Fresh install of Slackware 9.0...couple questions
 

Hello everyone. Well, I went ahead installed a fresh copy of slack 9.0 on my box at work...I had some questions about slackware that I brought up in a previous thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=60407

Anyways, I have a couple of questions.
To be honest, I do not have a lot of of experience customizing linux for my desktop. I have a lot of Linux server experience.

One thing I noticed about slack right off the bat is its speed. It booted up much much faster than RH, Mandrake and Suse...I already like it...

I wanted to get started with is customizing my desktop. I'd like to move away from using Windows as my desktop entirely. I realize that I can have the options like Gnome or KDE, but I really do not want to use a Heavy type desktop. I'd prefer to install something lighter like fluxbox or blackbox...

What I wanted to start with is some advice on how to get my desktop all configured and looking pertty...

Anyone have some input on where to begin? Links? How-To...anything to help me get the ball rolling would be great..

Thanks everyone. And thanks to everyone who pushed me to try Slackware!!!

Cheers,

Tarballed

look here for "perty" ... people in that thread will
mostly be asked "how did you" ...

(which I find to be a very flexible term ;} ...
in the spirit of Bauhaus I find "functionality"
and a "plain look" beautiful ...)

Cheers,
Tink

Well, I installed Slack 9.0 recently and the first place I am starting is trying to get all my most important devices recognized and working, like CDRW, CVD, mouse, video card etc.

Well, i've got all my hardware working...

What I want to do is setup my desktop now..

Anyone have any recommendations on a particular window manager they like? What they like/dislike?

How about:

Blackbox
ICEWM
Window Maker
Flux Box
KDE
GNOME

Just like to hear some feedback as well as where to get started customizing my desktop...maybe a link or something.

Tarballed

As far as a light WM, get Fluxbox. It's blackbox, but nicer looking.

As far as getting it better looking, if you have the HD space, you might think about installing the dropline gnome distribution, from www.dropline.net . It has a tweaked XFree package that gives you really nice font rendering, on any window manager you do end up using. It also comes with some other nice packages, like a version of Xine with all of the supporting packages to play encrypted DVDs out of the box. I personally love Gnome. It just helps to have a good bit of memory to use it, which is about 10 cents a meg for DDR right now in my area. Gnome has a very clean look. If you want to see some screenshots of Gnome in action, just check out art.gnome.org to see them. I installed KDE as well, because sometimes I like to use it, and I have a lot of HD space. Gnome is definitely my everyday use desktop environment, though.

Fluxbox is available on the Slackware FTP site, as well as all of the mirrors, as a Slackware tgz package. It's under Slack 9 in the extras directory. I assume you've used the Slackware package system, but if you haven't, just ckeck out the man page for pkgtool. You can also run any of the initial setup scripts from there, as well as check out exactly what files a Slackware package installs. There are also some command line package utilities. I'm sure there's info elsewhere on the forum.

Fluxbox is pretty easy to configure, too. The look and feel can pretty well be tweaked from within Fluxbox, and there's a .fluxbox directory under your home dir where all of the config files reside, including the one for the fluxbox menu. Blackbox is also available on the FTP site, but Fluxbox is really the same thing, but slightly easier to use, and a little better looking.

I hope this helps you out. Welcome to the wonderful world of Slackware. I don't think you'll be at all disappointed with it. Nobody ever is, as long as they're not scared. And, there's nothing to be afraid of with a pipe-smoking penguin.

I would also advise, if you do like Slackware, help our friends and buy a copy from the Slackware store. The CDs also include all of the extra packages from the FTP site, the kernel source, zipslack, the bootdisks, and the live cd -- ideal for converting people to Slackware!

XFce or Window Maker

Personally I swear by Flux 0.1.14 with the
remember patch ;) ... does all I need (if I can't
have anything like the OS/2 WPS in Linux,
anyway ;} [no, I don't have the time to try and
implement it myself]) ... I can define for my programs
on which desktop to popup, can implement keyboard-
shortcuts of all kinds, and can give all gimmicks that
it has and I don't need a miss as well ... and with all
that, it's ultra-slim and has a small memory footprint.

As for docGonzos comment: Flux offers lots more
than Black, and looks are deceiving ;)

Cheers,
Tink