slack|gentoo|debian
 

Hello,

I am running slackware 10.0 and I love it. I have found that from all the distros I have tried so far, this is the best one and it suits me perfect for my needs. I have tried FC3, SuSe 9.1 , RH 9. I also had FreeBSD and Mandrake on my Laptop for about 1 hour each and found they are not for me. I have heard a lot of good talk about Debian and Gentoo, and I would like to know how they compare to Slackware. What are their advantages and disadvantages over Slack? What are they known for? I would personally like to hear the opinion of people who have had or have slack and also some of the other two. I like that slack is simple, no weird and different stuff like FC, (/mount/cdrom for example). I want to have the kernel sources in the CD or to be easy to install, I never managed to get my kernel source installed in FC. I don't like GUI configuration like SuSe that makes you think you are doing something, but is just faking it off. I want stability and speed from my distro(just like slack). The only thing that bothers me about gentoo is that I am worried about the install- I don't want to spend days(I've heard it takes a while) installing it and then find out I broke something. I am concerned about Debian stability, since I have heard that they add cutting edge software inside. I am not scared of command line and configuration files, but I need help sometimes and slackware has great community. Well at this point you may be wondering why do I even want to switch if I find everything perfect in slackware, I just want to see how are the rest of the distros, but I would also like to know what I get myself into. Also I may think slack is perfect, but I will not be sure until I try Debian and Gentoo.

I am looking forward to any comments

Just to add I don't like package managers, so I don't consider it a plus if a distro has a good package manager. I install from source, and I like that slack doesn't have a long list of dependencies for everything I want to install.

Comparing one distro to another is hard. If you are an experienced UNIX user, then well...

As for Fedora and the kernel, I just do... yum list .... yum install <kernel>

I use the yum.conf from http://www.fedorafaq.org and I enable all the repositories except the unstable, development and bleeding sites. I had no problem updating my kernel with yum.

Back to the question though. Comparison shopping between distro's... hrm... I use the ones in my profile. But to rate them... I can't really compare them as they, the ones you've chosen, are very similar in the type of user they are aimed at. It would be like comparing fruits... apples, oranges, kiwi.

As I'm biased because I like them all, I would say, option 4, they all rule! :D

thanx for the quick reply t3gah,

I think that my opinion may end up being like yours. I also noticed further down there was a thread slack vs Debian , and I think it is helping to weigh out more into the slack direction. However, I am still wondering about Gentoo. I don't consider myself as an experienced UNIX user ,since it's been less than a year that I am really into the whole "down and dirty" linux usage. But I have been learning really quick, thanks to this forum. I don't consider myself a noob noob though, even though I still need help doing some things.

You sound like the perfect Slackware evangelist to me -- I'm one, also.

With Gentoo you will have to compile everything from source if you start at Stage 1, but you can compile less if you start from a different point. I personally don't see the point in compiling that much from source. I also have buddies who run Gentoo, and it is not uncommon for them to spend 2 weeks upgrading their system, only to bork something along the way. IMO it's not worth it, and I've yet to see any benchmarks to prove Gentoo runs anything better or faster than Slackware -- at least not enough to turn me into a compiling masochist.

I ran Debian for a while, and it was okay. However, the Woody system was a bit outdated for my personal tastes, so I went with SID. That was okay for a while, but that apt-get package manager ran me off. I was using the Window Maker wm, but didn't like it. Not knowing what was available, I decided to try KDE. However, the guy who maintained part of it disagreed with other guys who maintained other stuff, and so because of lib conflicts, it wasn't availabe in the SID or SARGE streams for over 2 weeks. To get it, one would have to go to Woody, and that meant changing the whole system. That Debian democratic system might be agreeable to some guys, but for me, I prefer the autocratic Slackware system -- if Pat doesn't approve, it's not in there. If it is possible to just compile from source with Debian (I don't know) and I had known it then, I'd probably not have found the very best Linux distro -- Slackware = Linux!!!!!!!!!

At that point I began looking for another distro. And I was learning how to compile from source, and really liked that method, just like you. So the only 2 choices for me were Gentoo or Slackware. And I found that Slack has a wider user base, and the community seemed great -- and I've learned that's true in the past 16 months.

To really be objective, why not install another partition or two, or another drive, just for testing other distros? You can be the judge.

thanx chinaman,
That was a great reply. I may try Gentoo one day when I don't have anything better to do, but for now I don't think I can spend weeks on installing an OS. I don't see the point of it either. I think I'll stick to Slack. If anyone else wants to take a shot at converting me, they are welcome. :D . As for now, I think I made my decision. ;)

We can all shout the praises of our distro, and many of us will.

IMO it all really boils down to using a tool to do the job. Some guys like an adjustable wrench to remove a nut. Me, I always mess up the nut with that; so I prefer a socket, or at least a closed-end wrench to do the same job.

I read some guy who posted something like "just get one distro and learn it very well," which is sound advice. So all 5 of our comps here have Slackware, and it's easier for me to admin them.

Can't say it any better. I just wanted to see which one to stick with. I think I decided. I may still try Gentoo just for fun and just to check it out sometime. Thanks for the great advices, Chinaman.

2 WEEKS! Thats absurd. They must be running Gentoo on some really really really slow machines and not have updated for months.

hi,
i'm running gentoo for two months.

this is my favorite distro. i'm free to choose, i have an optimized system and portage in very good.

try it ;)

p.s. sorry for my bad English

Yeah...that guys was breaking balls on another Gentoo thread (about whether optimized software runs faster). It's ok for me if he deos not believe Gentoo's pros, but at least he should be respectfull

She actually said, "after two weeks of totally backing up my system
and now updating Gentoo..."

She runs Athlon 2200+, Shuttle AK32A (VIA KT266A) mobo, 512MB RAM

Well, how about producing some tangible results of how
Gentoo runs software faster?

We all have opinions...how about some facts?

Yeah, that's a good idea, instead of arguing without facts to backup

I am not trying to flame any distro, especially Gentoo. But after reading all this talk about it, it makes me wonder what are the advantages, disadvantages over LFS. And why would I do Gentoo instead of LFS, since my understanding is that level 1 is essentially very much like LFS.

My apologies to the gentlemen who were offended by my earlier posts. For the record, I think both Gentoo and Debian are good distributions. My point is that compiling an entire distribution from source would be considered a waste of time for me, because we use our computers to produce work. I can't really express it any better than bughead1 said in this thread, post #12...

The woes of Gentoo

In fact, that thread would be a good read, for there are several opinions on Gentoo -- pro and con.

I have three acquaintances who run Gentoo, and they are pleased. But none of them has yet to show me any tangible benefits to be gained by compiling my entire distribution from source, versus running Slackware and compiling apps from source with a custom kernel, all optimized for my hardware.

And I can have Slackware installed, and producing work, in less than 30 minutes.

It's all a matter of personal choice, and which tool does the job best for the man using it.

Damn Chinaman,

Pat should hire you as a marketing specialist. :D You can convert even Bill Gates to Slackware. :-) I was thinking about putting Gentoo on an old Pentium I, just to check out how it will work(mainly check the speed). Now I'll think twice before I do it. :D

what is bughead saying with how do I use it to optimize my disk? As to the Gentoo users, I want to make it clear I think I can speak for everyone else here when I say that I don't think Gentoo is a bad distro.