reading it sounds like I really need to try Slackware.

My hardware is a MSI K7n2 motherboard with the Nforce2 chip, a AMD|2000+/266 ATHLON Xp and 512 mbram . (I've only been able to get the Norce ethernet to work right using the tar.gz drivers rather than the .rpm) I wanted to check if anyone knows of any other paricular hardware issue I am likely to fun into. I also have an older logitech cordless keyboard/mouse set that has work ok in all distros though not full featured.

I have a 160 gb hd and I think that I would prefer to download what parts I need and install from the hard drive rather than deal with all the ISO's. Should that work ok?

One issue here is that I prefer KDE and really like the latest realease a lot better than the one in Slackware 9.1 so I just may install that from the start rather than the one in Slackware 9.1.

Is there any other newer packages like XF86 stuff for example that I would need for that?

Will I run into any complicated issues installing Slackware on a system as a third boot option with another Linux install and windows already there?

Can Slackware share the swap file with SUSE? Does Slackware need a primary partition or will a logical partiition be ok? (Mepis for example worked fine from a logical partition but SUSE would not install to one)

Anyhow, I know these are pretty general questions. Any thoughts or other general advice on getting going would be appreciated.

Thank you

KDE 3.2 is available in the slackware-current tree. When you have installed salckware, go to www.swaret.org - grab the 9.1 tgz file, install it by typing installpkg swaret(then hit tab to autocomplete), once it's installed and you have copied swaret.conf.new to swaret.conf, run the update and upgrade. Then your 9.1 will be up to date. Edit swaret.conf so your version is "current" instead of "9.1". Update and Upgrade - you will then have kde 3.2 and numerous other updates.

Slack and SuSE can share the /swap.

Alright, but then this may be a dumb question but can one use run install scripts just using files from the current tree? Or will that get screwed upp?

You can use just packages from current. You need to reproduce the slackware directory structure with a /slackware folder and /a /ap /n etc inside that for whatever series you decide to install. then choose 'install from a partition' when setup asks for the 'install source' directory.
To multi-boot run your other linux and edit the /etc/lilo.conf file with a new entry for slackware. then run lilo to reinstall it. Next tie you boot there should be a new option to boot slack.
See my HOWTO for a list of the minimum you need for X. just add in kdelibs, qt and kdebase packages, plus whatever else you want.
In your case it's probably best to install nearly all of series /a. And go heavy on the libs in /l.

Doing the Devil's Lawyer (Portuguese expression) role, and besides I'm a Slackware user and afficionado, you should try LFS (Linux From Scratch) and BLFS (Beyond Linux From Scratch) to really personalise your instalation.

But Slackware is *The Distro* to choose in MHO.

One of your questions was if Slackware share the swap file with SUSE? Yes, they can share the same swap file, at least I have gotten away with doing so. On my computer I have Slackware 9.1, Fedora Core 1, and two copies of Red Hat 9 and they all share the same swap partition. Each time I installed another distro I let it reformat and use my existing swap partition. I only have one swap partition on my computer and it is logical partition.

I am not sure if you need to boot from a primary partition or not. The way that I do things on my computer is somewhat unusual so I am not sure about that. I use a primary partition for the "/" directory with each distro but am not sure if it was necessary to do so. If using any other partitons I always made them logical partitons so as to not use up my limited supply of primary partitions. One Linux user told me that he boots from a logical partition so perhaps that can be done, I am not sure. I have two hard drives so I can have three primary partitions per hard drive and quite a few logical partitons on each. Windows or DOS needs to boot from a primary partition on the first physical hard drive. I boot most of my copies of Linux from my 2nd hard drive. I do not know about any of your other questions because I still have much to learn about Linux.

All linux partitions can be logical. And , in fact, if you are dual-booting with windows, windows is a lot more content with only one primary partition.