Re: [Nolug] slackware users?

On Sunday 07 December 2003 10:07 pm, Clinton R. Nixon wrote:
> On Sunday 07 December 2003 20:53, Joey Kelly wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> > I'm scouting out what my next distro for my main desktop will be, and am
> > considering slack. I'd like pros and cons about it, please...
> >
> > FYI, I am not a newbie, and configs by hand don't scare me... in fact, I
> > want a distro that will force me to learn stuff in detail.

My web / mail / ftp / dns / dhcp / samba server is still running Slackware 8.1.
I just don't have a compelling reason to upgrade it to 9.1 yet. It's been running
fine on this version since July of last year. My desktop box is 9.1, since I
need the nearly latest and greatest for GATOS and my scanner.

>
> I use Slackware quite a bit - it was my first distro back in '94. Here's my
> impressions:
>
> Pro: Lightning fast. It's by far the fastest distro I've used.

I concur on this 110%.

>
> Pro: _Great_ package system. They're all just .tar.gz files, but it tracks
> them well. Easy to work with, and supposedly, with the new "swaret" app, it
> acts much Debian's apt.

I haven't tried swaret, but not living in the RPM netherworld is a plus.

>
> Con: BSD-style init scripts. My loathing for BSD init scripts knows no limit.

I would probably prefer the SysV style init's too, but the flip side is that there
are fewer files overall.

>
> Con: You'll have to fiddle with the font sub-system if you don't want them to
> look like junk. Luckily, all the instructions you need are here:
> http://brendan.sdf-eu.org/articles/antialiasing_slack.php

I just added true type fonts with the KDE font installer, so I don't recall this
being much of an issue.

>
> Pro: Good online support. Check out http://www.linuxpackages.net/ for all the
> packages you might want.

http://www.userlocal.com is another good Slackware site.

>
> Pro: Config's not nearly as hairy as it's made out to be. It's easier than
> Debian. It's text-based, which frightens the natives, but easy.

Text-based must be OK, Win2k3 server is still text-based until the first
of many reboots. Anyway, I find text-based a faster way to go. Of course
it only really matters if you install frequently, which for me would be when
a new version of Slackware is nearly ready. I just hafta try the RC's.

>
> All in all, it's a great system. I will offer unsolicited advice: yesterday, I
> installed Mepis Linux (http://www.mepis.org). It's pretty sweet stuff: Debian
> based, but up-to-date and pretty interesting. It's got a Live-CD, which is
> nice for testing it. In my opinion, it's the most newbie-friendly distro I've
> used.

The noobie distros eventually get in the way. Back in the day, I used
Slackware because broadband, CD burners, and ISO's weren't available,
and Slackware is what was on the CD that came with the big Linux books.
Now, it's just natural, and working with RH sometimes reminds me of
Windoze, with all the stuff that prevents me from doing what I want to do.

It's not perfect, since there is one program I want to run that won't. If
anyone knows how to get iscan to work in Slackware, I'd really appreciate
the help. For those who don't know, iscan is the "unsupported" port
of the Windoze version of the Epson scanner software. At least Epson
has ported their stuff to Linux, which is the reason I picked it over Canon.

If you have any Slackware questions, I'm almost a grey beard (if I didn't shave).

Andy Johnson

>
> - Clinton R. Nixon
>
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Received on 12/07/03