charlatans <Joker> and <Yakbak> I bet they were using their favourite system... Vista, I will give their names to JR Dobbs,he will sort them out... LOL

Good grief. I seldom post here because the level of expertise here is so high, it's not necessary. But after seeing those two guys dumping on a venerable distribution like Slackware, I gotta say something.

There is a normal progression of distributions for many Linux users. I started with Mandrake, which was probaby the easiest at the time. No regrets, but after a while I wanted to try something new so I tried Debian. I used it for a year or two, then tried Slackware and found I liked it better. That was a few years ago. I suspect a lot of Slackers progress this way. It sounds like those two guys are at the beginning of the progression, maybe stuck there.

BTW, I'm not an expert at Linux. It's not necessary to be one to use Slackware. It is worth learning and using. Give it a test drive and you might want to take it home.

well tack kde I can use the gui configuration tool and spend a lot of time walking the tree in the gui to find what I want to change
OR
I can open a configuration file in a editor and change what I want in a fraction of the time
it would tack hunting around in the gui tool for what I want to change

what if
something breaks X your stuck with reinstalling to fix it because you have become dependent on gui configuration tools in the other distros

with slackware the odds of becoming dependent on gui configuration tools is almost nonresistance

this is the last place on the internet to find an objective opinion about slackware here you will find skackware lovers

Bull3t, did you ask the two IRC chatters if they would be OK with you posting that here? It is considered poor form to spread personal chats elsewhere I'm sure...
Linus Torvalds on his favourite distro:
I'm not sure I agree with your natural progression theory. Some end up liking the dirty gritty distributions like Slackware, but others who are just as proficient as your average Slacker might prefer something else. It depends on your philosophies and preferences alone, not skill level. Just my opinion, of course.

@OP: Something tells me that you are lighter than a duck and therefore we should burn you

I'm a witch? crap. thought you'd never guess.


I'd agree the numbers of users is dwindling because it is harder to learn about editing all the config files than to just use some program that costs 10 bucks and will maybe fix everything.

The best thing to do is ignore everybody else's opinions, for and against. Try it and make your own mind up.

2 members found this post helpful.

I tried Slackware back in '96/'97 then went back to Windows. In 2009 I started with Slackware again and stuck with it. I wish I would have stuck with it in '96/'97.

I've tried a few other distros and it just didn't work for me. Once you learn Slackware, you don't need any other distros because you end up doing it the Slackware way anyways.

I've tried most of the distros, redhat, debian, ubuntu, mandrake, LFS, slackware. For what it's worth, slackware is the fastest to install and setup, easiest to keep clean, most stable of the bunch. If all you want to do is install applications over and over, then uninstall them, then install another one then no, slackware probably isn't for you.

It's been my experience when introducing people to linux in general, they invariably ignore almost all the applications that are included. Which is to say, they don't realise that many if not all distros are pretty complete already and don't require the user to go and find(puchase) their own applications to get things done. In fact most distros come with multiple email clients, multiple web browser, multiple text(insert any format here) editors. The first question I get asked is "where do I get programs for this" to which I usually can answer depending on what "this" is, that there's already 5 or more applications installed to do that.

Slackware for the win!

I get the feeling that those two Slackware-bashers would just as easily do the same with Debian. Slackware and Debian are what everything else is based off of, except Fedora which is RedHat. Their mindset pretty much gives them away: "Fedora has new stuff all the time", though I bet they won't tell you how much grief running such a bleeding-edge distro REALLY gives them. Dare I say even Slackware-Current would give someone much less grief than Fedora labeled as stable?

1 members found this post helpful.

Slackware is great for learning GNU/Linux. Not only you get to see and work with a vanilla Linux kernel but you also get to see almost all the other applications just the way their developers designed and configured them, in an environment that gives you a complete working OS with no assumptions about its future use. At first, administering Slackware may seem like you have to do chores, but that will go away once you start scripting. And then you will realize that your scripts are much, much better than those written by people at [name a guified distro] (and that in spite of the fact that those people are really good at what they do) because your scripts do exactly what you need, and nothing else.

Hi,

Would you mind defining the vanilla Linux Kernel statement? Please structure the sentences a bit since the original gave me a headache trying to read for understanding.

I don't see a vanilla kernel defined anywhere in the above.

I personally wouldn't consider this a personal chat if it was in a public IRC channel but that is just me. This isn't any different then quoting Linus on this forum from a different source in my opinion.

1 members found this post helpful.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vanilla#Adjective

I was using it in a 3rd sense, meaning, more or less, "upstream". I was under an impression that the Slackware team does not modify the kernel they get from the upstream as much as a lot of other distributions. Something I read somewhere, so may be I am wrong.

To the OP: Yes. Slackware is worth learning. You will gain a deeper understanding of how an operating system works under the hood. No damn GUIs needed.

***posted from my Vista box at work***