Whats so cool about Slack?
 

Just wondering, as allmost every dude on this forum which you can rank as "guru" is using Slackware.

I'm installing slack 8.1 right now on my other computer, I had so bad experiences with slack8 that I allmost saw bad dreams!

I hope this slack comes ready with /mnt/ directory, unlike 8!

Slack is nice when you'd like to configure everything yourself. If you don't like digging in configuration files, it's not he best choice...

Im a relative newbie to Linux (running for around 3 months) and Ive run Slack for the last 2 weeks.

First 2 and a half months learnt : - 25% of what I know

Last 2 weeks learnt : - 75% of what I know

Now Im no Guru and I wasnt sure if I was ready for Slack but I actually found it easier and far more friendly than other Distro's, because It meant I learnt to configure things by hand (as all Linux users should do as those pretty gui tools arent always available).

Far from Guru am I, but choose Slack I will (in Yoda voice).

I went into a great schpill about control over your system, closest distro to unix, sources, not rpms, and alot of stuff about actually learning linux, but I went to read over all my great points, and thought to myself, why did I switch?

So, actually, Slack is something you'd have to use to see "What's so cool about Slack". But, the opposite side of that is, that Slack isn't for everybody. But it's definitely worth trying to see if it's what you've been missing out on all along.

Cool

From http://www.distrowatch.com/game.php
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Well for me Slack is all I wanted. A distro that doesn't take a lot of space(1GB on my PC), fast, stable and flexible. It has the most neccesary tools and everything else I need I can download or edit myself. And I don't know about others but I'm a person that loves to RTFM. :)

What's the difference from Red Hat to Slackware? I'm new to linux and would like to know if it is worth my while to install a different distro. Since I would be able to use KDE on both, what difference would there be?

Slackware = Configure files usually by hand, not so many GUI tools loaded to use to configure. Most Unix like distro. Source based distro ( tar.gz )

Redhat = Industry standard or most popular. GUI tools to help configure. RPM based distro.

You can use KDE on any Linux distro, and actually Slack comes with KDE cause its the preferred choice from what I heard from Patrick ( The creator of Slack ). Redhat usually goes more for GNOME, but both come with many different desktop environments.

Ok, thanks.

I went to slackware's ftp site to try to find the distro download, and am wondering if it is the "zipslack" file or what? It's very confusing.

zipslack is a version of slack u can install on a windoze partition

I used Slackware since 1994 (with a few visites to Redhat, SuSE and *BSD). It is simple (in non-complexity, not zillion gui tools), flexible and powerful. One of the things I love is that the installer for example has barely changed the last 8 years and it still rocks (and will still rock in 10 years), just because it is very simple and it does only what it needs to do.

Last sentence says it all. Just what you need, not what everyone else thinks you need.

Word! No big fat gui getting in your way of success! And it feels very good being able to edit a file all on your own and get your device or whatever to work that way. It's like building an engine or something, it just feel really good!

Good line danieldk, and good pointing it out hanzerik!

Cool

Soz, this ain't my question, soz again, for this being a bit of a negative reply, but except for the small install base and the Slack vs RPM installer IMHO I haven't seen any other *real* arguments.

The "editing by hand" argument, approximating some form of "higher level craftsmanship", is also relied heavily upon when amongst the debbies. Forget *any* Linux distro's configs can be edited by hand.

The "zillion-GUI tools" argument I also find a bit weak since that's a *choice* you make installing stuff (with a GUI-rich distro of course, else you just... cope with it, right).

The learning curve and RT.M thingie are part of your own attitude, or quest for knowledge if you like, so that's projecting your *own* capabilities on a distro.

How about slower releases so less bugs, specific kernel support, production stuff that actually *runs* better on Slack like that...

Finally, words like flexibility and power aren't words that characterize Slack, they're characteristic for Linux as an OS.

Yes, which is very comfortable when SuSEConfig overwrites your hand-made changes. Of course, everything is possible, I can also make a binary patch for Windows making it run 32-bit OS/2 programs.

Yes and it starts right off with a memory eating GUI installer. If that is what you prefer...

Because Slackware does not use the standard GUI tool cruft and is fairly standard almost all standard (non-distro specific) Linux documentation works for Linux. So why rewrite it each reply when /path/to/HOWTO is enough.

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Flexibility is about scaling from an 486 to 16-way servers (or even more), you can't do that with the average GUI Installer distro. Flexibility is about a distro that gives you control, not a distro that takes over your control.

I am gonna have to agree with the final line from UnSpawn "Finally words like flexibility and power..."

That is a good point, but seems to stand out alot better on Slack when compared to some of the more "gui" distros, but still an excellent point.

Cool

heh..I've used a bunch of distro's and slack is by far the only one that feels like a real Linux system with nothing in the way. I feel Redhat and Mandrake seem to feel like a confused :gringes: windows system :waiting for flames: . I used them to learn the absolute basics though..(i'm still FAAAAAAR from knowing anything yet). I've just installed slack 8.1 and feel like I'm actually using a linux system and I'm finding it far easier to do things in...Unless you count getting my damn soundcard working ..but that's not important. :) peace

Mandrake can look the same... I've removed all drake*, all X programs etc, now it works as I want it to. :)

What kind of work do Slack users do with their systems? I'm just curios.

Slack are servers, but also workstations. There's no rule.

Mara made out a good comment here

u can enhance any distro to the way u like it...
putting a sign on people that are using mandrake are mouseclickers, doing everything in gui is not a great statement.
I did the same as Mara, stripped of some crap... my Madnrake 8.1 doesnt run X.. so I don't have any gui tools.
besides I config evertything in commandline, so it's not impossible to do...

In Mandrake (not only in Mandrake) it's just a matter of writing rpm -e many times. :)

I'm a newbie and I started off with Slack. That's because someone here says that's the best distro to learn. I installed RH 7.3 on another computer. I prefer Slack, partly because it simply drives me crazy and it becomes a love-hate relationship. At the end of the day, I learn more so I'll be removing my RH 7.3. Still hell lot more to learn. At least it's better than Windoz that hangs and crash and the only thing you can do it reboot, reboot, and reboot.

WARNING! Bad Documentation makes learning difficult. Enjoy the suffering.

Slackware let's you bypass the insanity of SysV style init scripts.

If you get down in the guts of a Mandrake box, you see a lot of config files that look like they were never intended to be read by the human eye. All of the configuration scripts in slack are very easy to follow, and obviously intended to be read by a human.

That's what has me sold on it, anyway.

yup 8.1 comes with the /mnt directory.

and as for me, i agree with what Aussie said in an earlier thread (can't remember which one)...
it's cool to be able to call myself a slacker...

lame but true ;)