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Why RedHat Mr. Slack?
Since this is the distribution section and I have so much time on my hands along with extreme boredom, I thought i'd put my two cents of experience and explainations in. At membership to this site, I was and still am a die-hard Slack proponent. "Then why are you using RedHat now instead of Slack?" I thought I'd give a few different distros a 'go' to be fair and unbiased in my Slackness, Mandrake 8.1 and RH7.2 to be specific. Mandrake 8.1 is nice, worked perfect 'out-of-the-box' with my hardware. It's simple and severely user friendly. It had me up and going in moments. By far the best Install program i've used. In the end, shortly after install, it didn't cut the cake, so back to Slack! Although Slack satisfies what I expect in a distro, I, like so many other ex-ish Windows users, wanted a little bit more ease of use. I've got Slack down pat as far as config and usage, but it left me just a tiny bit hungry yet. At the install of RedHat 7.2, I appreciated it's Installation Prog. also. Very easy although less configurable than Slack or even Mandrake on a lower level, it suited just fine. Of course I am happy to say it too worked with my hardware 'out-of-the-box'. It's not a whole lot different from Mandrake except for the fact that it's stability seems far superior and i've yet to have any sort of error, unlike a few in Mandrake. Even though it installs a bit bloated, I was happy to see what it offered and i've of course tweaked everything to my wants and needs. It's been so easy in fact that i've not had a reason to go back to Slack. Though I do NOT like SysV initialization, it too hasn't forced me back to Slack's BSD style of which i'm used to. So to date, yeah, i'm giving Red Hat a longer term go. Perhaps I feel a tad guilty leaving Slack and the Slacker community aside for a 'prettier' distro. But When you get tired of editing files all day and could have run through a setup, I must say it's a nice break. So for now, i'm putting on the Hat. If anyone actually read this AND was wondering the hardware used in these three distros of which all detected and used properly, here are the specs. if you will:
AMD 1Ghz Athlon (T-Bird) 1 x 512 pc/133 Micron DIMM 30Gig 7200 Western Dig. HD 16x12x40 Cyberdrive CD-R/RW SB Live! Value 32 MB DDR Creative Labs Annihilator GeForce 2 MX There's my long post for the year. If for nothing else but to take up space on the server! LOL ;) |
well yeah, that's why i use mandrake over somethign like slack. if i had time to get everythign worknig exactly as i want it, i'd go with slack i expect, but I use linux for an OS, not just soethign to do, and i don't want to *have*to mess with config files all the time. I'm fine doing it when i want to... but things like erm.... rpmdrake just make things so much easier at times....
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Yeah i know what you mean, plus the copy and paste is so annoying in linux.
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c'mon guys wheres your slackware spirit?? Yeah, mandrake and RH are far more easier to use and setup BUT, they are far less secure (u can secure them manually tho), they come with tons of unstable or plain useless software, I tried configuring RH like i do with slack, editing files and RH just overwrited all the filesi modified on the next boot!, You dont learn anything with those distros, might as well go back to winblow$, they are slower than slack due to useless things started at boot time.
I am not saying that they are bad distros but they are becoming fool proof and quite insecure, in other words they are becoming microsoftish.. Sure why not use them if they are easy, but at least keep a minimal installation of Slack at hand, just to remind yourself of noGUI tools and power that slack gives you. And you actually learn something! There is no reason to limit yourself on one OS anyway, i have slack, suse, win98 and win2k on the same machine and i use whichever i feel like, mostly slack tho. And if you have more than one machine you can run different distros on each to compare them. And then did it ever happen to you that those pretty GUI tools get annoying and that is sometimes just simpler to add a line or two to a config file? I understand you tho, i wanted to do the same a month ago cuz i couldn't get DRI to work in Slack, but what the hell, keep trying (i still didnt figure out how to use DRI in Slack). Don't leave Slack only because its hard, it gives many other advantages. And feel free to boot any OS you feel like, don't limit yourself on RH, mandrake or Slack.. |
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And i learn all i need to learn from mandrake, i CAN go down to the same detail as slack as and when i want to, i just don't want to HAVE to. this whole linux spirit thing does seem to be a bit of a stumbling block. i'm gonna be a well-paid linux sysadmin in 3years or so i expect, and i'm still gonna reserve the right t not be forced to fart around with little things when i don't want to. Till then, i'm quite happy to use fontdrake to import ttf's thankyou. I don't leave slack cos it's hard, i'm sure i could deal with it, i just don't want to needless hassles |
Yes, its easier but too bad that in KDE you cant replace a current selection with the one you have on the clipboard. you know when you have a url copied and want to paste it into the web browser replacing the current text.
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Taz, dude, man, what? The Hat? You've put on the North Carolina Hat? Dude, man! What in the world? Holy jumping Athlon on a Socket A mobo, what in the Intel? Dude?
What am I talking about, half the machines in my house don't run Slackware... but then again, the other half all DO!\ No, its not easy to configure, and its set up goofy, and really NSKL, Slackware is NOT more secure than RH or Drake, or Suse or X-Distro-Here. Portmap a few default installs of either and all the same stuff is open. Okay, okay Slack got away from wu-ftp a version sooner than the others, but things like that are pretty minor compared the the bullet-proof security of say... OpenBSD. I think what you were aiming for was stability. I've got a Slack machine sitting in the corner of my house, serving out games of Nethack to my friends that's been up for 92 days or something. I could get that under RedHat, but I would have to fiddle with the crate every once in a while. I honestly recommend trying them all. I think I've just finished. Oh, well kinda, I've got X86 Solaris downloading at home. Honestly Taz, try the other Intel based Unixes. If you're going to experiment do it hard! Just anything but the Hat! Okay, I'll calm down now. Sunday's at work just suck. Cheers, Finegan |
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Asus CUSL2 p3 733@800 256mb ram voodoo5 linksys LNE100TX revision 2. Hercules Gamesurround Muse XL sound card (simply a CMI, works in Mandrake). |
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The BSDs are not built for the beginner, which is one of the reasons why not to many people use them. Some Linux people migrate up to them, a lot of Sysadmins use them when they need something really secure, and then there are the die hard Unix geeks who claim they are the only true Unix for the Intel desktop. FreeBSD doesn't suck, its just built for people that would either know their card wasn't supported under XFree86 3.3.x, or would find out shortly and then just download the new X, compile it, and install it. BSD is a beast. Open you're going to have to pay for. Don't trust those home-brewed ISOs, unless of course you just go for a net-install, which is MUCH easier than it sounds. Net and Free are freely downloadable in ISO format. Cheers, Finegan |
Thanks for the heads up on the BSD's yuh'all! I heard NetBSD is pretty killer, but we'll see. FreeBSD we'll see also, perhaps i'll wait for the next release. Right now, I think the next set i'll get is either Progeny or GNU/Deb 2.2r3 and say forget waiting for woody to stabalize. I can't (well I could) download the ISO's since i'm on 56k. So I order the CD's through LinuxCentral which are pretty cheap. We'll see soon...
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Here is how I made my slackness even slacker....Mondo Rescue, after an install when it's configured and I've set up all my hardware/programs I do a system back up to a set of bootable cd-rw's with mondo, currently running to nine disks for the complete system and id takes about a day to complete (because I only have 4x disks), my burner will do 10x for cdrw so I'll have to get a new box to speed it up. The bootable disks will let me do a full restore from bare metal to a new file system, hard drive or even to a raid system.
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ok, i guess i owe all you a apology for calling you stupid (basically) for leaving Slack, it's just that im in a "insecure" situation too and i was probably trying to convince myself slack is better not you. I love Slack, but im afraid that if i try another distro i will leave Slack and thats why i was trying to convince you (or should i say myself) that Slack is better. I simply don't know what to do, try another easier distro like Mandrake (i tried RH and didn't like it at all) or continue trying to get my Slack working flawlessly.
I started with SuSE and it was great, but i couldn't get my sound card and zip drive to work and thats when i started hating GUI config tools. but then i also hate having to download libraries and additional software for slack and having to read whole books to learn how to configure something. Also i would like to hear some more about FreeBSD. I am interested in trying it too. Thanks for any input and sorry again to those who found my last post offensive.. |
No appology necessary, really. I too felt and still do the same about leaving Slack. The Slack community is so hardcore that it pretty much makes you feel like crap for enjoying another distro. That's how I feel, but in the end I have to put that aside and say that i'm happier, right now anyhow, with Red Hat. I still love Slack, and feel a little guilty still, but I think that just goes to show us all how much the "open-source" "GNU" spirit has splintered off a little too much. I believe we should all be one community saying thanks to the man who had the skills to make Linux a reality, and in that be all in one spirit. Thanks Linus! So that's just me though. Everyone has an opinion, and if ours differ a little, that's ok. The world would be alot more dull if we all thought the exact same thing. Hmm, this post has me thinking too philosophical now...Gotta go smoke and kill a few brain cells....
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People often ask what the best distro is, and the answer is whatever distro you feel happy with, be it slack, redhad or even winlinux...well maybe not winlinux :)
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Okay, here are three reasons why we all continue to use Slackware despite its... er, lack of comforts. These aren't the only three... they're just the three you don't want to admit to:
a)Linux is the under-dog of the OS world (steadily BSD is the becoming the bigger underdog. Now I wonder why so many slackers are trying BSD...hmmm). Slackware is the under-dog of Linux. Everyone likes the under-dog. b)Slackware is hard-core. From the installation alone you are not reminded of Windows. Look at Mandy. On the left is a progress bar with all of the steps getting colored out as you go, and then while it installs the packages you selected... it has a silly slide show feature tour. Does that remind you of a particularly foul experience? c)Masochism. When you RPM nmap or tuxracer and it works right off the bat, you just don't feel like you've earned it. There's a lot of pride involved in compiling nearly everything from source. Its so much more fun, even when it doesn't work. Cheers Finegan |
Well some people just want a Operating System that works. I for one like to be able to do things quickly and easily thats why i am using Linux Mandrake 8.1 its easy.
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That's basically my premiss for going to RH from Slack. Although I can get Slack going well, RH gives me the OS atmosphere I want with the powerfull commandline abilities I want. It took me well over a year to switch to Win95 from 3.1 back in 93-94 since I loved DOS so much and I did everything in it outside of my dial-up. All of this back when DOS WAS the OS and Windows acted more like X on-top if you will. DOS has almost been phased out now due to the NT engine. That's why I love Linux, specifically RH, I can type startx like I could type win in 3.1, yet always knowing the GUI is a prog running on top...Ok, I got off a tad, sorry. I'm just grooving out with xmms here...
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ok, this few posts made me settle my ideas right. I will stay with slack because its exactly that, hardcore approach and satisfaction i get when getting things to work right, but it also makes me pissed sometimes because people using different distros have tjhe same things i do on slack, but without getting "their hands dirty". Ohh well, Slackware is the distro for me, now im convinced. (although im running SuSE, and win2k on other comps)
Thanks guys! |
You guys are all funny. I am using Slack only for now, and am very happy with it. Before that I was using RedHat from 5.2 to 7.2 and just didn't like the way the RPM was trying to take over (and you're right taz.devil, up2date is pretty sweet despite us hating to admit it!) in terms of its pervasiveness. RedHat is excellent and I can see myself using it but really after a while (about a year) I discovered RPM was a redundant feature for my needs, as were the majority of apps installed, and that I was really wanting to get down to the bare-bones of Linux and install everything the way I wanted..... so the next move may shock you all:
Anyway I tried Mandrake to get my ADSL modem to work because *everyone* was *telling* me to use either smoothwall or Mandrake8.1 because it was included and they were oh-so-great. I can tell you that smoothwall is pretty damn good ("it does exactly what it says on the tin" - a Ronseal product apparently) but Mandrake didn't work reliably with my modem when I told it to connect on startup. Since I only installed Mandrake for that function, it went as soon as it showed weakness in that area, although a week of trying just proved to me that it was not what I wanted in terms of leanness and stability. So Now it's Slack for me, although I've heard some very good things about Gentoo - anyone? Slack is good *for me* because: a. I've never had Linux running with as much free disk space for ages b. It hasn't crashed a single time (except when I left X running and went to the console then killed some X process :rolleyes: 'to see what'd happen') c. Things are in the right places when you look d. There's only one XF86Config file on the whole disk!! Try that on RedHat. (I am gonna compile it all from scratch soon anyway) So, get something you like but don't expect the world. All the distros fill their little gaps, it's just RedHat and Mandrake have bigger gaps!! Or so it'd seem. Sorry for wasting your time, but if it's any consolation my fingers ache from typing! That's my long post of the month. Alim |
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