I have tried several other distros ranging from Redhat 9, Ubuntu 5.1, Fedora Core 4, Kubuntu 5.1, Suse 10 and so on. However, I'm almost stuck with Slackware, currently 10.2. I do accept that SUSE has got the best eye candy. But, none of the above said distros support MP3 playback by default. I do not have internet connection at home hence having to download and resolve dependencies for something as basic as playing MP3s and DVDs.

Apart from that I like Pat's KISS(Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. Slacware is really slick and sufficiently easy for a Computer Science student to use.

So slackware would be my favourite as long as it survives.

Pat's KISS approach work very well. This is where Slackware excells over other distro.


Like they say learn Red Hat then all you know is Red Hat. Learn Slackware then you will learn Linux. Before Slackware I was using Gentoo. I liked Gentoo and learned alot but it takes way too much effort to keep it going. I have nothing against Gentoo but I just could not take all the compling all the time. Like if I wanted to install an ap then would have to wait hours for it to complie.

With Slackware it gives me the choice of installing from .tgz or from source. I still do install some apps from source but I don't do it all the time. Also because of Slackware's KISS approach it keeps thing very minimal and I don't need like 1 gig of ram just to run the thing. 256 megs will do fine even running X as long as I use XFCE. Also using XFE as a file browser it's light and very fast.

Fo me I'm a Slacware convert that's for sure. I still may use Centos for servers from time to time but that's because it requires a specific situation.

I'm running Slackware -current with KDE in a Laptop (with an AMD Sempron 2600+ processor -at 1.666 Ghz) with 256 megs of RAM (of these, 16M are shared to the video card so I have 240 Mb effectives), and it runs quite fast.

One of the nice things about Slacware is that it doesn't try to stop you from getting to the bare bones, so you can tweak it to run just as you want

I said this in another thread recently, but to restate myself:

I've used Red Hat since one of the 4.x releases, and have several years experience with SuSe. I loved both of them, but I have learned more about Linux and just plain had more fun with Linux since installing Slackware. Plus it destroys both Fedora and SuSe current in terms of speed on the same hardware. Slackware is simply the fastest, most stable, most fun, most challenging, and most rewarding Linux distribution I've used.

I like slackware mainly because it's so simple.
A lot of distros pretend to be simple, but as soon you want to change anything just a little advanced it gets confusing and difficult.

For instance, Slackware uses a very simple set of init scripts (sysv init scripts mainly).
I've written my own init scripts. I can do that in Slackware, but i can't do that in Ubuntu or Debian.
Debians init scripts are simply much more confusing than Slackwares. One thing that you do learn from using Slackware is to love simplicity.

I can't confirm any speed gains over SuSE or Red Hat, nor is it impossible to write boot scripts on those distros. And to all my experience, SuSE is pretty stable even in rough environments as a production server. So it's true that Slackware is stable and robust, but it's nothing unique, although there are some distros that don't enjoy the excellent quality assurance of Slackware and SuSE (and some other, of course). In fact, half of my systems is running SuSE, but the others were finally taken over by Slackware.

But, as with the Ruby programming language, there's something about Slackware that can't be easily explained by words: It just FEELS right.

If you would design a score list with all the criteria that make a good Linux distro, Slackware would probably be among the top six or so, but most likely not number one. Only when you check it out yourself you will know if get hooked by it, just like it happened to us.

Of course, you could sum it up by saying, Slackware just works. But that wouldn't describe the Unix'ish fascination that I feel when I am working on Slackware, but not on SuSE (which I really, really love, too, but for totally other reasons).

gargamel

I think one of the biggest appeals of Slackware Linux, apart from stability and quality, is that Slack is such that you start with a basic (although complete) OS and build it into whatever you need it to be. I doubt that you would find two Slack systems that are exactly alike even though they may have started with the same version install.

Of course one could do the same thing with other distros, it just seems easier with Slack as that's what Slack is designed to be.

The fact that the software isn't altered and patched to death also helps in that it all plays together much better as everything is intalled where the developers originally intended.

I tinker with a lot of different distros but have yet to find one that's as easy to work with or as stable. Even the Current branch, Slackware's "unstable", is far more stable than many distro's stable branch.

Hehehe... someone needs to start a "Registered Slacker" site. Most of us are Registered Linux Users... it would be nice to be able to register as a Slacker and show our support.

I've run a lot of different distros, but, always come home to Slackware.
I've been a slacker since version 10.0 and love it. I have older PCs at home, a Plll 667, and a Plll 800 and Slackware runs lean and fast on them. Slackware is stable and well-documented.

Slackware rox ! Plain and simple.

Tho I do have other distro's on my pc only for the fact that many other distro's load a ton of open-source software in their distro, and slack comes down stripped. Which is what I want. But since I'm new to linux, it's nice to see some of those other programs, try them out, see if I like those app's then put it on my slackware box. Slack is the only Linux for me.

I've said it before, if slack should ever go out of business, or what ever you call it, I might leave linux. Slack feels and works right.

I think everyone likes slackware so much because when you use it feels like your putting yourself into it as well. Your not just a user of a gui, your the master of your system. You installed it, you configured it, you *run* it. You didn't just click some quick and easy buttons. That first install you actually had to work a little. But once you got it you feel some accomplishment. Slackware users feel that accomplishment using their systems all the time. I know I do at least. I always learn something new in slackware or find some new way to use slackware that maybe wasn't intended but works perfect for.

We don't feel like just users. We feel like we're actually putting a piece of us into slackware.
</touching moment>

That ends my sappy pathetic explanation.

gargamel hit the nail on the head, it feels right, it doesnt take much to get under the bonnet and start tweaking what you want.
Also this forum will help you out, someone always knows what to do or where to point you to.

You must understand the difference between "unnessecarily difficult" and "impossible".

I think that's actually the reason -- it's nothing special. It doesn't have flashy GUI installs or wizards to get in your way, it doesn't install thousands of apps unless you ask it to, it doesn't auto-detect things unless you want it to, it asks you to do the configuration of text files yourself instead of using some all-in-one tool. What this makes is a simple, stable, fast distro.

Slackware users are a great group of humble, friendly, helpful folk. Everyone in this forum is willing to help and there is never an ounce of condescension. If your distro automatically configures everything for you, you are a computer attendant. I have heard it said, "if you want to learn a particular distro, then install that distro. If you want to learn Linux, then install Slackware." I can validate that as a true statement, but I would add "If you want to know your hardware, install Slackware." I have learned more about computers since switching to Slack than in all my years of using other operating systems.