SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
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O.K. I think I am almost at the point where I am fed up with Fedora. I have been disappointed that since Fedora Core 1 the installation program can't do a complete installation without crashing, causing one to do a minimal installation and download from repositories (why get the whole 5 iso's if you can only use 1 1/2). Now, Fedora Core 6 won't even boot up! I am seriously considering making Slackware my main distro. I have used it on a part-time basis for about the past year, and I have liked what I have seen. Not nearly as hard to install and use as some would make you believe. And the best part is that it always works.
Now the question I have is what are Slackware's capabilities with multimedia? Things I would like to do with it are: scanning images with HP AIO, photo editing with GIMP and similar programs, listen to some audio (mp3, ogg vorbis, real player, quicktime, etc.), possibly some video editing (professional level), etc. Is this easy to do with Slackware? The one thing I liked about Fedora is that it tended to be focused on multimedia (sometimes). I don't necessarily feel like tweaking config file after config file just to run xmms or mplayer properly. Minor configuration is okay, but I don't want this to turn into a doctoral project. Any advice?
xmms is included and won't need configuration to run. Mplayer is not included with Slackware, but there are already precompiled packages in sites such as http://linuxpackages.net or a SlackBuild script to easily compile it your serlf http://www.slackbuilds.org
Regarding editing configuration files, well.. you'll need some of them, but there are a few.
Regarding editing configuration files, well.. you'll need some of them, but there are a few.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against editing config files. It is just I just don't seem to have the motivation to edit them for mulitmedia programs. It's strange, because I'll edit them happily to setup up firewalls, window manager settings, etc. It is just with multimedia programs, I don't have the desire - I just want it to work (maybe it has to do with some bad experiences trying to get some music notation and authoring programs to work in Fedora).
As far as the other programs - I have never used SANE or its frontends (just got the AIO) - is it hard to use or configure? How well does the GIMP (my primary image editor) work in Slackware? What other audio programs are there for Slackware - specifically to listen to stored and streaming audio and to convert files from format to format (e.g. mp3 to ogg). And, I would like to really know about the video editing programs available. I have never really explored this, but the possibility for some freelance work for a video production company has come up and I need professional grade programs (free as in freedom and cost if possible).
getting multimedia playback is a lot easier for slackware than in fedora (in my opinion). there is a SlackBuild script at slackbuilds.org for mplayer-codecs-all. thats pretty much it... really simple.
getting multimedia playback is a lot easier for slackware than in fedora (in my opinion). there is a SlackBuild script at slackbuilds.org for mplayer-codecs-all. thats pretty much it... really simple.
Is there a way to get realplayer and quicktime playback in a web browser - I generally use Firefox.
Yeah, go with mplayer-plugin, it will play pretty much any movie embedded in a web page. (there's also a gxine-mozilla plugin which comes with slackware, and it works well too)
First I will start by telling you that now you NEED to edit some files by hand... but wait, there are plenty of sites from where you can pick samples. Besides, you will need to do it once (yes, only once). After that you might spend the next 4-5 months adding stuff to your Firefox bookmarks.
1) As you might have noticed, installing TGZs is easier than installing RPMs. Slackware doesn't have deps tracking, which is good and faster but needs a bit of care when upgrading something.
2) I advice you to visit Shilo's site. There you will find very useful stuff.
4) GIMP does work very well in Slackware. For the audio you can use Audacity (the prepackaged TGZ -that one and many others- is available at www.linuxpackages.net).
5) Strange as it sounds, Slackware might require less configuration time than other distros (given the fact that you have to do that only once). My mother uses Slackware and so far she's happy with it.
HI!
5) Strange as it sounds, Slackware might require less configuration time than other distros (given the fact that you have to do that only once).
i have only seriously been using linux for maybe 9 months and always thought it was considered an "advanced" distro. dude its so much easier and simpler and stable than the other prepackaged, beginner distros. ill just say i was pleasantly surprised.
def a big slackware fan now. i cant really say anything bad about it.
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