First off, I'm using Vectorlinux 5.8 (gold standard etc. etc.) at the moment, and as thats based on slackware, I figured I'd see how it goes running slackware, so here it goes, my list of questions about slackware:

1. Will I be able to play all my mp3s, WMAs, and WMVs under slackware, and will it be hard to fix if I can't?

2. I looked at the walkthorugh of the installation of slackware on it's home site, and it looked a mite confusing...is it really? I can do parttioning etc, and this question is pure laziness, although if it wants to stay true to K.I.S.S then if the install is hard, well, you know, it wouldn't be too hot for its cred in my books....

3. What is the package mangement like under slackware? (ie. Ubuntu's "package manager" [gui for apt-get]- will it sort out dependancies for me or will I have to hunt them down myself, I'm not averse to this, it's just a bit annoying)

4. In the install, can it run a usb keyboard or do I have to use a standard ps/2 one? again, laziness.

If any/all of these qs can be answered, I would be much indebted to you, thanks in advance.

All types of video can be played. This is not distro specific, it simply depends on having the mplayer codecs installed.

The installation can be confusing but as long as you can partition using fdisk or cfdisk you should be fine. A walkthrough is here: http://www.bitbenderforums.com/vb22/...?postid=311808

Slackware doesn't handle dependencies. The package management is very simple. You can install, upgrade, remove any slackware package (..tgz), but it won't install anything else. It's better that way, but there are third party apps such as slaptget. Any official slackware packages won't have dependencies. Packages from places like linuxpackages.net, dependencies are usually listed and available.

Not sure about the usb keyboard. It may need extra parameters.

If you enable USB Keyboard in the BIOS (tho it probably is already enabled), then you can change the kernel to boot in the setup CD.
If you boot the default (bare.i) then you needn't bother, since it'll load automatically.

thanks guys, hopefully thisll make the install less painful, and I can partition the disk using fdisk (had to do this for vector install) so that should be ok. COuld I get the codecs for windows media/propriatry media formats from the standard slackware 11.0 repos?

thanks a bunch guys.

You can get them from the mplayer website.
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/rele...061022.tar.bz2

Or there's a package at www.linuxpackages.net

Or you can get a package from www.slackbuilds.org

Remember to read the documentation in each case. If you get them from the mplayer website, all you actually have to do is unpack the archive:

tar -xjvf all-20061022.tar.bz2

and then copy them to an approriate place. Whichever media player you decide to use will need them, and you may have to tell it where they are for them to work.