A Linux distro created specifically to that end serves no purpose except to get attention. As I've given more than it deserves already, I'm checking out of this thread.

For what it's worth - and more to the point of this thread - distrowatch is a complete waste of time except for those with too much time and not enough clue.

well, did you see that part(s) in the Quran where it talks about how Muslims should kill Christians?
How women are basically slaves not allowed to show their face?
How Israel should be destroyed?

In case you didn't yet realize it
the word neutral doesn't exist in Islam
you are either a Muslim or dead.

Did you ever see any Satanists attacking Christians?

And did you know that Ubuntu SE actually has links to both the Muslim and Christian additions?

Did you know, before you spoke that SE is now "Official"?
http://ubuntusatanic.org/news/ubuntu...emark-license/
guess not

Can we get this thread calmed down please. Stat. If you want to discuss the terribleness of religion you can do so offsite. This is a thread about a website, not about interpretations of the Quran or of the Bible or even of Jack Kerouac's "On The Road".

We have many Muslim and Christian members on the boards and if they come to a thread about Distrowatch they, and I and LQ itself, do not want them to be confronted with discussions about how awful they all are.

Get this thread back on track immediately.

Alright...
Back on track
Distrowatch is good and bad

It's a good place to see what's new.

I like watching the Page Hit Ranking list too, but it's not a real indicator of overall popularity.
A better indicator of that might be their OS Stats page -

http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awsta....osdetail.html

Unfortunately Slackware doesn't seem to be on it, I assume that maybe Slackware doesn't announce itself properly. I'm sure plenty of Slackers go there.


(btw-Shame on Distrowatch for excluding Ubuntu SE when all the other buntus are plastered across their page.(

What I think is encouraging from the OS stats page is that so many Windows users are checking out distrowatch for info on linux distros. I suppose we can assume that at least some of those curious Windows users will make the switch to linux. Then some of those folks may even join the LQ forums.
So distrowatch is valuable if it introduces people to linux.

I visit Distrowatch regularly, I currently have it open another tab. It's a good starting place if one wants to research various distros.

From the FAQ:
What else is there? It fills a needed niche in the *nix community.

-JJ

And there has even been some recent news about Slackware in the DistroWatch Weekly:
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090713#news
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090629#news
This stuff is nothing new for seasoned Slackers; but people who are curious about Slackware may just be motivated to check it out from news stories like this.

Never mind---I did not read to the end

FWIW I like distrowatch too. I don't visit regularly, but if/when I want to see a bigger picture, i.e. see a long list of 'all' the distros that are out there, maybe look at the basic features of a new distro vs the others (or discover that a new distro has appeared), I go to distrowatch. I think it's a good starting point for newcomers too--- while the giant selection may be daunting at first, there are search tools for narrowing down the field.
One other thing: while google can quickly find you the homepage of whatever distro you are looking into, distrowatch can send you there as well as gives links to lots of other related sites where stats, reviews, press releases, user forums, etc. exist for each respective distro.

Also FWIWIMHO though, I feel that distrowatch should have a blurb on all distros, not just ones that they feel are 'politically correct' (it isn't called mostdistrowatch or somedistrowatch after all); if Joe Blow wants to spend his time following the links to silly/parodic/stupid/archaic whatever distros, that's his prerogative. But then, I suppose by the same token, it's distrowatch's prerogative what they want you to learn about when you visit their site.

On a related note: I did notice last time I was there that (as an example) the RHEL5 page did not include a listing of packages as is usually the case (nor much else for that matter). Maybe it's because of the enterprise component, or maybe because it's paid-for (same thing?) or maybe just because RH doesn't people to know what they're getting without paying first. I don't know. Anyhow, the RHEL5 page on distrowatch was relatively brief and uninformative and basically just a place to put links to official RH sites.

If I recall correctly, it was distrowatch where I learned of Slackware. Been Slack ever since

Sasha

The thing that gets me about it is when it says like oh this distro has more clicks so it must be more popular. It has some trueth to it. For example I have like 10 friends that use linux (which is unusually high in compared to other people). 6 of them use unbuntu. 1 uses Suse, 2 use Fedora and 1 uses Madriva. I thought this was funny because they told me about they're distro's BEFORE I even looked at the list on distrowatch.

When I say slackware it's like I said a curse word or something it sometimes feels like i'm the only one of my kind.

That's because others fear the power, flexibility, and sheer awesomeness of Slackware!!!!

Yes, they fears us my Presioussss. Nasty hobbitses fears us....

I do want the sheer awesomeness but I feel like I keep falling off the boat and running back to windows like a hoe. It's something that keeps stealing me away from Linux. I feel that I have not reach a high enough level of Linux competence to begin learning independently.

I actually found that after a month or so of using Linux, I couldn't stand how slow and complicated my Windows installation seemed -- and I always prided myself on running Windows lean and mean.

I had Windows 95, Windows ME, and Windows XP running like Swiss watches. Then I put Ubuntu and (shortly thereafter) Slackware on the same machine running Windows XP, and it was like getting a processor and memory upgrade.

Serious question: what sort of stuff do you want to do with your computer that you're not comfortable doing in Linux?

Regards,

It's not that you keep running back to Windows. It's that you keep coming back to Linux.

There's a reason Pat always includes As always -- have fun! in his messages

I don't believe that many people learn independently. We all learn from each other. It seems people that are efficient with one OS, forget the amount of time it required them to become efficient. People have spent years around the Windows environment. Of course many aspects of the OS come as second nature. It's a false sense of security for anyone to claim or think, you could apply every principle learned in Windows to Linux.

That's one of my pet peeves. I can't stand it when someone states Linux is just like, the same, not different, as easy, easier ..... It is just false. Linux != Windows.