I have replaced the hdd of my dell D 630 with an ssd (120 Gb).
I also ordered a bootable DVD with Slackware 14.1
I guess i can boot from this DVD and install in right away on the ssd?
My questions: is this linux version a good choice for linux newbies?
Is there any usb to sata cable that allows me to repartion the ssd from my standard Win8 PC? in case I want another linux version. What cable do I need for this? (type article number etc.)
Please avoid abbreviations as much as possible.
thanks,
Gert

It depends on your objectives. If your main objective is to understand Linux in and out then Slackware is a good distro for learning. Expect a steep learning curve though. If you just want a system that works "out of the box" and that holds your hand when it comes to installation and configuration, I would rather recommend Linux Mint.

You do not need to order install CDs / DVDs. You can download the images for pretty much any distro on their respective website and burn them to CD / DVD yourself. Go to distrowatch.com to get an overview of distros and where you can download the iso images.

And you can do the partitioning from within the installer, so no additional hardware/cable is needed for that task.

Slackware is a fine distro especially for a newb it will force you to learn a great deal quickly and learning is what you need. This forum has a lot of love for Slackware so you're in the right place to begin the journey, read a bunch, install, and learn. What you learn using Slackware you can take with you to just about any distro but do yourself a favor and spend some time learning before you jump even if in the end it doesn't agree with you.

I disagree with the above, I do not think Slackware is a good distro for a Linux newbie. The learning curve is very steep, even for somebody with Linux experience. I think it would scare most newbies off of Linux entirely.

It's very much a "trial by fire", and that does work well for some types of learners, but the problem is the lessons it teaches you do not apply to other Linux distros. The way you install, configure, and maintain a Slackware system is COMPLETELY different than practically any other Linux distro. Applying your "lessons learned" from Slackware to a more typical distro like Debian or RHEL would break the system almost immediately.

Learning Slackware teaches you Slackware, it does not teach you modern Linux IMO.

I started with Slackware v. 10. It was an accident, but I'm glad I started that way.

I agree with Joe_2000 and Germany_chris. If you want to learn how Linux works, Slackware is a great starting point. You get a fully functional distro with a large library of applications out of the box. When you decide you want to install something new or change the default configuration, you have to do your homework and learn the nuts and bolts of the system.

Once you understand Slackware, no other distro will ever intimidate you.

That does not mean you will understand all the other distros. It means that Slackware teaches you how to figure stuff out. Figuring stuff out is a valuable skill.

If you just want to surf the web and manage email, get Mint, which is a fine distro.

Yes. For information specific to SSD drives, see http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:ssd
I actually learned about *nix on HP-UX and Minix before moving on to Slackware. The basics such as the file system hierarchy, shell commands and command line editors are standard.
Looking at the specifications of your hardware, everything should be supported out of the box with Slackware.
You can do the drive partitioning from the Slackware installer. If this is a fresh disk, then I suggest using 'cfdisk'.
My suggestion for partitioning would be:
Slackware root partition - 20GB
Swap - On a laptop where you are likely to want to do suspend to disk, up to 2X the amount of RAM
A separate /home partition for user data. The bigger the better.
If you are likely to install other distributions, then consider a small separate /boot partition as well as allowing space for additional root partitions for the other distribution(s).
For installing Slackware, see http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:install

Slackware is not hard. Gentoo is not hard. Debian is not hard, nothing is hard. Everything can work for anybody no matter the experience.

Back when I started using GNU/Linux there were no forums like this and it took me nights getting XFree86 working (GUI). I learned a lot and that time has taught me things that later proved very worthwhile.

If you can read (which I assume you can since you are on a forum) you are capable of running anything within the constraints of your hardware.

Why not do a Linux from scratch? There is a book and you will learn much. Slackware is much, much, much easier then it was in 1999. Use it and have fun.

Slackware is a respectable distro, but I would not class it as a beginners distro.
Try it for yourself, & if you don't feel comfortable with it, there are plenty of other more friendly distros available.
http://distrowatch.com/

As I've said before, all you need to run Slackware is: average intelligence, the ability to read, follow instructions, and think for yourself now and then. But distro choice is a matter of personal choice or need, so use whatever suits you.

Thanks a lot members! Your many(!) answers have much quality and helped me tremendously, both for which distro to start with and for how partition my ssd!
I feel a lot more confident now to start. I think I'll go for the Mint distro first because I'm quite curious to find out what Linux has in store for me.
Eventually Slackware seems to be a good learning project, which I like! Thanks again!

I use Slackware and like it. I put Mint on computers of my wife, mother, parents-in-law etc. There is no way that any of them would ever be comfortable with Slackware. And rather than a matter of intelligence or ability to read this clearly is a matter of personal interest and objectives in the use of a computer.

If they want to install this browser or that email client they can open the software center and be done with it in minutes. They definitely don't want to download and compile packages from source or manually resolve dependencies... And legitimately so. For them the computer is just a tool.

Easy of use is a matter of definition. The guy that learned dealing with computers on Unix some centuries ago will probably find Slackware easier to use. However, my guess is that most newbies asking for a distro that is easy to use would find Linux Mint (or Ubuntu or any other distro from that sector) easier to use than Slackware.

I think we should respect this fact when answering such questions, even if this does not match or personal taste.

One word about Slackware as a "learning tool". Slackware is very conservative and uses approaches that other distros have abandoned. That doesn't mean that they are bad approaches: they work perfectly well and sometimes the replacements offer features that few people actually need, or are even just a matter of fashion. So, the default bootloader is Lilo. It's perfectly good, but everyone else has switched to Grub. Similarly, the demons are started up with init (currently being abandoned for systemd), and a different version of init to that used by the other distros that use it. There's a file called xorg.conf which is vital, but Red Hat hasn't had that for years. Learning Slackware will certainly teach you to think, and to find things out for yourself, but the things you learn are not always transferable.

Actually, any distro can teach you, if you are interested in learning. It's just that there are some distros that restrict what you can get done without learning. Slackware is actually the least of them: for example, you can install Slackware in minutes, but Arch will take the afternoon and Gentoo the week!

Just as a side note, Slackware does not have an xorg.conf unless user creates it. Whether there is an xorg.conf depends on the version of the X server in use, not on the distro.

And I would not recommend either Arch or Gentoo for someone new to Linux. Both require knowledge of how Linux works for a smooth install. Otherwise, you are asking for a world of hurt.

I stand by my recommendation.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ & Slackware!
Thanks for supporting Slackware with your purchase of the Slackware Install DVD!

Yes, Slackware is a good distribution to learn Linux. You will need to have some patience and willingness to delve into documentation such as Slackware Doc Project to aid you whenever possible. You can use both Slackware® Essentials & Slackware® Basics

The new SlackBook Beta is another useful resource. Plus you can always use the LQ Slackware forum. Search that forum for any potential answers to a issue you may have since it is likely someone has experienced the same or like issue(s).

Slackware®-Links is another good resource. More than just Slackware links!

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!