I may be wrong, but I think the 14 iso Debian is an install and not live run. As far as the internet is concerned, I explained it in my first post.

ok, you want to use Debian or Slackware, and you are new to linux?!?!?

no offense but slackware is one of the most advanced distros out there

1) the package menagment has no dependency support (that means you have too hunt down all the other packages it requires, sometimes ending in dep hell)

2) almost all tweeking is done through config files

3) if you cant handle ubuntu you cant handle Slackware or Debian

sure, slackware is a great way to learn more about linux, but it is not as practical on a desktop.


"I might get debian, but 14 iso's is to much" Debian does not use all the cd's to install, only 1 or 2 are used and the rest are to add as repositories

if you Scored high on debian then you will probably like MEPIS, it is debian based and most pure debian packages work on it. for the third time i am going to reccomend MEPIS because it is newbie frindly, debian based, and uses KDE. Please tell me your opinion.

EDIT: yes, the 14 cd's are for install. Note that you can also download 2 dvd's

I started out about 6-8 mos ago with RH7, then went to RH9, then to FC3. I ran it and loved it but I was running on a AD network and had to switch back to windows at the request of the net admin (this was in Iraq) and so lost some of the knowledge I had. I had to do some configuration to get things working in RH7&9, so I've got a little exp with it, and, actually, I take that back. When I went through my net eng training in '98, I had hands on with unix, solaris based I think. I prefer the command line over gui because I think it's faster to do the things I want. I have "An Introduction to Linux: A Hand's-On Guide" which goes through everything and has excercises, along with the other books I stated above, so I'm hoping slack will be the one. A note though, is that I have 2 comps and I'm using one for learning. If I screw it up it's not a big deal, I can just start over. I don't just want a windows for linux deal. My only reason for having a "boxy, windows" version was because I have no internet, and I've got that on my laptop which is running FC4, so now I can experiment with slack on my desktop.

Now you just can't go and say all of that and not have we slackers respond :D

Responce to #1
Both swaret and slapt-get will trace and download all your deps for you when installing new programs, just like Apt-get, yast, or yum does. So yes slackware is just as "package friendly" as other distros.

Repsonce to #2
This is not a bad thing. Especially for a newbie. Newbies are Newbies because they don't know. Hince their new to it. The only way to learn something, is to do it yourself. Thats why slackware is great for learning linux. Editing config files yourself is one of things that makes linux a great OS unlike apple's tiger and microsoft's windows. This shouldn't be looked down upon for newbies, it should be embraced.

Responce to #3
If you "can't handle" ubuntu, then you can't handle anything. Ubuntu is as just as easy to use as XP, probably easier in my opinion. Besides the whole point of the forums is to come here and learn about things you don't understand about your Linux distro. On the other hand if you don't like Ubuntu for one reason or another, switch. Thats the beauty of free software, you do have a choice. But to say that your not able to "handle" it? I don't think thats the proper way to phrase it, your just used to it yet.

Finally, in responce to your final statment. My first Linux distro was slackware. I loved it. I still love it. And contrair to what you say, it makes an excellent desktop for the average user. Its stable, secure, and after all, it is linux.

I actually installed Slackware last night on my desktop, the correct way this time, and it's working great. I made non-root user accounts for my wife and myself, as well as set the partitions so that /home is on a seperate partition than /, and of course I have a swap partition. Now I just need to dive right in start screwing things up. :)

well, i stand corrected on the dep thing, thanx

note that i did say slack is good for a newbie so that they can learn...

the thing is, people ask me to them started with linux all the time. This is mostly because windows is running slow, they hate viruses, and/or they have an old pc that needs reviving. I have scared of many potential linux users by giving them an ubuntu cd. This is mostly because they cannot get mp3, windows media, and loads of other media formats working. When a newbie starts with linux they expect things like this to be working out of the box. It does not matter to them if i tell them it is because of licence issues, they just say "well windows does not have that problem". You cant get real newbie's to learn about the OS if you dont get them hooked in the first place

Thekid, sorry, when you said you were new to linux i did not think you meant 6-8 months of experiance.

dont get me wrong on the slackware thing though, I think it is a great distro and was simply saying it is not newbie friendly.

finally, "if you cant handle ubuntu you cant handle anything", not really... many distros are MUCH more user friendly than ubuntu, Suse 10, MEPIS, PClinuxos, mandrake, linspire just to name a few.