It's great that linux has pre-compiled binaries and dependency checking, but what If linux didn't have this ability would you still use linux today if it were ONLY a tar base package operating system?

For me, I would still use linux even if I had to compile my packages from source because I love using linux and unix.

I actually use a system where I don't have dependency checking and compile many software from source and I deem that as a good thing. Yes, I am still using Linux and will in the future, as long as I am able to keep the system sane.

Yeah, I know what you mean as I seen you before with a slackware icon.

Just in case you don't know, binaries have little to do with dep checking. A good example of this is in action is Gentoo: heavily source based, but they also have the proper facilities to deal with dependency checking.

Most of the time when I use Slackware I don't have a problem with compiling things. But there's a few things that take so much time to compile that I really wish I could just have the binary on a plate.

I'm not sure I really understand the premise. These tools were built to overcome problems with bare 'configure; make; make install'. They offer a lot of leverage that wouldn't be there otherwise.

I did that with Slackware for about a decade.

That's not the standard Slackware workflow anymore, but if for some reason I had to go back, I would.

I wouldn't use Linux if there wasn't a distro that allowed you to install packages by source.

There is too much breakage and too little customisability in distro that provide only binaries and mandate dependency checking.

Not a chance. Without the speed and ease of installation provided by binaries and automatic dependency resolution, I'd have dropped linux faster than I dropped Windows for linux.

Yeah i would. i use slackware current and i can recall wanting a peice of not so popular software, a particular webcam app. I compiled dependencies and dependencies of dependencies and eventually i got it going. I also remember compiling x once to run on an old dell with an intel onboard video system. I eventually got decent video out of it, but it seemed to take days.

The reason i would go to all the trouble is not so much that i love linux, its just that i hate windows. The slick brain dead UI, the dialog boxes, the lack of transparency and configurability. I have been using about the same interface on linux for the last 10 years with minor changes in scripts and program versions and i know exactly what i like and im going to stick with it and be grateful im not tied to jumping through the marketing hoops that MS survives on.

Except for the base OS . I install most of the software from the source code

it is a rather old habit

Yes. I started that way, and it's still my preference, though, when I use a distro that has binary repositories, I do not hesitate to use them.

The speed of installing binaries is great but when you use a distro on which compiling from source is normal, its so much easier to build a more recent version of something than is available from the repositories or to modify the build options to suit local wants.

It still seems weird, on many distros, to have to install the packages required to build from source

Yeah, an OS which can't reproduce itself seems creepy to me... But people still worry about bandwidth and separate *-devel packages reduces 'fat'.

Yep. There are packages that many would dread compiling from source like KDE, GNOME and even firefox. I never compiled KDE nor GNOME from source, but I did compile firefox from source at one time and it took many, many hours. What's funny, I've compiled a linux kernel faster than firefox.

People who have compiled many packages from source know which packages are time consuming.

Yeah. I think if Slackware disappeared off the face of the earth, I'd do LFS. Some reason I find rolling source less troublesome and problematic than package management. That could just be my brain, however.

Probably not.

I don't mind building from source but handling dependencies and their dependencies and version compatibility would drive me crazy. I would have to opt for the BSDs as my main distro. Sure, the packages will be built from source but it will handle the dependencies for me.

But thankfully, linux gives us choices and methods on how we want to install packages.