Why is this distribution (Slackware) so popular?
 

I'm very new to Linux, although I've been using UNIX on Solaris for many years. Anyway, I installed Fedora Core 2 over the weekend. The install was a snap, but the boot sequence failed as soon as I updated the kernel with yum. So I zapped the install and installed Mandrake 10.1. That install was too easy, and KDE is phat. It's all good, but I wanted to know why Slackware is so popular. What's so great about it?

SAFX

1. when you install slack, you know what are you doing ...

2. when you install a package or compile it by yourself, you know what are you doing ...

3. when you install one application, you don't install 20 dependencies, but just this one ...

4. when you look at kernel, you know that you have fresh, original kernel from kernel.org and not something with 3333 patches from redhat, fedora, suse, debian and whatever ...

5. when you use slackware, you are tinker ...

6. when you use slackware, you know what Linux is ... when you use redhat/fedora you know what gnome is, when you use suse, you know what kde is , when ...

7. when you ... slackware is slackware ... nothing more to say ...

M.

Some reasons I use Slackware:
1.Fast, secure and more importantly to me the most UNIX like. Look on the pages listing Linux vulnerabilities and Slackware is often the least mentioned, and if mentioned patches are more than likely already in place. I have a DOS / UNIX background and for me the transition was relatively simple.

2. The Slackware team takes a deliberate approach to adding/upgrading packages and is not in a rush to be "the latest" in everything, thus avoiding a lot of problems.

3. I see a trend in distros becoming bloated
(I recently installed RH9 for a friend and it was 4 cds!!) You can easily avoid the bloat in Slackware by installing from just the first cd and have a solid system.

4. Lastly I like the package selection. A lot of good networking tools are included.

Other distros have their strengths and weaknesses and it is ultimately an individual decision as to which one to use. I would suggest trying several, noting what you like or dislike and choose according to your needs and preferences.



:Pengy:

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say. I can only assume from your comments that Slackware is for more experienced users.

Slackware is Slackware? I mean, seriously, what's that supposed to mean? This is this? :confused: :rolleyes:

SAFX

"slackware is slackware" ...

well, I want to say, that slackware something special is ...

every distro is trying to have dependecies checking, slackware doesn't, because Pat and slackware users believe that this option is not needful

every distro is making patches for applications, kernel, and when you try to install official release of the application, you never know what kind of problems you are going to have

when you install SuSe (home version or whetever is called) you don't have "make" on it !!!

but you have KDE, and when you ever try to use some other Linux distro or BSD, many of the SuSe (SuSe is not the only one) users will not know what to do ...

yes, I think that slackware is for more experinced users ...

but it was my 1st distro ... i started with slackware (FreeBSD and AIX much before) and it's probably not so easy but when you know how to use slackware, you will know to use allmost any linux distro ...

i say try it ... but be prepared for some work ...

M.

Ok, cool. thanks.

Does Slackware include KDE?

Wrong, you can success installing application but it would be broken. Try to install gnucash...... you may install gnucash by "installpkg gnucash-blabla.pkg" but it would not load up.

However Slackware is good. Really. If you don't mind to install software / application manually. There is a tool like swaret. I never use it when I was Slacker. If you want to use Swaret, you better use Debian with apt-get or Gentoo with portage. You will get all vanilla taste like kernel, gnome, kde...... That means you will get no bootsplash, or whatever......

yes, of course ... and a few other really nice window managers ... but you can finde most the things you need on linuxpackages.net


@melinda_sayang:

you are right about Gnu-Cash ... but that's the way you install everything on Slackware ... and I like to install everything by myself ... it gives me the feeling being THE real root :))

who does not like it, gentoo, debian or maybe freebsd are some of the very nice solutions.

M.

A lot of it is package management. Want to know what is in a package?
Just use "tar tzf" to view a file list, or "tar xzf" to extract it. Want to
know in what package a certain file is found? Just go to /var/log/packages
and use "grep". "ls /var/log/packages" gives you a list of all software packages
installed. So you can use standard Unix tools instead of having to
learn custom "rpm" or "dpkg" command syntaxes.

Of course you could try to do the same thing with a GUI tool and a lot of
mouse clicks. But, believe me, that will take you a lot more time.

Want to create you own software package? In Slackware you can compile
the software normally, then instead of running "make install" your just
run "checkinstall" instead (assuming, of course, you have installed checkinstall).
In contrast, creating an RPM file is very complex. Just check out this howto:

http://www.bb-zone.com/SLGFG/chapter35.html

Even the lack of dependency checking can be a plus. I was just experimenting
with a Debian-based distro and decided I wanted to uninstall the Firefox web
browser. The GUI tool I was using (Synaptic) told me that along with Firefox
I would be uninstalling the Gnome Desktop Environment, would I like to proceed?
All of Gnome depends on Firefox? I have always run into these kinds of strange
interdependencies when using rpm or deb systems.

Re: Why is this distribution (Slackware) so popular?
 

I think the question needs more info from you.

What do you want out of linux? If you want just another desktoip OS to browse the web, slackware can do this, but it was not designed for this. You'd probably be happier with Fedora or Mandrake. Actualy I'd suggest trying a knoppix CD distro first, but...

Slackware is simply linux without all the fancy bells and whistles people have decided are a good idea. Some like it, some do not.

The dependencies issue mentioned here is confusing, I know. I will try to clarify.

Most applications depend on certain libraries and in some cases other applications being present.
A lot of installers will check for these dependencies for you and install them automatically.
For a new user this is beautiful, he clicks, walks away comes back later and runs the application [sometimes at least it works this way].

For the linux guru, he just installed 50 libs/apps he has no real use for and does not want, now he must figure out how to uninstall them. This is not always easy, sometimes the package manager will just uninstall the app and leave the dependencies there in case you need them later. Sometimes they willl ask, and sometimes they will uninstall them, even though another package needs them, thus breaking that app.

Also each distro has to package apps for thier specific delivery system, which can be highly annoying, as you might find an RPM for redhat but not mandrake, sometimes the redhat RPM will work for mandrake, sometimes it will force you to scream obsceneties and people ensuring Santa Claus brings you a lump of coal this year.

There is a lot of unorganization in the Open source community, and a lack of some standardization/approval processes for projects. Then again how would you sucessfully say no you can't develope that to someone in an environment meant to promote freedom in development?

It is just the way it is, browse sourceforge.net sometime, you'll see 8 projects doing the exact same thing, half of those will never get completed, the others will bompete with each other, rather than working on one app and standardizing it. Kind of like Instant Messaging these days. Anyway, this is what the problem is, slackware kind of gets past that with its system.

One day things will work better, maybe, but for now, this is my suggestions.

If you just want to browse the web and run openoffice.org, then go get Mandrake.
If you want to get a little deeper into Linux, programming, etc..., mayube even one day become a unix master, go for slackware.
If you want to build a custom OS designed specifically for your rig from the ground up, try gentoo, but be ready to do a lot of waiting.

That does not mean you cannot, run mandrake, and build the entire thing yourself, becasue you can. However, it was not designed with this in mind.

hi SAFX,

just try Slack, when you've taken the first hill ( ....so it boots and all hw. works ), then you will be an experienced user.( level depends on your hw-set ... :) ).
and for prob.-solving there's this site and the web.

egag

You're right WhiteChedda, perhaps I should have mentioned what my intentions are as far as Linux is concerned.

Being a Java software developer by profession, I am always running app servers, web servers, database servers, etc, on my system when developing web-based apps and server-side software. So I will defiinitely need to use shell windows and perform a lot of command line stuff, but most of this I already understand from UNIX. Additionally, I like to have a pretty-looking desktop that I can customize, like KDE.

So I guess I answered my own question. I think I'll stick to Mandrake for now as it seems suitable for my purposes, but I may try Slackware just for the hell of it.

Thanks again,

SAFX

I've used Mandrake for 2 years now and recently installed Slackware 10 on my laptop. What's so great about Slackware? It MAKES you learn the nuts and bolts. In Mandrake, the ability to get down and dirty with the system is there, but it's very easy to say the heck with it and go back to the GUI tools. If you're going to get anything set up in Slack you're going to HAVE to learn some console tools, how to edit config scripts, etc. I've not had any showstoppers, but I've had to do some browsing for answers. I would not recommend Slackware for someone brand new unless you've got a lot of patience.:D

I could not disagree more. Fedora and Mandrake might be easier to set up as desktop machines, but to say that slackware was not designed for that is ridiculous. I think a major comparison between fedora/mandrake/suse and slackware is the amount of software installed. If you do the default install of mandrake, and all you want is a desktop to surf the web and make docs in openoffice.org, then you will have WAY too much software installed: newsreaders, email clients, four or five different window managers, 3 or four browsers, koffice, abiword, openoffice.org, and the list goes on and on. With Slackware, this is partially true but not to the same extent. You can get a simpler, faster desktop with slackware because there just aren't as many processes running.

I don't know how useful my response will be , probably fairly useless :-P , but I've decided to post anyways. For me , the reason why Slackware seems popular to me, is because it was the only distribution that I was exposed to, and have worked in , but thats not to say I haven't tried at least one other distribution , I have tried Mandrake, but because of my first experience with Slackware, I decided to go back to that... :-P

Having fled rpm hell as they say.
Rpms are a package management used by suse, redhat, mandrake & others.
Its ok, but once it messes up your in trouble.
Most distros, your mainly learning that distro & its complex package program.
Suse has yast, which is a very powerfull tool, but sometimes it messes up.
When it does, it's a fight to get things right.
I don't like fighting my system. I want it to do exactly what I say.

With Slack, your learning linux. It has a few scripts they have written to make things easier on new users.
For the most part, its really easy to just congfigure things by hand.
It takes time to learn how to do it, so you need patience.
However your patience is rewarded.
I can setup a slack system locked down very fast, and its easy.
I use slack for desktops, firewalls & webservers.
It just works.

Hi all,
just checked this thread and decided to contribute. Why i like Slackware is because of its simplicity. Its very simple or you can say the only simplest and complete distribution of linux. i have nothing to say about package management. and one more thing about slackware is that it teaches you real linux. i have heard from some slackers, "if you learn slackware, you learn linux. But if you learn any other distro, you will learn only that distro".

I've recently converted to Slackware and I love it. Like many people on here say, I feel more at home in Slackware than any of the other distributions. You feel that you have more control of what goes in and out of the operating system. If you need anything, you can just compile it and be on your merry way. Prior to Slackware I was looking for something with more control. I've only stuck w/Red Hat in the past because it was what I started with and was most comfortable at that point in time. But soon I realized that Red Hat / Fedora was overbearing with alot of processes that ran in the background and I was too afraid to stop or remove them so I left them there. But ever since Slackware I've been able to run my box more efficiently than ever before.

I used Suse for 18 months without learning a damn thing about Linux. It was just point and click. I have had Slackware installed for two months and have learned vastly more about Linux in that time.
It's been said many times and it's true, if you want to learn use Slackware. It also happens to run like a dream!

Oh god yes, it runs like a champ. In my opinion the development tree of slackware is generally more stable than most releases of other distros (fedora and mandrake come to mind). Slackware's goal is to be as unix like as possible. So, if you want to learn your system and be able to do things other than work in a gui that does the work for you like windows does then go with slack. If you want to have your hand held, and not learn much then go with another distro, like Suse, Fedora, or Mandrake. Personally, I like to know what is going on under the hood. It keeps the power with the user and not with the developer.

As far as slackware being only for the experienced user I can tell you that, at least from my point of view, that's a false statement. I went from windows to linux and dove right into slackware and it is by far the best thing I ever did. Just do it in steps, setup a test computer, buy yourself Running Linux from Oreilly, read the online slackwarebook on slackware.com and learn before you start relying on it. Then gradually bring over your apps to OSS alternatives.

Brian

Slackware is great if you want to learn Linux. Also, I've found it more stable than other distros, probably because it follows the K.I.S.S. principle.

Simple is good, simple things tend to not break spontaniously. Also of note, and probably mentioned in this thread somewhere already that I just missed, is that slackware uses the stock source for everything. Not custom thing like other distro's make use. So, you can expect the documentation on a projects site to apply fully to slackware's package.

Brian

why Slackware? Keep It Simple Stupid. And it is truly not as tough as the rumors suggest, you just need to learn the "language". Plus excellent documentation, and if something screws up.....you can't blame it on some auto-magical tool that didn't work. I went through plenty of distros(starting with Mandrake 7.2) till I got enough nerve for Slackware because it was soooo.."tough". And yes I have found my distro.....perfect fit. K.I.S.S.

Ok, try to install gnucash or monodevelop, then you know Slackware is not SIMPLE anymore. Every distro has its own good and bad. Slackware does too. Slackware is good but not that good. With gentoo or debian, you can install gnucash or monodevelop by one command. You choose Slackware if you don't mind to go hunting dependencies by hand. It takes a long time to install software like videolan, gnucash, or monodevelop. Sometimes when you try make for gtk-sharp ( one of dependencies in monodevelop ), you got error. You subscribe to mailing list, googling, asking, then you know the source is broken. You get the source from cvs. Then try to make it. But gentoo or debian make it simple. I rarely got the package broken when using tool like apt-get Debian or emerge Gentoo. The developers has done the job for you.

There is a tool like checkinstall that is helpful. But you must careful to uninstall softaware because there is no dependencies in Slackware. Ok, you think you don't want gtk-sharp anymore:
# remopkg gtk-sharp
Then sometimes you found some applications broken like monodevelop because it depends on gtk-sharp. Slackware has tool like swaret. But it is not integrate too well with the system. It is not official or solid as apt-get Debian or portage Gentoo.

However Slackware is stable and nice.

I would rather get my own dependencies, maybe I am jaded after using rpm's. But when the auto-magical tool tells me I have to uninstall half my system or claims I don't have a dependency that I know is installed, I get rather irritated. Agreed if you want the system to do it for you Slack is not an option. But I am old fashioned "Want it done right? Do it yourself." Plus it's a great way to learn.

Swaret is integrated very nicely into slackware. Yes, gnucash is a hassle on slackware, but I think swaret is actually easier and more efficient regarding dependencies than debian's apt get. For example, if you type apt-get install kde on debian, you get everything EXCEPT the x-window-system. What's up with that? So I try and use apt-get to search for the missing package--oops no search function. Swaret can search, and take care of dependencies apropriately. Plus, theres linuxpackages.net which has gnucash and instructions on how to get it to work.

Gentoo = not as stable as slackware. Sorry, I tried it for two years! OpenOffice.org and even gnucash won't compile correctly all of the time on gentoo. Every distro has its ghosts!