For months I've wanted to leave the Debian distro family for the Slackware family (I am not prepared to learn Slackware, but I thought VectorLinux was great when I tried it), but one of the reasons I've dragged my feet is I like the apt package management system of Debian. It works for me. It's nice that VectorLinux at least "meets me halfway" by offering slapt-get, but I don't suppose it would be possible to actually use apt in VectorLinux or any Slackware-based distro? Would it be unfeasible even if the .deb package were translated into whatever package format Slackware uses?

I would recommend Salix if you want to try a good Slackware-based distro. They have gslapt/slapt-get, which is similar to Debian's apt-get. I have misgivings about Vector, as do many other slackers, but Salix is top-notch, if you're not ready to dive into Slackware proper.

http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Home

3 members found this post helpful.

What's wrong with Vector?

I'd say that if you want to use apt, then you should use Debian, since apt is native to that distro. I'm not a fan of bolting on things from one distro to another. If you want Slackware, then use Slackware. The SlackBuild scripts at slackbuilds.org take care of all my third-party package needs and there isn't anything in Debian that I can't do in Slackware. I use Debian too and it's fine but overall I prefer the Slackware way of doing things and I appreciate the conservative nature that Pat and the rest of the team take.

Basically, I encourage you to stick with learning Slackware. You will get a lot from it.

As I recall, they did some strange things regarding changing the directory structure. There was some discussion of this, I believe on the Human Readable website, but that is now gone, so I couldn't track it down.

http://humanreadable.nfshost.com/sdeg/

1 members found this post helpful.

I recently fiddled around with a Slackware base (A, AP, D, F, K, L, N, T, TCL, X, XFCE and Y) and Salix' package manager on top of that, configured for Salix+Slackware repos. I blacklisted a few packages (lilo, sysvinit-scripts), and from there, it worked very nice. So now my standard Slackware desktop is a mix of Slackware, Salix packages, stuff from SBo (built with sbopkg) and a dozen or so packages built from my own script.

When you install Salix' slapt-get, be sure to also fetch spkg.

1 members found this post helpful.

I see Salix comes without a GUI. I'm not prepared to learn a new non-Debian distro without a GUI, so I'd better stick with Vector.

Huh? It's default DE is xfce, and also comes in KDE, Mate, LXDE, fluxbox, and Openbox editions. And Ratpoison, for those that like tiling, minimalist window managers. Lots of GUI options. Did you check the screenshots link at the website?

Comes without a GUI? Salix has a choice of GUIs that you can use: http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Download

Eric

You seem to have already decided on what you want to do... so what is it that you are seeking here? Based on your posts so far, I honestly don't see why you want to switch from Debian...

I misread it...no GUI was a feature of the core-only installation.

On a number of philosophical and practical issues, Debian and I aren't a perfect fit. I've been in the Debian family because MEPIS was the first distro where I figured out how to connect to my wireless network, not because I shared Debian's policy positions and ideological commitments (or even knew what they were back then). The only thing I care to mention is that I noticed that the Debian family follows the KISS principle more loosely than Slackware, and I don't like that.

My recommendation is to test drive Slackware or Salix in a VM. Check out both and see if you can configure them they way you like it. Check out the links wiki: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Slackware-Links Also check out http://www.slackbook.org

With salix you can use g/slapt-get. Slackware you can use sbopkg which is a ncurses front end for Slackbuilds. One could consider it apt like. It fetches the slackbuild script and package and then builds it with the option to install after building it. It does not however resolve dependencies(EDIT: Wanted to add that all the dependencies are listed in the slackbuild you just have to build them yourself). Alienbob and Robby Workman also have prebuild packages for a lot of software on there sites(links are in the Slackware links wiki), as do many of the community members here.

I think once you get over the learning curve in the beginning you will be glad you went Slack.

+1 on that! As they say, "Once you go Slack, you'll never go back."

Having said that, for your consideration:

http://distrowatch.com/search.php?basedon=Slackware

http://all-things-linux.blogspot.com...ributions.html

http://slacklinux.darkbb.com/f21-sla...-based-distros

Can you use apt with Slackware? As you've no doubt ascertained from the discussion that has already taken place, the short answer is no.

1 members found this post helpful.