First review I've noticed....not really a slacker.....

http://www.techiemoe.com/tech/slack13.htm

He/She/It never gives a positive, favourable review of Slackware.

That's a pretty good, though very brief review. The reviewer's main complaint has to do with Xorg's problems setting resolution, and the fact that Slackware doesn't use Debian-like package management. Both are fair. I'm pretty sure the author could get Xorg working, but that wasn't the point of the review -- he wanted to see how it worked out of the box. As for not liking Slackware's package management, well, that's a matter of taste, and there's no accounting for taste.

The funny thing is: at the end of the article they say "but I still don't feel like I'm their target audience." Then why even bother reviewing it? Stick with your apt based distro's.

Interestingly enough, he keeps mentioning apt/synaptic or whatever the tool is called under Debian, but even this version of Slackware has a slightly better rating than Debian does on his site. Go figure...

I don't need apt/whatever its called either. Nor am I spoiled enough for this 'dependency checking' thing that doesn't work as intended anyhow. Src2pkg, slackbuilds, and properly compiled packages from slacky.eu suits me just fine. The lack of such utilities hasn't stopped or affected me in any way.


I will say one thing though, his reviews on Solaris* is rather spot on.

All i see is a pro-debian guy trying to review something more complex than he can handle ).

Well, I think he can handle it, as he stated that he's run Slackware since version 7.0. Slackware just isn't his cup of tea. It is a fair, but, less than stellar review of our favorite OS. A person more up to speed on Slackware can easily solve the problems mentioned in the review. One of the main complaints in the review is the lack of a package management system for Slackware. I've used many package management systems in a variety of distros and Unix. Slackware's minimalistic package management system does the job for me.
Slackware 13.0 gets two thumbs up from me.

How is 'pkgtool' not a package manager? What more do people want in a 'package manager'? (probably just answered my own question, by saying 'dependency checking' )

Exactly! With pkgtool, slackpkg, and src2pkg I have everything I need to manage the packages on my Slackware systems. Dependency checking is not something I require.

Well here is the "Million Dollar Question AND answer:"

"Does Slackware have or do dependency checking?"

"No"

"Does Slackware suffer from any kind of 'dependency hell'?"

"No"

"Then why the hell DOES it need such a 'feature'!?"

Moot point no?

Thats why he/she likes the synaptic manager better )

Ah...the beauty of choice I guess...though there's no accounting for taste

In my opinion the number of ranted releases of distributions at TechieMoe.com is impressive. In some cases the author of these reviews has just one day to try a new release and write a review. For example three last reviews appeared day after day: Slackware 13 -- August 28, Linux Mint 7 Gloria -- August 27, Mepis 8.0.10 -- August 26. After first day of work with Slackware 13 I have still a few problems to resolve though I use Slackware exclusively. In my opinion rants published at TechieMoe.com reflect average outlook on operating systems.