Would like to switch to Slack... info needed.
 

Spec: Athlon XP 2ghz+, 256mb ram shard with prosavage 4 video, 60gb hd, genaric sound, cdrw, 19" flat screen, wacom, yadda yadda...

I've tried Fedora, Mandrake, Red Hat 9 - I found them clunky and at times full of issues.

I got as far as slapping the gentoo cd in and I looked at it dumbly, not knowing what to do.


This is my only computer, windowsXP is too bloated for me...

I use my computer for some, I think, simple things. I make websites, so I edit html, css, php, perl, and javascipts. I do digital art - paintings, web graphics, icons, skins for applications, doodles, scan art and photographs for touching up or repair. Download Digicam pics, I even make custom fonts for things.

My reason for liking Linux is twofold - Great community, and my input on software I may use can help it improve.

I need something that will teach a semi-beginner Linux, I need something I can do my web/art stuff with, as well as play music and chat in gaim (or equivilant), browse the net on firefox... Maybe find a game to play or something if I am bored. But most importantly I need to do my art.

Is Slackware for me, and if so, how should I go about doing this?

I believe Slackware would fill all of your needs. As long as you've had some experience with Fedora, Mandrake, etc. then trying Slackware shouldn't be difficult at all. Dropline GNOME fills most of your needs because it comes with Bluefish (HTML editor), the GIMP (best Linux image editor), GAIM (you know what it is), XMMS & Rhythmbox (music player and music jukebox, respectively), and some GNOME games. A Slackware package for Firefox is available in the Dropline forums. As for scanning and digital cameras, I've not done too much with either, but there's XSANE for scanners and GTKam for cameras. Check LinuxPackages for Slackware packages of either of those.
Be advised that Slackware has a tendency to make its users obsessive about his or her computer, not that that's a bad thing. :) It does take some editing of configuration files right after installation to really get a working X environment, but that's not difficult either. Furthormore, any questions you have are not too much for everyone here. :)
Just find someplace to download the ISOs and burn them, or check out SlackFTP if you've got a lot of bandwidth to install over the net.

Re: Would like to switch to Slack... info needed.
 

That made me LOL. :)

I agree with you completely regarding Red Hat and Mandrake... I had the very same feeling about both of them, and I found Slackware to be much kinder to me by comparison.

As has been said, if you've already got some experience with RH and Mandrake, Slackware shouldn't be too tough. Personally, I think the install for Slackware is pretty intuitive and simple (though not graphical, it's not complicated if you follow it carefully and deliberately). The configuration is not as hard as some people think it will be. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went. I think you will be too.

:)

Re: Would like to switch to Slack... info needed.
 

Haha, yeah. Very true. They don't tell ya you need the thesis on installing gentoo to guide you through step-by-step. Spose it gets easier after doing it several times.

I dunno, I thought RedHat 9 was a good all-rounder for a while there. Most things just worked and it had a pretty clean desktop ... I hate KDE's clunky druids and dragons and crap, and the crazy jumble of the menus etc.

But then RedHat pulled the plug and started charging $500 Australian for a cut -down RH9 called an 'Enterprise Workstation' or something like that. So bye bye RedHat. Then I discovered Slackware about a month ago, so I suppose I should really thank RedHat after all for putting me off.

I can't say how easy or difficult it will be to do all that stuff on Slackware (I'm a server-building console type myself), but I can say that Slackware is the best Linux I've ever seen. I've been saying that a lot lately ...

Linux From Scratch
 

I have been using Linux From Scratch for years now.
(http://www.linuxfromscratch.org)

It's not a quick and easy install because you are building your own custom distro from source packages. But, I love it. Occasionally I'll use a RedHat, Debian, Knoppix, etc as a host to build the LFS system but once done, it's out with the old and in with the new. The support there is great too.

I highly recommend it.

Addendum:

LFS has an online book which walks you through the entire process. I'd bet even the newest newbie (as I was my first time) can easily...well, mostly somewhat painlessly, go from beginning to end just by following the inctructions and copy-and-pasting the commands right from the book.

I say GO for SLACK!! its the best distro i have ever seen (better than rh, mdk ...)