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Old 09-07-2005, 02:30 AM   #1
halfpower
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What makes Slackware the best?


I was once told that if I wanted to know Linux, then I should learn Slackware. Why? What's wrong with Debian?
 
Old 09-07-2005, 02:57 AM   #2
slackie1000
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hi there,
there is nothing wrong with debian.
try searching the forum... there are 10E+9 threads about such subject...
regards,
slackie1000
 
Old 09-07-2005, 06:25 AM   #3
halfpower
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According to WIkipedia

Quote:
When you know Slackware, you know Linux... when you know Red Hat, all you know is Red Hat.
 
Old 09-07-2005, 06:34 AM   #4
slackie1000
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*disclaimer: slackie1000 is a slackware user.
hi there,
Quote:
According to WIkipedia
When you know Slackware, you know Linux... when you know Red Hat, all you know is Red Hat.
such pragmatic statement is stupid imho...
regards,
slackie1000
 
Old 09-07-2005, 06:54 AM   #5
cb951303
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there is nothing wrong with debian, but the power of slackware is stability an simplicity, the only way to understand why slackware is superior to other distros is to try every distro, I tryed 50-60 distros and by now slack is the best for me
 
Old 09-07-2005, 06:55 AM   #6
heema
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just stick with the distro that u like and comfortable with , either its debian or slackware or any other distro

Quote:
What makes Slackware the best?
it really differs from one person to the other as your needs maybe are different than mine

e.g. : i really like debian as its very stable and has a great package manager , my friend likes mandrake as he likes to have GUIs for setting things up

and neither of us can convince the other to use his preferred distro

Last edited by heema; 09-07-2005 at 07:02 AM.
 
Old 09-07-2005, 07:45 AM   #7
redjokerx
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I gave up on redhat because it was slow and I got annoyed at rpms. A friend suggested to try Debian. I would have.. but I don't like people telling me what to do so I tried Slackware. I'm really happy with it. I really like the speed and the vanilla nature of it.

The only thing I would like is to have a huge repository of software with an apt-get like program as a nice touch. (This is when I have no time/too lazy to compile software) slapt-get/swaret/etc. are fine, but I don't know of a nice repository besides linux packages which isn't cutting it.
 
Old 09-07-2005, 10:18 AM   #8
freakyg
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Quote:
Originally posted by redjokerx
A friend suggested to try Debian. I would have.. but I don't like people telling me what to do so I tried Slackware.
I agree............the Debian people are just a bunch of GNU (IE......Richard Stallman ) groupies................Stallman has spent the better part of the last 4 years bugging ( harassing ) people on the linux kernel mailing list............Alot of people have grown tired of his idiotic GNU rantings!
 
Old 09-07-2005, 10:23 AM   #9
gbonvehi
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I'm not going to answer your question... most Slackware users would've searched for the answer for that question themselves instead of apt-getting it

Heh, now I'll do: Linux is Linux, the kernel. The difference is how it's packaged. Slackware is said to be the most closest thing to Linux because it doesn't tend to patch programs included along with the kernel, it doesn't patch the kernel itself, and it's a "do it yourself" easily distro. I mean, it's not Linux From Scratch, but you can make it like it.
It doesn't have package management that does all stuff for you, but you could get something like emerde for it.
It's a really simple distribution that let's you do whatever you want.
And what I like the most, there's no package program telling me what it needs and can't be avoided, there are a lot of switch during compile, so most dependencies are not always needed. Most stuff also compiles cleanly because everything in the system is as the developer wanted to be.

PS: Sorry, I had to say that.

Last edited by gbonvehi; 09-07-2005 at 04:05 PM.
 
Old 09-07-2005, 04:03 PM   #10
shepper
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To take what gbonvehi said a little further; Slackware's "do it yourself" has two results:

1) You learn about your system by doing

2) When you learn enough you can start customizing your system. You can make the system
that works best for you.

If you just want to install, mouse click the update button and hope that things continue to work get Fedora or Blag..

So I would say that Slackware is not the best if you are not inclined to put any effort into it. But if you are then the biggest limitation on how good Slackware can be is how much you put in to it
 
Old 09-07-2005, 05:17 PM   #11
sundialsvcs
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You'll notice that anyone who gravitates to one kernel or another, has tried many of them. And you should realize that the experience of having done that .. changes their perspective. Their point-of-view may or may not match with yours.

I vividly remember my first encounter with Linux. It started with .. .. and went through every other emoticon in the smilies-table and then some. It happened to be Red Hat 7, and I actually bought it at a store .. .. and paid for updates for a year .. .. and basically just stared at it during that entire time. Here I am, with twenty-five-odd years experience with computers, and it's all that I can do (at first) to make me kick the tires. I was so afraid the darn thing would break! Maybe it would sneak into the bedroom at night and short-circuit my toes... I dunno.

Then I tried several other distros, and did Linux From Scratch, and currently run day-to-day what I dubiously call "Red Hat Nine and Three-Quarters," because it's rather a hodgepodge of stuff. It might be time to scrub the puppy clean once more and try something else.

Point is:
  1. I got to the point where I wasn't afraid to break it.
  2. I did break it, several times.
  3. I still have my toes.
  4. I started noticing how similar the various distros really were, for being so very different.
  5. I learned a whale of a lot about Linux in the process.

But anyhow, what I'd suggest for you is that you should try to replicate the same experience. Try several. See which one you like. The experience will change you, and the experience is probably most important of all.

For "initial staring at it" purposes .. .. .. .. .. .. I think that almost any distribution will work fine. But it should be a modern one! Do not grab a copy of "Red Hat 7 Unleashed!" from the used-book store and use the CD-ROM in the back. Go ahead and look at the book, but burn a modern CD-ROM.

Last edited by sundialsvcs; 09-07-2005 at 05:21 PM.
 
Old 09-07-2005, 11:11 PM   #12
masonm
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I'll throw my own 2 cents into tbis. I like Slack better (I've tried many, many distros over the years) because it works. Dependency checking is ok when it works, which it usually doesn't, and all of the various auto-config tools are nice if you can get them to do what you need, but when you configure things manually you know exactly what is being changed or set up and there's isn't anything standing between you and your system (can you say Windoze?).

Slack is simple. direct, and it works. For me, anyway.
 
  


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