Well... Slackware is the oldest extant distribution. It's really kinda
nifty -- brings you back to the "old days" of Linux, though I admit I
haven't used it since 3.3 or 3.4. I used to be a huge Slackware fan, but,
slowly, came about to the dark side of package managers (Slackware's
"packages" are gzipped tarballs -- works fine for install, but
dependencies and uninstall were something else again). As for "getting"
distributions, the place to go is CheapBytes: www.cheapbytes.com -- they
sell distributions for cost of shipping, media, handling, and a few extra
bucks -- Mandrake 7.2, for example, runs for $4 (+ S&H) and Debian is
$9.99. (No support, of course -- that's what you pay for when you buy the
pretty package...) All things being equal, this beats the pants off of
downloading Slackware one disk at a time over the ol' 14.4 modem. From a
recent posting on a BBS I hang out on, here's a light-hearted, but
more-or-less accurate description of various distributions and *nix OSes:
NetBSD -- "Of COURSE it runs NetBSD"
FreeBSD -- "screw the other architectures, let's make it SCREAM on Intel"
OpenBSD -- "fourteen centuries without a remote exploit!" or whatever
Slackware -- "The Grumpy Old Man" -- "in MY day we didn't have any fancy
schmancy packaging formats, we used GZIPPED TAR, with 8.2 filenames, so we
could fit it on a DOS FLOPPY, and we LIKED IT DAMMIT!
Debian -- the elegant idealist distribution, perfectionists, downside
being they're kind of in their own world and they are the last to add
newfangled stuff
RedHat -- "The Microsoft of Linux, but in a good way."
Mandrake -- "Redhat cleaned up, dressed nicely, and presentable to your
mother."
SuSe Linux -- Like a Volvo, each is Scandinavian in origin and has solid,
sturdy fundamentals, but combine reliability with performance and some
luxurious appointments which make it a pleasure to run.
Corel Linux -- The Teletubbie of the linux world. Limited so users can't
screw it up.
- Misc. users of Unix> forum on ISCA BBS, whip.isca.uiowa.edu
-Ken
On Sat, 30 Dec 2000, Tom Rauschenbach wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Dec 2000, you wrote:
> > It's time for me to rebuild my system, and I'd like to try a non-RedHat
> > distro. I know that everyone is jazzed about Debian, but I'm a little
> > concerned about the install.
> >
> > I'm kind of intrigued by Slackware, and wondered if folks might have some
> > opinions they might share with me. (Opinions? Us?)
>
>
>
> I'd like to hear this too. I'm about to try the MAndrake I got at
> WalMart (really!!) but I too would like to hear about others.
> Especially where you got them. I can't download a distro, 56k just
> isn't practical. I'd try Debian, but have not found one with KDE2.
>
> >
> > TIA,
> >
> > --
> > Charles Farinella
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> >
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