Hello Slackers. I would first like to Say Why did I not try slackware first. I love this operating system. However I am however a little confused. I am coming from Fedora Core 3
so I am not very familiar with the tarball approach to installing software.

I have seen some people do
or I have seen the following.
So which is the proper way to install tarballs and Where do you store the tarballs at.
If I sound confusing I appoligize it's just that as I said I am confused.

You CAN do it either way. The advantage to the 'usr' prefix is that it installs under the /usr directory.

Caveat: Some programs installing from source are expecting their programs to install in specific directories. Always, always, always read the README

yes... README and INSTALL are required reading.

also `./configure --help` will give you a list of
acceptable parameters.

and instead of `make install`, i recommend using
makepkg or checkinstall.

DEFINATELY makepkg and chkinstall....keeps the integrity of your Slackware going

Thanks for the quick replies. I will definetley be adding those commands to my list I am currently building. I was definetley trying to keep the integrety of Slackware.

Just one more question. Does all programs need to have the ./configure --prefix=/usr. Because most of the README files I have read just want the ./configure.

If you don't set --prefix=/usr, the software will most likely be installed under /usr/local, that's really the only difference, both work just fine. It's more a logical division than functional. I for example prefer to keep my /usr/local for the things that don't come from slackware packages. So if I use checkinstall or makepkg to make a slack package, or use packages from linuxpackages or such, the software goes under /usr. Things installed with make install and the things I've written myself go under /usr/local.

It could also be a good idea to define --sysconfdir=/etc to have system wide configuration files fo under /etc instead of /usr/etc or /usr/local/etc. I find it easier if they are all in one place.

most of the source software I've installed on Slackware just needed a

Albeit, it is pretty important to read those readme and install files just to be sure you won't screw up

Thanks Aliendog. I have decided that I will probably start installing the packages like this.

Unless otherwise noted by the README or INSTALL files.

Just a typo I'm sure but... --prefix, not --prefux.

Thanks. Brain moved faster than fingers.