I have been using MDK for awhile now, since 8.0. I bought MDK 9.2 and Slack 9.0 and am wondering if I should switch. I have the hardest time compiling from source in RPM-based systems. Would it be easier to compile form source in a source-based system like Slack? Also, since I have a retail version of Slack, would it be pretty easy to upgrade to Slack 9.1 that just came out. I would also like to add the 2.6.3 kernel which I haven't been able to do under MDK. Would that go any smoother with Slack. Any other reasons to switch?

Thanks,
Ted.

slackware is not exactly source based. Compile problems are usually due to this or that package missing and you can expect similar things happening in Slack.

What you can do in mandrake is to install the developer tools when you install it (you can probably re-install and choose to 'upgrade' and then have devel packages installed). This will get around a lot of problems though not all.

Also, in mandrake use urpmi whenever you can. It can take care of dependencies so you don't have to deal with manually installing packages that you still need. Since you have purchased mandrake, I believe you have access to the Rpm repositories at mandrake club. There are also instructions how to set up urpmi so it can access the files online.

BTW, even though I run on mandrake 9.1., recently I have installed a lot from the sources and have also replaced a lot of the rpms with stuff compiled from sources. At first, there are problems with this or that missing, but after a while you'll have pretty much everything in place. and for exotic things, the documentation usually says what's needed and where it can be downloaded from. I have to come to a point where rpm is unusable on my mandrake installation.

Only you can answer that question. Throw Slack on an extra machine or another hard drive. Try it out and come to your own conclusion. I don't really think anyone else can answer that for you. I personally have left MDK and am now running Slackware. Here is why I made the change:

1. RPM dependency hell was really starting to tick me off. MDK issued an update for XFree last fall and some of the mirrors got out of whack. I did a urpmi to upgrade and it blew away a bunch of stuff on my system. I knew I shouldn't have let it delete files when it was asking but I figured the system knew more than I did. I was so wrong.
2. Slackware is pretty much from source, from what I understand. There isn't a lot of monkeying around with packages like other distros do.
3. There are tools that will do installs of software with depency checking if you really want it, slapt-get is my preference.
4. Slackware only contains solid, proven software. MDK is a bleeding edge distribution and you can get some interesting situations with it.
5. Slackware is a streamlined distribution. It loads and runs faster for me than MDK ever did.
6. It just works. I've royally messed up a MDK system and a Slackware system. The Slackware system was much easier to fix. Simply reinstall a package or two and I was back in business. When you start using --force with RPMS you know your days are numbered.

I'll never go back to MDK. I've played around with a lot of distributions and Slackware is what I've settled on.

Thanks for the replies. The problem I often have with compiling from source is that it doesn't tell you what it wants; just a bunch of C code error messages. The last time I used Slack, it seems like installs were easier. Maybe I'll give it another try now that I have more experience with Linux.

Have a good one,
Ted.

I made the switch from MDK9.0 to Slack 9.0 and have since upgrade to 9.1 using swaret. My main PC is a PII 333 and I find it much more responsive using Slack. The swaret tool is so easy to use and combines very nicely when compliling from source. Rather than using "make install" there is a tool called "checkinstall". This creates a .tgz package that is installed on your system and recognised by your system. The end result is a package system that knows where everything is.

Sounds like Slack has pretty good package management. All I remember is pkgtool which also seemed to work pretty well. The only trouble I had installing Slack the first time was getting my monitor set up, but I'm an old hat at setting up hardware now; I should be able to do it without any trouble.

Thanks,
Ted.