[SOLVED] What can we do to build a larger community?

Originally Posted by deNiro I don't think you can do much, except for using it, and if you have the time, participate in for example creating slackbuilds, or documenting stuff on a blog/site. .

This is actually what I was asking. Like how to create a slackbuild or documenting stuff. I know there's HOWTO, but I think will need more thorough guidance like where is a good place to start e.g. start maintaining a package etc, and learn from there step by step.

On the flipside, when intelligent noobs cite other threads and documentation--evidence that they're putting in their research hours/days/years--the slackware community is (and I hope remains) accommodating and forthcoming, which is why I'm here. If Zihen's system crashed on -current, and I happened to be signed on at LQ and paying attention, I would be willing to help. Helping at levels where I do understand I feel buys me credit for when I need assistance at levels I struggle with.

Thank you so much for your kindness and encouraging words. I will give it a try and see how it goes. I wonder if there's any channel to seek help from other than LQ. Sometimes you got stuck and you won't be that lucky to have people answering you within a short period of time..

A larger community that is similarly populated by experts might be Arch—I rely heavily on their documentation, for instance—but frankly I prefer the way that Slackware works. Most of my problems aren't Slackware problems so, similar to your note, I find a lot of minor but annoying problems can be solved by searching through the Linux universe a little more broadly and not relying only on people who know the operating system that I use.

This is a very good mindset. I shall learn from you.

@fatmac & others: I do understand @fatmac POV, and I believe he's not here to discourage people from using SW. Perhaps there's some misconceptions but having someone to point out the negatives of a distro is somehow good for its development(?).

I find installing a package from SlackBuild takes a lot of time to compile like Qt5. I do realize there's a past thread pointing to Alien Bob's repo for a compiled Qt5.9. However, it's Qt5.12 on Slackbuild14.2. What is the advantage of compiling from source rather than binary?

Originally Posted by Zihen I find installing a package from SlackBuild takes a lot of time to compile like Qt5. I do realize there's a past thread pointing to Alien Bob's repo for a compiled Qt5.9. However, it's Qt5.12 on Slackbuild14.2. What is the advantage of compiling from source rather than binary?

When you compile from source, your resultant binary is optimized to your hardware, and you have control over which features are enabled or disabled. You may need features that were not enabled in the stock slackbuild.

An easy way to speed up compilation time, is to rent a virtual private server from some cloud provider, provision it with 32 or 64 cpus, run your compilation, download the packages you create, and then delete the vps: just a few cents turns hours into minutes. Another way to speed compilation time is to distribute the compilation over the cpus of multiple devices: check out distcc!

Originally Posted by Zihen This is actually what I was asking. Like how to create a slackbuild or documenting stuff. I know there's HOWTO, but I think will need more thorough guidance like where is a good place to start e.g. start maintaining a package etc, and learn from there step by step.

I was just giving an example, I didn't meant that you specifically have to create slackbuilds. There is plenty of info to find when you look for it. Slackwiki for example. But stuff like that requires decent knowledge of Slackware, bash scripting, etc which will not be learned at day 1.

And why worry about community when you just start using something? If you are fresh to slackware, start using Slackware stable, which is at version 14.2. Using current is a bad idea, since that is only for experience users with a specific use case, or with a lot of time on their hands. If you use current, You can't easily use the easy tools for slackbuilds (sboui, slapt-src), so that means you then have to do everything manually. And with an update to current, your compiled stuff can break. I don't think that is a nice way of using your PC. So unless unless you just run in it in a vm to test it, stick to stable. And if you can not use stable, use a different distro.

The main task of an OS is to provide a good environment to enable you to run applications and do stuff for work/education or entertainment. The main task of an OS is not to keep you busy. Which doesn't mean you can not spend/waste time in experimenting and learning with the system, but the base should be reliable.

Originally Posted by Gerard Lally I don't buy that argument enorbet because even if you have a full install the minute you start adding third-party applications you contaminate Slackware anyway.

Got an example?... because that's not been my experience, ever.

Just FTR I not only don't have a problem with people exposing faults, I think it's essential for progress and good OpSys health. Howwever I also think that's best done from wityhin, from people still using Slackware. Someone claiming to have "moved on" citing faults just smacks of butthurt to me and almost never has any positive effect, even if they think they are being sincere. No one distro is for everybody despite MS working hard to make that happen, and even they sell several differing versions.

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier @Gerard Lally: two small scripts to hide KDE apps in the menu of others desktop or show them in all desktops.

Can be done with less lines

To hide KDE applications:
# cd /usr/share/applications/kde4
# for i in `ls *desktop`; do echo OnlyShowIn=KDE >> $i; done

To show KDE applications:
# cd /usr/share/applications/kde4
# for i in `ls *desktop`; do grep -v "OnlyShowIn=KDE" $i > temp && mv temp $i; done

For writing a slackbuild, I would suggest copying existing ones, adapt, watch errors, try correcting… and again.

After that you are smart enough to discover that slackbuilds.org provides templates :-D

Re:SlackBuild


Slackbuilds.org don't accept "freelance" SlackBuilds, they basically require you use a template. The good news is that in the base template most of the work is set out already.

https://slackbuilds.org/templates


One way to start learning is to download a SlackBuild might i suggest a simple one with no deps :

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...rch=latex2html


Then if you want you read through my attempt to de-mystify it : https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:mi...f_a_slackbuild

The doc is slightly out of date with the slackbuild because i did an update of the slackbuild in May

Originally Posted by Zihen Sidenote: everything seems pretty (out)dated on 14.2-stable.

Most stuff in 14.2 or any Slackware distro for that matter is upgradeable.
Not being tethered to a mirror is a good thing.

Originally Posted by hazel Sorry but when did popularity with the masses become the be-all and end-all of Linux?

I think you may be reading it out of context - it still relates to the OPs original post.

Originally Posted by Zihen @fatmac & others: I do understand @fatmac POV, and I believe he's not here to discourage people from using SW. Perhaps there's some misconceptions but having someone to point out the negatives of a distro is somehow good for its development(?).

Exactly, I was answering the OPs post.

I don't need to defend my choice of distro, because it suits me, we all use Linux, just in different forms, it just amuses me as to why some Slackers do feel the need to put up a defence.

This is a Linux forum, if you post about your distro here, others will see it, & have the right to make comments.

Originally Posted by Zihen I wonder if there's any channel to seek help from other than LQ. Sometimes you got stuck and you won't be that lucky to have people answering you within a short period of time.

If you like Internet relay Chat (IRC) there is a Slackware channel on freenode (##slackware). A lot of us hang out there. You can post questions there as well. Slackware ships with a lot of IRC applications.

If you want to expand the Slackware community the best strategy is to adopt a niche for which Slackware is well suited. The second idea is to get to version 15 so the appearance of being outdated is corrected. Collecting money and other resources is quite important for an effort to fill a niche. The best stable and secure kde, xfce, or fluxbox desktop system perhaps. Also a lot of attention to /etc/skel and /etc/slackpkg and other ways for an admin to manage users and updates on the network. Couple this with easy network, ldap, and organizational support. Then people will adopt Slackware for their organization and an active support community will develop..

Originally Posted by enorbet Got an example?... because that's not been my experience, ever.

Every third-party package you build and install contaminates, or pollutes, or adulterates Slackware, since it installs unofficial and unsupported software to the system.

That's not to say it renders Slackware unusable, or unstable, or broken, which is how you seem to have interpreted my words. But my point is still valid -- if someone chooses to do a partial instead of a full installation, they are no less worthy of support in this forum than someone who adds dozens of third-party packages on top of a full Slackware installation. We keep hearing this mantra that only a full installation is supported by the true Slackware users in this forum; that's why it surprises me when they deign to support a Full+ installation, with all the a-y series installed, combined with dozens of extras on top.