Hi.

I'm relatively new to Linux but I've really enjoyed learning about it. I really want to learn everything about using Linux, how it works and how to customise everything myself.

I've not tried that many distros though. First I tried all the 'newbie' distros like Mandrake, Red Hat and SuSE, but I noticed Gentoo and Slackware which both looked really interesting. I eventually chose Gentoo first because the portage system looked really cool. The length and difficulty of the installation surprised me after what I was used to, but I got it finished with no major crap-ups. I now really like Gentoo, the whole portage thing is great and I get noticeably better performance than the other distros I've tried.

Anyway, I've obviously not come to the Slackware forum to praise Gentoo . I've read posts all over the place about people who have tried Slackware and found it to be the best distro ever, no matter what else they try, Slackware is always best. What I want to ask is, what makes Slackware so great? How is it better than other distros like Gentoo, and, most importantly, is Slackware for me from what I've said? Ok, thanks.

i think gentoo and slack are very similiar.. if you are up and going with gentoo... and you did a stage 1 or 2 install... stick with that.

if you did a stage 3, i would recommend giving slackware a try as well.

I started as you did with the newbie distros.. and i finally gave slack a try... i dont know what to say about it that i like most or dont like.. but i know I will not be trying any other distros.

thanks:trey

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=18393

Been asked a lot, and this thread has 68 replies

Peace,
Whitehat

Apparently, Slackware Linux is what the hip cats of today consider cool, cool daddio.
I've loved Slackware Linux ever since I was 13 and ambitious to get rid of windows... Well, it just plain rocks!

Hey that makes me a cool cat!

I think its the stability, simplicity, and also the user base partly on this forum that I went back to slackware after trying many other distro's myself. I would pick up other distro's to try but I would always stay with slack.

A lot has to do with what you are looking for or expect in a Linux OS................For me, Slack is fast and efficient, and I'm learning about Linux in general by leaps and bounds using Slack..........but that's me.

Slack doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles out of the box, like a few of the others, but that doesn't mean you can't add anything yourself..........and learn in the process when adding things. By doing it yourself, you may learn how to deal with problems that might arise in the future more effectively.

Also, Slack is based on BSD, in general layout, which means if I decide to try one of those, it'll be less of a learning curve.

That's what makes it so great for me.

KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!.
that's the main principle. Unpatched software, compiled with default options, no package manager which thinks it knows better.
Slackware is easy to understand (if you'll take the time getting to know Slack), predictable behaviour when compiling software, stable and fast. It's easy to customize if you wanted to.
I just LOVE it

For me I try it and I am STUCK.

Well I originaly used red hat 7, terrible, didnt work.
a few months later I got mandrake 9;
and well i have to say that was just swell, linux was in my life to stay.
Then i moved to slackware 9; found it to difficult to configure so i moved to mandrake 9.1, then 9.2
and now 9.2 turned out to be quite buggy adn i was in rpm hell.
and my new sweetheart(slack 9.1) came along and swept me off my feet.

its stable, its open, its VERY WELL ORGANISED,its secure
and i will only ever use source install from now on.
And the menu based xconfig tool that doesnt need x, just wonderful.
(anytime i needed to configure x in mandrake was because it didnt work, so the nice gui config tool was no use(and im afraid of scripts).
but with slack, you can use a menu driven x config tool when x isnt working!
its a bit scary using slack at first; but give it time and your hooked.

You're kidding. Are there REALLY distros that use something as daft as an X configurator that only works if X is working??

What I like about Slack is the simple knowledge that if anything goes wrong, it's (a) fixeable, and (b) probably my fault for screwing it up.

Knowing that the flaws are not an intrinsic part of the OS is a refreshing change from Windows 98

Slackware is a vortex that beckons all Linux users. If you ever get close enough to actually try it the vortex sweeps you off your feet and accelerates you into freedom in a way that prevents you from ever turning back. I have tried Red Hat, Mandrake, Caldera, and BSD and Slackware lured me away from all of them.

It just works!

I had weird, buggy, unstable problems running Red Hat 7.2 on my desktop machine. I fought and fought with it, and it was terrible. I was also new to Linux at the time, and while I learned quite a lot in troubleshooting it, it wasn't what I would call a pleasant experience.

Mandrake 9.1 I downloaded and installed on the same machine and had really good experiences with. It set up pretty easily, software was easy to get running on it, it was stable.

However, it was slow. And it balked at letting me do some things I was curious about.

So then I came to Slackware 9.1. It installed a lot easier than I had been led to believe, and it let me pick and choose everything I wanted and didn't want.

I don't completely know what I'm doing on some things quite yet, but I like the fact that it doesn't think for me... it only does what it's told.

That's the way an OS should be.

I guess just like everyone else, it's clean and uncluttered, it's structure is quickly comprehensible which makes installing/compiling studff from source a dream. Try and compile something, once you get the hang of it search and install the depecndency,if need be, ldconfig and away you go ( if all else fails www.linuxpackages.net) My opinion, after your first really tough installation of a program, once you've got the feel it's like abc. And the install of the source will be true to the oripinal writers intentions rather than altered distro libraries that can mess you up. I started off in Red Hat and the RPM installation method, nice as it is, made me want to weep alot of the time.

What's so wonderful about slack/linux?

I was troubleshooting a client's PC that had fatal compatability issues with ExPee, (as it turned out), and as a last resort I installed a working harddrive with slack installed from a different 'puter to see what would happen, lo and behold, lilo boots, slack works @ command line... of course there were some driver issues, but they were easily surmountable... try that with any windoze install..
SLACKWARE RULES!!!

It's really hard to describe why I like and use Slackware. I've only really tried Red Hat 9 and Slackware 9.1 (although I have dabbled in Mandrake and Fedora). I loved my Red Hat install but, I like you, had heard things about Slackware being the "cool" and "hardcore" Linux distro. I had messed up my Red Hat system in some interesting ways and I thought, I wanna be cool too! SO I installed Slackware, and I've learned A LOT, and things just,... work. And if they don't, I can fix it in a matter of time, which always has me learn a bunch of new things. It's unobtrusive and just says, "I'm a computer, do things!" it doesn't take over for me, I'm in control. I like that.