>Apologies to all the Slackware fans out there, I just don't like it much =)
Hehehe -- FLAME WAR!!! j/k :-) >That said, there's very little you can't learn on a SuSe, MDK or RH >box that you can on Slack/Gentoo box. It's true; the difference with Slackware is that you _have_ to. I dunno about you guys, but I honestly don't have the discipline to learn the CLI versions when a handy GUI tool is available. :-) Slackware forced me to learn Linux the hard way, which is exactly what I wanted. I wanted to know what a .conf file is and how to find it and edit it, and I had to be _forced_ to do that in order to get Half-Life running under WINE, or I never would've done anything but play games after I got it running. ;-) That's why I say it's a good distro for getting your hands dirty. In order to make something work, I have to know how to make it work. That's my personal joy trip, not meant to reflect the average Linux user. For this purpose, it helps that Slackware is very stable. I haven't had very many source packages that wouldn't compile with ./configure and make;make install and not destabilize the system or not install because of dependency conflicts, etc.. However, it also means I have to take care of my system and know what's on it and where -- again, another good practice that I need to be _forced_ into on my home computer or I just wouldn't do it. I document like crazy at work, but when I'm at home I don't really think of it. So it's a personal thing. ...and, I've collected a lot of source packages. The reason I'm downloading and compiling all kinds of source code because I'm curious about it. I think it will be cool, but I don't know. Sometimes programs don't come in anything but source form. Basically, I'm testing. Again, this is my personal computing thing, not something that would or should happen in a more business-like environment (even if it is your own personal web sever -- are you going to compile new DSP plugins for XMMS? Nah, I don't think so). Ergo, the mention of the "Never mix testing, development, and production environments" maxim to Jarrod. Basically, it's a personal thing. It's my personal hacking paradise. It makes me learn. I rarely, if ever, promote Slackware for any kind of production box; I usually advocate one of the big three: Red Hat or Mandrake or Suse (because of support, acceptance, knowledge base, tools, etc.). Sometimes I mention Debian. If I were doing business with a distro, it certainly wouldn't be Slackware. That'd be waaaay to much work. If ever I advocate Slackware on list or in person, it's usually with "well, it really makes you learn it", in response to someone wondering whether they'd like it or not. I also usually also forewarn with something along the lines of "it's a lot of work. If you just want something that runs, try Mandrake" or something to that effect. >and no package management. Er, I could quote Patrick Volkerding verbatim here, but I won't. There are package management tools, and they do work. Just because they don't check dependencies. Or automatically update. Or anything else really... ;-P What's wrong with BSD-style init scripts anyways? SysV, BSD... it all seems esoteric to me. The computer runs. It changes run levels. Scripts fire. All is well. Right? ;-) Curtis. -----Original Message----- From: Aaron J. Seigo [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 15:32 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: (clug-talk) recommendations for a web server -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tuesday 03 June 2003 10:39, Jarrod Major wrote: > I am still left with which Distro to choose. As I said I would like it to > be easy to update so SuSE would be the way to go from my personal bias. > However, it may be time to get my hands dirty so Slack has also been > suggested to me. I would really like to give Gentoo a kick at the cat but > so far it appears to scare me (that's saying a lot if I am considering > Slack over Gentoo as I always thought Slackware was by far the scariest > distro one could choose). I don't know if I'd call Slackware "getting your hands dirty". You can be just as participatory in the UNIX experience on most sane distributions without having to throw yourself back into the stone age of BSD style init and no package mangement. I'd recommend Gentoo over Slackware any day of the week, in fact. That said, there's very little you can't learn on a SuSe, MDK or RH box that you can on Slack/Gentoo box. Apologies to all the Slackware fans out there, I just don't like it much =) - -- Aaron J. Seigo GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43 KDE: The 'K' is for 'kick ass' http://www.kde.org http://promo.kde.org/3.1/feature_guide.php -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2-rc1-SuSE (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE+3mVP1rcusafx20MRAikEAJ9hhQzjnIQfkaU4dYjVVN0Az867kQCdFs3G GSsJOJtBZw8bfaPP9wwN3fo= =cC+7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
