Swaret / Slapt-get
 

I just converted to Slackware from Fedora Core 3. I got hooked on Slackware by using Slax, what a great Live CD! Anyway, I'm wanting people's opinions on which is better, swaret, or slapt-get.
I just started using slapt-get, because I heard of it first, and it seems pretty good, especially with the addition of Gslapt for a frontend, but not as good as yum, with yum extender in FC3. I haven't used swaret yet, but it sounds good as well. I'm wondering which is most preferred, and why. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

as they both cannot read and interpret the changelogs,
i prefer the "my own brains " & "pkgtools " combo.

egag

What egag said.

My version is: Changelogs>>ftp>>pkgtools

I voted Other.
I use cron rsync to get slack-current nightly
then upgradepkg *.tgz the relevant changes
When wanting an additional slack binary package installed, I cd to my rsync repository and install it.

I subscribe to the changelog list to know if I need to rsync for security updates.

Take a look at the forum with the search function and you'll know the result of the poll.

I use slapt-get, but I don't know if I prefer over others because I haven't tried others.

I use slapt-get...

I used swaret for a bit. Unlike some people here, I've have not had any issues with it.

I tried slapt-get, and just liked it better then swaret.




To keep up to date, I have a script that updates the package database, then downloads any package that is out of date from a mirror with swaret, this is done every week via cron. Easy as pie.

I too use pkgtools and my brain. If I was to use a distro with a tool doing the thinking for me, I'd probablly go with Gentoo and Portage.

dittos on pkgtool and brains..............if one does a forum search on "swaret".......you'll see swaret has caused more problems than it has solved................this is one reason why Pat V. does NOT support using swaret at all....(hence he took it out of the ISO altogether)..........

I never used slapt-get, but Swaret works great for me. . . just don't forget to make sure that aaa_, kernel, and alsa are blacklisted like it says on the Swaret website (I think aaa_ and kernel are blacklisted by default, but alsa is not).

I've had a few *minor* problems, namely one from me not knowing I was supposed to blacklist alsa (bye, bye sound, but otherwise no biggie) and from a hotplug update that caused Slack to not recognize my USB hard drive (but I think that had more to do with the software than Swaret because, an update later, the problem was fixed).

You know what I love? It's gotten to the point where even SLACKWARE is trying to imitate Debian and the great, indomitable APT-GET. First Redhat and YUM, now Slackware....and could it be mre OBVIOUS? SLAPT-GET?

Hahaha!!! Debian has conquered the WORLD!! Bwa ha ha! :)

1) If Debian's so much better, why do you use Hoary, Fedora 4, and Novell OES?
2) That doesn't mean that Debian's better. Slackware doesn't come with a tool for automatic updates - which is why I use Swaret. If it implies ANYTHING about the actual OS, I think it implies that Debian's horrible but has a nice update tool.

Actually, right before installing Slack 10.1 I tried installing Debian and it automatically set me up with KDE 2.something. What's up with that - I was installing the most recent version at the time, and that was when KDE 3.2 or 3.3 was already out.
And some people call Slackware outdated. . .?:scratch:

I was new to Slackware guys and succesfully installed Current. I used swaret and it caused problems with the update. I'm sure it was my lack of knowledge that screwed up more than swaret. Then I used slapt-get with no problems. But to be honest, I tried so hard to get amaroK installed from source and from pkg using my brains and I just could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I gave up.

I have been using SuSE 9.3 (no messing around allowed because I work and live from this OS) and Fedora C4(learn linux and practice). I thought I was ready and I guess not or I gave up too soon.

1. Hoary is Debian Workstation as far as most are concerned. Novell OES is a great, commercial-supported server and some of my clients prefer an actual company behind a product. And Fedora...uses apt-get. It's in their "extras' repository. :cool: Like I said, Debian has conquered the world. Even Fedora caved. ;)

You were installing the most recent version? As in 3.0r6? As in Woody? That would be KDE2. It's fairly old. Most people were using the development version of 3.1, also known as Sarge. It was recently released as the official, new stable version. KDE3. You see, there's 3 versions of Debian at any one time...stable, testing (being worked on and getting close to stable) and unstable, where the new, most bleeding-edge stuff is. The most recent stable is different from the most recent testing.

Actually. . . doesn't Fedora use that Red Hat update system thing in the system tray? If that's based on apt-get, then FC "caved" before it existed - this tool was first used in Red Hat Linux, before they branched off the free version as the Fedora Project.

Either way, IMO Fedora collapsed long ago. Never really did like it.

Wow. . . how much testing does it need? Most other distros have had KDE3 in their stable versions for a while now. . . In fact, by that time, most of them had KDE3.3.
What on Earth does Debian need THAT much testing for? I can understand being a little behind, but wow. . .

It's based on yum (Yellow-Dog Updater Modified, borrowed from Yellow Dog, obviously), not apt-get. Apt-get is not installed in Fedora by default. There's no reason for it because yum is just as good. Actually, in my opinion, yum is better.
I personally really like Fedora. It's always worked really well for me. It was the first distro I ever used, and it took me very little time to learn how to use it. I actually learned a lot about Linux by using Fedora.
I only left it for two reasons. One, I felt like a change. Two, I felt I would learn more about Linux on Slackware.