SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
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Depends what you mean by 'better'. Ubuntu is arguably easier to use and manage than Slackware, and uses slightly more up-to-date packages, but doesn't have the underlying elegance and simplicity that Slackware does. They're different, and have different strengths and weaknesses, but I'd be reluctant to say either is outright better. It all depends on what you like.
The only way you can know for sure is to put Ubuntu on a second partition, give it a try, and see which you like better.
Personally I think you're better to stick with Slack. If you're as far as having things configured and working in Slack, then its gonna be the same as any other distribution but... well... cleaner I guess cos you would have built it from the ground up.
I have to agree with others, its better to try out both and then make your mind up. If you post such threads, people usually just tell you that their favorite distro is the best giving a biased point of view.
d00msweek, Ubuntu is not better or worse, it's different. It's designed to be easy to use, to update, etc.
I would suggest you to try it and decide.. if you're a lazy guy I'll guess you should stick with Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is more suitable for a "readymade" desktop system.
Personally I found the installer too simple and doesn't give you any choices of what packages you want. Also it doesn't have KDE by default, only Gnome.
Ubuntu has some rough edges but it's basically a "desktop" Debian.
If you want to use Ubuntu, you might as well give Debian a try. Much more configurable by default than Ubuntu and Debian's repositories have a lot more packages at present.
You might get some unbaised reports here, but more likely, you'll get distro advocacy instead.
Remember that Ubuntu vs Slackware isn't Apples and Oranges, but maybe Gala Apples and Golden Delicious Apples. They're the same system, for the most part, with different installers, and base software installs.
I have both slackware and ubuntu hoary on my system.
I prefer slack because that is what I am used to. Ubuntu is very nice as well, but I use hoary and there have been many updates lately - the last of which made my ubuntu partition unbootable - some lilo error about my kernel being too big or similar (did not really read it), I'll fix it this this weekend. Odd thing is I did not upgrade the kernel so I don't know why that would happen.
apt is nice, but I don't really care about it since I'm used to just compiling what I need in slack from source. I had a much easier time getting ubuntu to work with my camera (canon powershot a95) with GTKAM and libgphoto2. It just worked out of the box so-to-speak. In slack, I had to compile both libgphoto2 and gtkam from source and even then it only worked properly as root. I need to change my usb permissions which means I have to learn how to do that - just an added pain in the ass I really did not need.
Niether distro likes my wacom graphire3. I am in the process of sorting that out - more howto reading. Having trouble with the wacom_drv module in slack and my xorg.conf file is still borking up things. I have not even begun to sort this out in ubuntu.
I like KDE and use that in slack. Ubuntu hoary has Gnome 2.10 which is really kinda nice - considering I really don't like gnome that's quite a statement. Gnome "seems" more suited to graphics in a way I cannot really put my finger on.
The root issue can be overcome quite easily, but I still believe it is a poor decision by ubuntu to do things this way.
The debian installer (I think) that ubuntu uses sucks - period, but once it's installed who cares.
No matter what I do I cannot get my nvidia drivers to work, hell even load in ubuntu - keeps failing with errors. I've never had a problem with this in any other distro I've tried. (may be the 2.6.x kernel?) . I don't use 3D in linux anyway - except for the screen savers so it's more an annoyance than a problem
Both distros have good and bad points. They are very different and a true comparison is not really possible. Just pick the one that sucks in a way you can live with.
For what it's worth, having apt get does not always make software installation and configuration easier. IMHO
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