On RHEL systems after every install (I use RHEL instead of Windows at work) I need to install "development" packages, Libraoffice, gfortran, and a whole slew of items Slackware comes with out of the box. I have a cheat sheet that I use when RHEL forces a wipe/install instead of an upgrade once in a great while.

Without the internet, I can start developing on Slackware without having to hunt for includes. Same for Ubuntu (I tried that once on a spare to see what the big deal over a decade ago), I never installed SUSE, but I expect that is the same. You get nice games from KDE, which I doubt SUSE comes with by default (and none of the others get on the install DVD).

With Slackware I get everything I and mostly anyone needs straight from the Install DVD.

Edit: yes I know Slackware does not come with libraoffice, but it does come with a full featured office package set from KDE. Which I think is useful for most people.

3 members found this post helpful.

Unfortunately, the Slackware does NOT include LibreOffice, Chromium, VLC and some other goodies which are a must have for me - and no, I am not using Slackware on business.

Yes, the LibreOffice and many other things are available in Mr. Hameleers' repository, but this way is a remote repo - an additional download.

For me is strange to see people claiming that's bad to read documentation.

I for one I have been read tons of documentation on my humble life, as I am a geologist - I can't imagine doing Geology after Google.

It's not denied that reading documentation is bad; more that it can be tedious and that looking stuff up by a search can be quicker/easier. For most people getting the job done counts, not whether it has been done in a prescribed manner. Doesn't 'slack' fit a pragmatist quite well?

ok I never claimed it's bad practice to read documentation. On the contrary. My point is that usually I simply do not have the time to dig in the documentation and search for a solution to the problem online. That's for Linux and scripting. Working in the lab (I am a biologist) is another story.

I tried to use KDE's Caligra Office a couple weeks ago and it couldn't even work with the simplest LibreOffice doc.

That they strip a lot of the documentation and info files is one of the things I don't like about CRUX. IMO slackware has the right idea on this. Googling for stuff is all well and good until the wiki is taken down, or the page disappears.

2 members found this post helpful.

Particularly useful are info files, I mean invoking info command may give much more information than simple manual. Invoking just info shows all info documents. Konqueror has URL for info documents: in address bar put ##: followed by command name - info page is being displayed in nice readable format - can print it eg. For manual pages address is #:

3 members found this post helpful.

My Slackware installation is 9.4GB. This is the base system (A, AP, D, L, N, T, TCL, X, and XAP) without Grub, Rust, and a few other packages.

For comparison, my Debian installation is 6.2GB. Both offer the functionality that I need.

I don't think these numbers are unreasonable when I consider that Android is using 9.4GB for a *phone OS*.
Ed

2 members found this post helpful.

To paraphrase Ann Landers, Slackware users' gripes about packages included in -current fall into two major categories:

1. Too much
2. Not enough

3 members found this post helpful.

The Slackware mission seems to be to provide a (extensible, customizable and self documenting)* desktop with applications that is usable out of the box from the installation iso. Current even has a (somewhat) usable sound editor and a well known video editor.

Alas, I have never been able to produce a viable document with Calligra Words. Some of the other Calligra applications are fine: krita, Carbon and the flow chart application spring to mind.

For compatibility reasons (from Star Office days) I fall back on Apache OpenOffice. 390Mb install into /opt (so can coexist with LibreOffice) by means of rpm2tgz. Add Alienbob's ffmpeg and Audacity slackpackages and I am away.

The Debian dvd 1, 2 and 3 .isos (or the BlueRay image) are huge in scope but are not available immediately on installation in the way Slackware is.

* to coin a phrase: how many distros provide a fully functioning info tree out of the box apart from Slack?

2 members found this post helpful.

I find the repos a good idea. The philosophy is 'Your distro - your way' and the extra repos facilitate that.
I have had less luck with info pages than man pages, without criticizing them too much. And sometimes, "somecommand --help" is all you need.

Since it is obviously possible to whittle down Slackware to a smaller size (roughly 1/3rd noted in this thread) AND since brand name 1000GB drives go for about 40bux USD right now, (checking just now I see 500GB drives for 28bux) why would anyone complain about Full Recommended Install of 16GB? Even name brand 250GB SSD drives are available under 40 bux and blazing fast,and 8000GB enterprise drives are just over 100bux. I don't get it. Rejoice!

1 members found this post helpful.

try btrfs with zstd

Well for me it's not a complaint, just an interesting observation on how it's grown. 16GB is nothing on a modern system and would still fit on 20 year old hardware.

I didn't mention but one thing that prompted the post was that it conflicts with slackware.com (5GB) and the slackbook.org (1GB) which was what I came across trying to find out. Alas I missed the 16GB mentioned in Slackware-HOWTO in the mirror root because it seemed easier just to 'google' the answer.

The discussion on docs is weird since they are critical to complete software and trivial in size. Even if you get an answer from google it might not match your installed copy, e.g. with the installation size, and someones you're just not online. I use info for things like gcc, make, and glibc often and you really need these to match your exact copy.

The online-only 'man' pages for netpbm in debian is a particularly egregious example although a lot of software just doesn't have adequate or well maintained documentation either because it takes a different skill-set and continued effort. The fact slackware includes all the docs and the headers by default is a huge plus and one of my big pet peeves with the debian based systems.