Slackware at home?
 

Hello Slackers,

I use Slackware at the office and I love it: my system there is "stripped down" in the sense that I prefer functionality, no multimedia to speak of, and I spend all my time in XEmacs and Eterm. I use Enlightenment DR17 and everything works fine.

On the other hand, I use PCLinuxOS at home , since there we also use the computer for entertainment -- watching DVD movies, making movies of our son and other such stuff (publisher-type stuff, my wife uses OpenOffice for presentations, etc.)

Do any of you use Slackware in this latter fashion, as a home system, amenable to scientific use as well as multimedia and everyday use?

I feel like Slackware is so much easier to administrate because (a) it is actually simpler and (b) the documentation is better; PCLinuxOS is "home-grown" and thus the documentation disappoints me; there is no analogue of the Slackbook. I also do work from home pretty regularly and I just really prefer Slackware. PCLinuxOS, as much of a fan as I am, has been fouling up lately (the GUI components that are supposed to be so easy are just not functioning). However, my wife has to use the computer too, and although she's no longer an Emacs virgin, she has other things on her mind than becoming a Power User.

Tell me your experiences; I'm unaware of how Slackware performs in homes bcecause I've always used it as a scientist.

Thanks,
Joel

Yep, I use Slack on my laptop on the road as well as my desktop box at home. Slack can be used in any way you want.

For multimedia just add the apps and codecs you need. I watch DVDs on my laptop just about every night.

Me too, use it for my everyday computing needs, watch dvds and even made my own livecd that installs and also have a full version of 11 that is live cd as well.

I just love howstable and less cluttered slackware is compared to a lot of other distros, even though I do use other distros I seem to keep coming back to slackware all the time.

I don't understand why some people think a certain distro can do something no other distro can do. This is just wrong. Linux is Linux, no matter what distro it is. You can do anything on any distro. The only question is how easy is it do the same thing on different distros, and how stable the distro is, and ... so on ...

I use Slackware for everything. Work, play, video editing, burning CD/DVD, watching movies, listening to music, games, ... everything. None of my computers will EVER endure the torture of M$ ever again. Also, I can't really recommend anything but Slackware, because other distros are just not good enough ...

Yes,

I use Slackware 11 on my home desktop computer as a full home system. The computer is a Pentium III-800 that I bought in August of 2000. I watch DVDs using Kaffeine, which I downloaded and installed using a script from SlackBuilds.org. I've also downloaded and install Open Office and a few games from Slackbuilds.org.

I've got OpenSUSE 10.2 on my laptop, but I've only had it on there for a week and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'd be happy if I could get my wireless card working. :(

Anyway, I'm in my last month of grad school, and Slackware with Open Office has been working just fine for my thesis. DVDs work well, and DOS Box plays some cool old DOS games I've got pretty well.

Regards,

-Drew

Here to
 

have slackware on all 5 systems here too. running full tv mediacenter though one pc. (although i had to have someone else set that up :p) still love it on the other systems. even have removed winblows (including windblows pista) for it.

I agree and I think that's what the OP was actually asking about.

lol
 

Well it is the slackware forum. we might be a little biased here ;)

Heh, just a little methinks;-)
My favourite distro will always be Slackware.:D

Oh, ok then ... go with Slackware :D

Slackware: the desktop-server-ping-pong-friendly distro
 

Exactly! I LOVE it. That's what makes using my current home system so difficult ;)

The question is really DO people use it for home use/all-around use, rather than CAN -- I know I could do anything I want with Linux -- well, Slackware makes me feel that way anyway ;)

To Mr. TexMex: I agree with you, however you're probably just as aware as I am that certain distros tout themselves as "Desktop Friendly" and that Slackware has a certain reputation. I don't listen to those people as I love Slackware. Slackware doesn't have to promote itself as one thing or another, just the truth: it's good. On the other hand, the desktop friendly distro is turning out to be less friendly in terms of getting it to work.

Thanks to all the people who wrote in -- and keep on doing so if you have more to add.

Joel

Yep, I use Slackware for home use and have done for a few years now.

Me too. I use Slackware only at home and wouldn't use anything else anymore.

Yes. I've been using Slackware at home since version 10.0:-)
I love the stability of Slackware. It is almost boring as nothing ever breaks.:D

Just mess with it enough and it will break. I do :D

All the family
 

I use Slackware at home (it's a homemade 11.0 personalized version). My MOTHER uses it too. And also my brother. Games, music, video, Windoze programs and games via Wine. The only thing that still doesn't run on Slackware is PristonTale.

Before Slackware my mother didn't use the PC. Now she does it at all times (which is not so good for me as I have to wait watching TV or use the laptop). Not mentioning that my brother uses Apollon...

My girlfriend uses Slackware at home too. She's addicted to SuperTux, FrozenBubble and some other games.

Btw
 

It's a desktop AND a server. It hosts my mother's website, plus a website of mine (which I use for testing purposes), plus MySQL and PostgreSQL, plus Tomcat. Normally running KDE. I am the only console user, all my family normally uses the graphical login. It normally has Amarok running all the time.

I have 512 MB of RAM and -surprisingly- I almost never run out of memory. (custom kernel, no swap).

It is stable and solid. Healthy (we haven't had to deal with viruses for years). Personally, I think Slackware is the best OS for a home desktop.

With the big inconvenience that I can't use it as a testing center anymore and I normally have to use my laptop for those games (I have to wait for my parents to go on a trip to compile KDE).

I use Slackware as home desktop since version 8.0. Just I like it! My 5-year-old son too!

I use Slack 11 for home as a regular desktop since 10.0. I use it to do audio ripping, video encoding plus regular desktop work like photo editing, finance management, playing dvds etc. Apart from this, I use it as a headless server and a mythtv box connected to TV. The point being you can use it to do anything.

You will have to add additional packages after initial install.

I know! After using it for a few weeks at work, I found myself sitting there thinking "Hey, how come I never go into root mode anymore?" So, I had to install some software just to satisfy the urge.

Joel

Wow: thanks for the great follow-ups. Now I just have to find the right time to do it...if the PCLinuxOS folks can get their act (i mean, server) together, they might have a chance.

Joel

What can I say? I've been using Slackware as a desktop for many years. Be it icewm, fluxbox, xfce, or even kde. It's fast. It doesn't get any better.

I've been using linux as a desktop since forever. Starting w/ Slackware, then Redhat, then Debian, also played w/ FreeBSD, DesktopBSD, NetBSD, and Zenwalk, etc. Then I went back to Slackware where I'm staying for good at home.

On the topic of keeping things simple, I personally like to stick to hand editing .xinitrc and .Xresources, using tools like xset, and using xorgconfig or hand-editing xorg.config, very much in the Slackware style, as opposed to depending on "session managers" or "control panels".

All kinds of multimedia and games available at linuxpackages.net, sourceforge.net, freshmeat.net, and happypenguin.org.

My current desktop...
And hot keys...

I've re-installed Slackware 11 on my extra partition -- removing PCLinuxOS Test Release 2 -- and I'm slowly setting it up. I may just set it up and then switch the /home partition over (anything I should watch out for when doing that?). It's going well, I'm just getting the networking set up.

Little by little, it's coming together.

Now, the funny thing is that this time I did the FULL installation, and there was no fiddling with xorg or anything. Everything worked right off the bat, which was weird, since I remember doing lots of configuration for my other two installations of Slackware (one at work, the other on the same home computer).

I'm with you seandon4, I would rather simply edit the files, which was why PCLinuxOS was giving me such a headache. I was sitting there thinking "If this was Slackware, I would just go to rc.d and change one line and be done with it..."

Joel

Here 2
 

Slackware was the only distro here i could get to install from the old amd400, athelon, and the amd64 and it ran perfectly, think the only mod i needed was to setup udev and the cdroms. Of course the biggest program incompatabilities i have encountered are the slackware + my modifications. :)

slackware is all i use. from desktop to server.. it does everything i want, from multimedia to well.. anything.

Hi Everybody, thanks for the excellent discussion. I've been using Slackware at home for two weeks, and finally upgraded our internet connection and I'm at the stage of installing some more software (digikam, etc).

It's working great -- it's so much more customizable than PCLinuxOS, or at least it feels that way. Many of the things that I thought were programmed in source turn out to be KDE level customizations. My Slackware setup at home feels a lot more like I'm responsible for something cool.

Joel

My home pc uses Slack and does mostly everything I need.

I watch DVDs with the output pumped to TV and HiFi.
I make mods for Unreal Tournament and it is excellent for coding.
I sometimes run a UT server.

And for more normal use I use it for web/newsgroups/irc/email/gaming etc.
Use it for office tasks like domestic bills using OpenOffice and writing letters with LyX.

I use Slackware v10.2 as a server and v11.0 as a workstation.

Server install wasn't that hard with some help from other people here on the forum, best suggestion I have for setting up a Slackware box is to print out your custom config files and any instructions that you needed to set something up, after several months you forget what you did.

The server is an old AMD K6-2 550Mhz box with 256megs of ram, it runs DHCP, DNS, and our broadband Internet connection to a collection of Windows and Slackware PCs, it also shares a laser printer to everyone on the network. It just replaced the Windows server I had been using which needed constant rebooting due to a memory hole in something that I never figured out, that system was a Pentium III 500 with 384 megs of ram. So, an older system with a better OS doing the same job with less resources.

The workstation is an Athlon 900Mhz, after three massive Spyware infestations on the teenager's Windows 2k workstation the teenagers in the house are only allowed to surf on the Slackware PC, problem solved. They still use the 2k box for things that only run on Windows (it is a WAY better PC as well), that PC is just no longer allowed on the network.

I'm at home right now, and I'm using Slackware. :)

I use Slack at home, dual-boot with Windows 98SE. There are still a few things that I have to run on Windows, and I refuse to go to XP or Vista, hopefully there will be comparable apps soon so I can get rid of Windows. I am retired, before that I worked on MVS, IBM's mainframe OS, at work. I tried several other distributions before settling on Slack, Red Hat, Mandrake, and Debian, been on Slack since 10.0.

A few suggestions on things that have helped me:

Keep EVERYTHING you need to do an install (other than the ISO CD) on a separate partition like /mnt/hda4. This includes downloads of source for things you compile, your kernel .config, xorg.conf, fonts you want to add, everything. That makes it quick and easy to re-install if you have to.

Part B of the above is, make good notes, keep them up to date, keep a machine readable copy but also make a printed copy. It should be detailed enough that you know exactly what you have to do. For example, here are my notes on freetype:

Extract Freetype to /tmp and edit /tmp/freetype-x.x.x/include/freetype/config/ftoption.h and look for the line
/* #define TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER */
Uncomment it, save it then compile it using ./configure --prefix=/usr

That can save you a lot of hassle and wasted time next time you do an install. My notes now are 2 full pages printed with 9pt font.

One other thing...make a "barebones" kernel, and add it in to LILO. That can save a lot of hassle if you hose up your kernel (which you WILL :-) ) Build it WITHOUT module support, and include just enough to get up and running. It should not be bigger than about 1.3mb, so it will fit on a floppy, both as a bootable disk and also as a DOS floppy, handy at install time because you can then use your own custom mini-kernel rather than one from the distribution.

Hope this saves somebody some time.

Dear forum sticky-makers, the last couple posts make this a candidate.

Joel