Hi all,
I am nowadays about to installing slackware moving from Ubuntu that i hate because it prevent me from enjoying Linux because i was a RedHat9.0 user.

The Question is : Is installing programs in slackware is a nightmare?

( nightmare here means that , for example if i want to install the program xxx, i will go to xxx's website and download the package and while installing it, it will ask me to install xxx-devel first, and when i go to get xxx-devel and install it, it asks me to install yyy that xxx-devel depends on. :S :S , that will be very boring. )

So, Is installing programs in slackware as i mentioned above ?


The question in other words:
Is installing programs in Slackware will faced by dependencies problems ??

That depends

Most programs will compile without a problem because Slackware (if you choose a full installation or at least install the complete libraries) has many libraries on board. Including the devel stuff that in other distros is packaged seperately.
Of course there are programs that require other packages to be installed first sometimes. Thinking of vlc video player from source, I think that was kind of a nightmare. But these are very special ones, from my experience especially video applications. If you want to install Gnome programs you might have problems too if you don't install something like Dropline Gnome on top of your Slackware system. (simple gtk and gtk+ is no problem, but if it depends on special gnome libraries ...)

Summing it up: It should be absolutely no nightmare in most cases, but try it yourself. You can find also slackbuild scripts (for example on slackbuild.org) which are good tested scripts - and they list dependencies if there are any.

There are a lot of precompiled packages on linuxpackages.net too.

Usually, you won't get dependency hell. However, if your search for dependencies takes you to ftp.gnome.org, then batten down the hatches ... and prepare for hell. Well, technically, there are ways to compile GNOME apps without the GNOME deps ... and I'll figure out how to do it ... soon. (it's not as easy as '--disable-gnome', there's always other things that must be disabled)

So, really after i have read what you wrote , I want to know exactly the advantages of slack over other distributions like Ubuntu that i am currently uses .

One more http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=349700

I never really had too much trouble installing things.

I do like the fact that slackware can compile almost anything straight after the install... it is designed to compile programs.

There are also a lot of slackware packages on the web if you want to go that route.

And lastly the install CDs/DVD does include an extra directory with a lot of optional packages and source code that are a breeze to intall.

after i read about Slackware, i decided that it is not the time to install it as i am busy nowadays, may be at later i can install it.

Good bye Slackware community and back to one of the easy-to-use distributions .

Well, nothing could be more boring than that...
I'm still not sure if you wanted Slackware to be boring or not-boring.
Anyway, Slackwares' pkgtools are mostly just a package installer and remover. They will install and remove exactly what you tell them to and do not try to resolve any dependencies. resolve means figure out what the dependencies are and locate those packages and install them first.
Most Slackers *like* this behaviour as it means you are always in control. It also assumes you know what you want and need.
If you want a package *manager* which resolves dependencies for you then you need another distro or perhaps one of the third-party system-updating programs which are written for Slackware.

Goodbye and good riddance.

The guy had a legitimate question and decided that Slackware wasn't for him. There's no need to slam him for a perfectly good decision. Slackware isn't for everybody you know.

Yeah, you're right, Hangdog42. Sorry for the rude reply, daziplqa.
(It was more the sort of reply you would expect from a Debian user. )

lol, sometimes I feel like saying that ... but I know I shouldn't. It's not a good thing to alienate potential users ... no matter who they are.