JM Ibanez wrote:
> Offhand, having worked with Debian and Slackware, here is how I'd > characterize Slackware
> Very barebones
Not exactly. You can get a very nice KDE or GNOME desktop with the default install. Java (iirc) and Mozilla are also included. I wouldn't exactly call 2 CDs of packages barebones.
I think Slackware strikes one of the best balances between providing the interesting stuff and yet remaining as slim as possible.
> Very stable
Yes. Frankly, I'm surprised as to why other Linux OSes would not be stable. Although I have seen my poor friend's Mandrake box choke halfway during bootup more than once in a session when we were trying to get Kylix to run on it. So reminiscent of Windows 9x/3.1... LOL!
> "Masochistic" > Very techie oriented (i.e. not very newbie-friendly)
Slackware has a steep learning curve, admittedly. I would recommend having a friend familiar with it teach you the ropes as it will speed up your learning by an order of magnitude!
The learning curve is well worth the climb though as once you are over it, you can get everything done so much faster by sticking with command line stuff. This, to me, is exactly the main reason why someone would want to choose Linux/*nix over Windows. I don't see the point of using Linux for its GUI (at least not the present ones).
Slackware boots you into a command line shell, not into X. H-O-O-R-A-Y for that.
> However, caveat emptor: Slackware is painful to most people, > and can be a hassle working with, especially installing or setting > up software (without a precompiled Slackware package tarball, for > example). There is no such thing as dependencies with a vanilla > Slackware package tarball(*). You have been warned.
SLACKWARE PACKAGE INSTALLATION AND REMOVAL ========================================== With slackware, once you have compiled tarballs you only need to know TWO commands to add and remove stuff on your system:
installpkg package-name removepkg package-name
I have yet to remember myself even having to use any options (which is sadly, not the case with RPM and all its [EMAIL PROTECTED]@^ dependency checking).
CREATING YOUR OWN COMPILED TARBALL IN SLACKWARE =============================================== The actual process of creating your own tarball from a .tar.gz is actually pretty easy and is The Right Way (tm). It's /figuring out/ how to do it in the first place that was painful. But I've already done it for you:
http://lists.q-linux.com/pipermail/plug/2002-September/021161.html
> Debian, on the other hand, holds its weight pretty well. The > precompiled packages available for the distro is huge-- often, makes > you want to stop and think, just to figure out which ones you really > need. apt-get is a life saver, especially when you have to install a > package and don't know what's needed, as it automatically grabs > dependencies. The large array of choices has its drawbacks-- you have > to really stop and think, and not get overwhelmed.
Apt-get reminds me of FreeBSD's ports system. Cool. But sometimes I can't help but feel that it is overengineered. If you think about Gentoo's Portage, one could say that it is even MORE overengineered (concept-wise).
Practically speaking, it is useful for end-users, but for developers, it's a Gordian knot - layer upon layer upon layer - as if the autotools themselves weren't complicated enough... now you have scripts interacting with them with gadzillions of permutations which you now have to debug.
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