|
Slack is stable as hell. Any package that is not available at the Slackware site is easily compiled. I particularly like slackbuilds.org.
|
Quote:
Code:
aptitude install xorgCode:
aptitude install xorg xorg-devQuote:
Quote:
|
The best way to know is to try it and use it for a while. Really to try many distros and then use Slackware, which I have done. I've tried at least 40-50 different distros (not sure about the numbers, but I know I used up most of a 50 CD and a 50 DVD spool, and a lot were badly burned), and I can only recommend one ... Slackware :D.
Why ? 1) It's easy to install and use. 2) It is simple. 3) It is stable. 4) It is secure. 5) It helps you learn a lot about GNU/Linux. (Unlink Ubuntu and the like ...) 6) No dependency management is actually a big 'pro' (rather than 'con') for me. I know how well dependency resolution works from all the great RPM distros ... and I'm very glad Slackware doesn't have any. 7) It has a great developer ... Pat V. And a great support community as can be seen by these forums. 8) It is fast and light, if you want it to be. I think even lighter than Debian, and just about as fast as Gentoo. 9) It uses BSD-style init scripts ... makes it much easier to tune the boot up procedure. 10) Finally, it just works. Things actually work, things actually compile ! Something other distros have trouble with ... |
ErrorBound,
Why do you ask? Are you interested in using Slackware? Regards, -Drew |
Quote:
Maybe I'll install slackware in a Qemu image and play around with it for a while... |
What is so great about Slackware anyway?
now i am struggling with gentoo on a laptop, for the past one-two week, i thought since it is a laptop i need something more than slack, but not like suse (which is a junk) or madriva or fedora, so i tried gentoo which is a base linux + more config help stuffs (wiki is available... good docs) now i realized how good slack was, since till now i couldnt make sound card work(on gentoo). i never struggled this much earlier, even when i were a total nooooB. coming back to slack is like "back to home" slackware + LQ slack forum = u can make anything work.. now i realized that i love this slack forum than slackware. thank you guys for all the help u have given ;) |
genome
As far as genome is concerned, source is available as well as the source for required dependencies. If you can't live without it you can compile it. Software conflict, disable them. Thats just the one of the beautiful things about Slackware. Even though I have been told no gnome for Slackware, my neighbor has compiled it for his wife on his system so it can be done.
I have Debian installed on this system as well, but find the repositories available too limited or end up compiling anyway because I don't always want the default install (see HangDog42 :D). An example of an unwanted setup was following Debian's "Easy nvidia driver installation", aka "the easy way to change a running system into a non-running one". "The Hard Way":Manual compile worked perfectly with a few option changes once the required, un-installed by default, kernel source, gcc compiler and dependencies and such were installed and the links required for compiling were manually established because the instructions titled "The Hard Way" did not include instructions for setting up the system for compile using its compiling method. ( not knocking Debian, have equivalent Slackware examples too ;). This doesn't by any means make Debian bad, just really slacker unfriendly because most slackers would have done it "The Hard Way" by default but my Debian install did not configure in ability to compile by default. Conversely if all of the packages that you desire are in the repositories you don't need to compile (but it sure is nice) Few people I have chatted with have any problems with updating Slackware once they get used to it. It is usually more reserved for those who really desire to configure their system exactly the way they want it. The main fear most have is the command prompt, and even that is not difficult if they decide to take the time to read, ask questions, and learn how. I would still hesitate to say that this distro is better than another one because it would be bull and judging from the initial question in this thread I would suspect ErrorBound would agree. Personally i like every single distro that I have tried but found not one that I truly loved. So I installed Slackware, removed what I didn't need or want and compiled and installed everything else that I did. |
For example, I like Enlightenment very much (Imho, it's future of Linux desktop). None of distros include it, but I don't call them incomplete.
|
There should be Slackware Linux Bible (900 pages there) released by some famous publisher like it was done with Ubuntu with all quirks explained. Then we would see which distro would be on top. Popularity doesn't mean quality. Ubuntu is popular because you can boast about your 3d desktop after few hours of installation. But now we are talking not only about desktop distro but about server too. There is difference if you use distro only for entertainments or for important job.
|
Slackware IMHO is and always well be one of the most rock solid distro's available. It's straight forward, ease of use (once you get the feel for it), and performance, bar none. I started using Slackware back in 97 when I was a kid. It doesn't have as huge of a base as it seemed to then, but I think that's mainly due to the Linux community changing. There are way more newbies and none-programmers using Linux than there used to be.
There is so many things to boast about slack, I could go on forever. I feel it's the best choice for programmers. It comes with everything you'd ever need. A lot of distro's have moved to a more attractive gui install and boot. I love that slack essentially installs and boots into a console the same way it did back in 97. If I'm running ancient hardware I can just load up fluxbox or wmaker and am good to go. It has a ton of useful scripts like pkgtool and the many others it loads from there. Debian has always had apt-get which I admit is a great tool, but with some messing around you can setup slapt-get quite well. But who really cares, if you can't find a package on the huge linuxpackages site then you just download the source and compile it. In all it's a matter of preference and it always well be. I love slack partly because it's what I've grown up using Linux on. When I think of Linux I think of slack. Slackware is like the elder of the village, it might be old, but it is very very wise. :) |
Quote:
I'm not volunteering.:eek: Regards, -Drew |
What is so great about Slackware? it is the only Distro apart from Ubuntu that installs on my machine. Ubuntu is far too brown and slow for my taste, so the choice is obvious.
|
Quote:
|
Ilgar, great, i'll copy this post to my bookmarks. When somebody else comes to ask this question, I will give him this answer
|
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:08 PM. |