Fedora v13 should prove to be a very good choice for your relatives. I say this as actual experience has shown me that Slackware is without question one of the worst Linux OS systems currently available and support for Slackware is worse yet, essentially non-existant and what little there is will prove to be close to useless offerings.

Just my opinion ...

tyc

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The machine I'm setting up for them is a mess, and there are no restore disks etc. that my aunt could find, so, I told her I'd set it up with linux for them, if they want windowsXP back, and she can get a copy, then I'll set it up for her, but, I have my slackware disks already, and she told me she wants me to just clean out the hdd and put a fresh OS on there for them (after I backup her pics and such to a disk).


Why do you think Slackware is one of the worst Linux OS available?
It's been the best, in my experience, I switched over from using primarily fedora to using slackware on all my systems,

Fedora with its 6 month update cycles and constant package dependency issues would be a horrible choice for this purpose. OpenSUSE would be a better suggestion - at least that has an 18 month lifetime.

Personally, I find Slackware is what you make of it, which is why I run it. Pat and his band of helpers are a very small operation. You simply can't expect much in the way of support from them. Thankfully the helpful folk who live in this forum try and fill the gap as best they can and for the most part it works out quite well.

It's the overall experience that counts, and for me it's been mostly positive.

He had a bad experience back in March.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...roblem-795807/

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I've used Fedora and Slackware and I must respectfully disagree with you. If you want a stable system that has little or no down time I would go with Slackware. Fedora is more bleeding edge than Slackware, with a short 6 month release cycle. The people who are receiving the new unit want a stable system, that they can use without fiddling with it a lot.
I've used most of the distros out there and I think that Slackware tops the list for me; Slackware is stable, secure, and speedy.
The Slackware developers regularly post in this forum; I think that the support given in this forum is second to none(we do expect that Slackware users will do some leg work here.)

The availability of GNOME software should be a consideration. Even with GnomeSlackBuild installed, I've found it impossible to install gtkglextmm, which VisualBoyAdvance-Merge requires for is GTK GUI.

(And yes, I know you can build VisualBoyAdvance-Merge without its GTK GUI. That's a less ideal solution).

Hi,

Your right to a opinion but can you support the statements about Slackware that you made? Compared to what? Support for Slackware is great. Check out the official Slackware forum. Oh! I forget that's where we are. Troll!

@tyc
I didn't think Fedora is a good choice. That distro is a testing lab for RHEL. If someone likes to be volunteer tester then go ahead and use Fedora.

Agreed, one of the reasons I switched over from fedora as my distro of choice is because a few programs consistently crashed (most notably Empathy), and the updates occasionally broke parts of my system - if I give them a fedora machine I'd have to do a lot of damage control and disable the automatic updates to make sure the system stayed on it's feet when I'm not around, with slackware I've yet to see anything crash, or anything break after updates, etc.

Considering this machine is primarily for school, and surfing the 'net, Stability and ease of maintenance is a huge factor, they don't need the latest and greatest, they just need it to work, and I just need to be able to keep it working with as few headaches as possible.

So, I think Slackware will be my best choice.
I can set up everything I need from slackbuilds and the native package management without the occasional (although, I admit rare) headaches I've had from yum or apt being a concern, and I've never had a problem compiling from source on slackware.
All the administrative and maintenance work will be up to me anyway, including package management, so the repos that come with fedora, ubuntu, etc. wouldn't be all that helpful anyway.
I've been toying with one of my own slackboxes to see how well it'll work, and so far I think KDE with runlevel 4 for the GUI log-on screen, and koffice with firefox as the default browser etc. is going to be more than enough for what they need. (it's actually the same age/type of computer, only in slightly rougher shape - I got it from my grandmother when she decided she wanted to replace it - so I get to see how well the hardware handles everything I plan to do, even.)

From the last Slackware-related thread:

The moderators have told you once before...

You are not, in any way, helping. Those who can read and learn how to use the command-line (and understand what they are doing when they do so) will have little trouble with Slackware. That doesn't mean they will *like* it -- that's subjective. You, however, are basing your opinion of Slackware on your inability to get it to work -- and instead of blaming yourself for jumping in head first without bothering to learn the Linux command-line or reading about the philosophies of Slackware, you have decided to blame the distribution itself. There are plenty of us that enjoy using Slackware, and plenty that don't. You don't. We get it. You don't need to come in here and spam FUD every time you see an opportunity. Why do you continue to visit the Slackware boards?

Be happy with Fedora; it's not a bad distribution. But if it was the *only* distribution, I would be using Windows.

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to try and get this thread back towards the topic:
I set up the machine with slackware13.1 and made limited user accounts for everyone.
set the inittab to default runlevel 4, using KDE's login manager to make it look a bit less scary when the system finishes booting (I kept the transparent boot process though). KDE is a tad slow to start up but once it gets running it's still faster than the old windowsXP install was.
my aunt hasn't come by to pick it up yet so I don't know how her kids are going to take to it, yet.

no difficulties on the install, no funky hardware or compatibility issues, everything worked out of the box, which is always nice.

I'd recommend OpenOffice before the KDE office suit. OpenOffice is very good as a drop in MSoffice replacement until you have to start sharing documents between the two computers. If they need to hand in digital copies of their work, just export it to pdf first and hand that in. Alternatively, go for the hard copy.

In terms of Slackware itself, my experience is that once its been properly set up for your general user, ie. flash has been installed, net configured, preferred apps have been set up etc, everything is fine and the user shouldn't have to jump into the console in their day to day life.

Please don't feed the troll. I'd hate to see another thread derailed by a rant about slackbuilds and openoffice.

It all depends on which level of access the person using the machine has.
I do all my work on my Slackware machine and sent PDFs when it was something I needed to be platform-independent like resumes. Everyone in my family could use my machine to do the things I do.
I would not, however, suggest that everyone should install Slackware or configure it. I have complete faith that I can set up a machine that will run for years on end without fail; as long as my users use the interfaces I provide them with, things won't crack. The second people get creative, though, all is lost.

When their experience and knowledge increase they will begin to understand the beauty of Slackware... it is to be hoped. !

I love it...