rusty_slacker,
IIRC you can get a boot floppy image here:

http://www.slackware.com/getslack/

but I've forgotten which one it is.

hi there guys just wanted to put my 2cents in.

I first tried linux with mandrake 9.1 cos everyone said it was so easy to learn and they were right it was easy to install and get up and running. and thats when all the hidden gremlins came in to play. firstly i never really knew what was installed or not. then certain hardware refused to work correctly. and trying to find answers quickly led nowhere coz none of the programs i downloaded to help would compile and even many rpms would not install. i still don't understand why. pbbly because the guys at mandrake modify the kernel and programs so heavily. even kernel recompiles never worked.

so i kinda left linux for a while.

then i got slackware 10 and i remebered what guys said about it only being for the guys who were old school and uber hacker types. let me tell you it might be a bitch to configure and finding those config files might mean you gotta read up and research but its the easiest distro i've tried. within a week i had my nvidia driver working, which never worked on mandrake. i've now figure out how to mount my usb flash disk, which never responded in mandrake or suse. let me tell you i ran around for days reading up and trying stuff out but not once did my machine break down or crash and now that it works i feel great.

also because the src code an files are kept standard compiling new programs with dependencies works first time every time. which i love. the feeling of power that slack gives you when it works is awesome.

plain and simple slack works. no ifs ands or buts. and when guys post saying that these are the commands and the outputs you know that you will see that on your slack machine unlike heavily modded distros.

so take the time, load slack, learn the system and the config files. in the end you will not regret it.

I say slack all the way!!!!!

It is interesting, all this. When I took up beekeeping, and sailing and various other activities throughout my life the first thing I would do was go to the library and read up all I could on the subject before ever manhandling a bee or jumping into a boat. I'm sure I am not alone in taking this approach. We are, however, encouraged to view computing quite differently, thanks to the Windows technique of "Just keep pressing buttons until what you want to happen happens - you cannot break anything". Microsoft specifically encourages customers NOT to learn anything, but just to do as they are told - by guess who.

I found Mandrake good after Windows, for precisely this reason. I now find Slackware better because it is simpler to operate and easier to understand - once you take the trouble to 'go to the library'. I am ensuring that my children 'learn' the incredibly complex subject of computing before they fiddle with the incredibly complex and expensive computer. They are being taught to 'learn what you are doing; you CAN break things horribly'.

It does not seem so complex when you look at it like that. It strikes me that Windows has done the world a big favour by bringing computing to we ignorant peasants, but an equal disservice by making us believe that we do not have to trouble to learn about it. Driving a car requires learning; so does computing.

Slackware's installer is fine as it is. I enjoy the clean functional simplicity of the installer.

Most graphical installers of the "fancy" distros like SUSE come up with a 60Hz flickering graphical screen due to having to use the safest settings possible

This hurts my eyes and sucks a$$.

ncurses all the way for installation !

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You keep bees? Me, too. Or, at least, I'm a wannabee beekeeper (my first colony deserted me). If you want to enable PM, I might like to ask your advice. Thanks.

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