Could you please post a link to the review?

Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3FT1vApWW0

Not the greatest review.....the part I paraphrased above was the best part; and made watching it worthwhile. [The guy was impressed that Slack has lots of nice screensavers.....LOL- although, after seeing the crap screensavers/wallpapers that come with the otherwise-great Crunchbang...I may echo his thoughts!]

[EDIT: After watching the video again now, as I posted the link.....it really is a pretty good review- Not much fluff- and covers the real important things.... which is more than I can say for many Youtube OS reviews, which are usually little more than a cataloging of what software/widgets a distro comes with.]

This would be a good read too

This is a great reference post!

Like others have mentioned, if you use sbopkg and the que files, you'll likely have most of what you need.

Any questions on that tool, feel free to ask. I can help you myself or I can point you to the tutorial that I used, but basically install sbopkg, download a zip (tar.gz?) file and then extract those files into your "que" dir ( /var/lib/sbopkg/queues - but you can change it through your ~/.sbopkg.conf file).

I've tried a lot of linux distributions and slackware was the only one that finally got me to stop dual-booting windows. Although I do miss MS Office - there is nothing like that product anywhere else.

Slackware is maintained by a single man (almost, there is small well-selected team) and it is designed to be maintainable by a single person. So you don't depend on hundreds of volunteer or corporate-paid maintainers and their questionable decision-making processes. You stay in control. Nowadays this is more important than ever.

Slackware is an offline distribution, sold on CD/DVD. Internet connectivity is not required, instead it is optional. Most current Linux distributions already depend on the "cloud" (their servers and mirrors) and are designed around the idea of an always-on connected computer. My understanding of software freedom is to be independent.

The often-mentioned dependency hell is something Slackware didn't introduce, so it's not Slackware's task to remedy it.

Slackware doesn't change basic concepts every year, it is very stable. So knowledge and experience actually keeps value, learning Slackware is worth it.

These points played an important role in my decision-making regarding Slackware. YMMV.

2 members found this post helpful.

I just check the dependencies in here:
http://www.slackel.gr/repo/x86_64/sl...t/PACKAGES.TXT
I an using slackel with openbox and I rebuild my installation.
No auto dependency check means you need to read and learn more and you will learn fast.
Slackware is very clean.

Slackware is more akin to the analogy of a gentle little puppy than a snarling foaming at the mouth wolf as it mostly is portrayed by the unlearned.

There's a reason why it's called Slack.

Go listen to The Greatful Dead's song "I will get by." It sums Slackware up both in philosophy and practice.

Posting from Debian Testing. Dependency resolution way is overrated. I have had so many packages that I do not need installed get pulled in and a lot of broken packages because of of automatic dependency resolution. Granted I'm using debian/testing, but I never had these problems using Slackware current. I cannot wait to get my desktop fixed and go back to Slackware.

You might also find this interesting:

http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:..._off_slackware

Wow! That is like the mantra of exactly what I want in an OS! ...or anything, for that matter! I started out in the Linux world with Ubuntu 10.04LTS. I KNEW it would just be a matter of time until Ubuntu would go wonky- as corporations just don't give away their products.... and it wasn't long until that came to pass and I had to abandon Ubuntu. Crunchbang is maintained by one man- but as it is built on Debian, it basically inherits it's attributes, for better or worse. Antix is maintained by one man, too- but is also reliant on Debian....and while Antix is a decent OS, the man who maintains it is a Marxist- and uses his distro to propagate such (Even including links to Marxist websites in the IceWeasel that ships with Antix). I booted-up Antix once; I'm ready to dump it, if for no other reason than I abhor Marxism! Maybe I can send my Antix CD to Obama as a "May Day" gift

From all I've seen in this thread, it looks as though Slackware is indeed founded on principles which I embrace in many aspects of my life- and to have those principles extend to one's OS, can only make for a better experience!

Since it sounds as though Slackware is the ultimate in stability and independence- I WILL learn to make it work! I avoid the "latest & greatest", and the need to "keep up" with every whim of change. I'd love to have an OS that I can install; get it to where I want it...and just leave it for 5 or 10 years and enjoy it, without constantly having to make changes which have nothing to do with my needs and wants, but which are instead necessitated by what others may need or want. I know I'm going to love Slackware!

I like that Mr. Volkerding also offers choice! While I abhor dependence on "the cloud", I do like the fract that Slackware is also available as a torrent (I'd rather get it anonymously off the web, than to send my name and address to someone). I downloaded it last night. Ready to burn an ISO! I will read the excellent installation and set-up links which were provided in this thread, first. As long as I have documentation- a manual to read- and it is not written for computer programmers/scientists, I should be pretty much self-sufficient.

And thanks to you all for those links and resources- because the info on the official Slackware site is ANCIENT- It still mentions floppy disks, LOL! (Come to think of it, that is why I avoided Slackware the first time that some of you had mentioned it to me, a while back- because I took a look at the Slackware site, and saw how ancient the info was, and figured that I'd be totally lost, trying to transpose instructions meant for Slackware 3, to Slackware 14 !!)

Youse[sic] guys have done a good job of evangelizing me! You may be sorry though, as now you will have to answer my stupid noobish questions from time to time!

Love Openbox! Love clean! I want to learn (I keep saying that- but I've been using Linux for 4 years now, and since I have to do so little with the simpler distros, I've actually forgotten things that I used to know!)

Ah! A Touch Of Gray. You'd be surprised at how often that song is playing my head- even though I was never really a fan of The Dead, I like that song!

I can't wait to get Slack installed and up and running! I am seeing that dependencey resolution does not seem to be the monster I had thought it was. And from what others have said, I may even come to find it beneficial.

Excellent! I only wish I would have seen such things sooner...as I would have not been afraid to try Slack much sooner!

One question: [the first of many, I'm sure! But hey...that's what you guys get for encouraging me )

I downloaded the DVD version of 32-bit Slack 14.

Instead of the usuasl ISO file which I am used to, there is a folder with 4 files in it.

I'm thinking that I just need to burn the .install-dvd.iso file as my instalation DVD?

If so, then what do I do with the remaining .asc; .md5; and .txt files?

Or can I put all 4 files on DVD, just so long as they're not in the folder?

(Nyah-nyah! Told ya there would be stupid noobish questions!)

Question, The Second: Reading "Ruarí's thoughts", it mentions that the official full-install DVD is 6.8GB. The ISO I downloaded is only 2.8 GB.... Is what I downloaded just a pared-down system which will put me in dependencey Hell? (I HATE it when that happens!]

A1: you only need to burn on the DVD the file ending in .install-dvd.iso.

But first download in the same directory the file ending in .md5 and run this command:If the answer is OK you can go ahead: the .iso is not corrupted.

The file ending in .asc is Patrick Volkerding's signature so you can be sure himself released the .iso. There shouldn't be a problem if you downloaded the file from an official mirror.

For the file ending in .txt, just open it in your browser to see what it is.

A2: No worries, the ISO you downloaded doesn't include the /source directory but this put aside is fully functional.

Would you need some files in the /source directory you can always download them later - or maintain a local mirror of the whole distribution, if you prefer.

You have the full iso.. its around 2.3g
when you use the dvd burning software it will only use the .iso file the md5 is used to make sure you have the correct .iso (chesum file).
The .txt file is just a file with the breakdown of the files on the dvd.