John C. wrote: > All these levels of software tend to grow but not necessarily get > better. After many years with Slackware and KDE I have given up > on KDE4. To put it another way I find that Xfce gives me more of > the features and the look and feel I am used to with KDE than the > latest KDE does. So I have switched from KDE to Xfce on my > primary Slackware partition but also on my Debian-like partition. > My Debian-like partition has an OS called Xubuntu, basically > Ubuntu with Xfce. > So I have approximately the same interface on either partition. > > It is very easy to download Inkscape, another important tool in my > publishing toolkit, onto a Debian derivative but just about > impossible on Slackware. It is also virtually impossible to compile > it on Slackware. So I downloaded Inkscape to Xubuntu. > > Now I am in the process of migrating Inkscape 46 from that > partition to my main partition. This is easier than figuring out > what editions of which Gnome libraries have to be installed for a > successful compile on Slack.
Why did you go to Xubuntu rather than stick with a Slackware base and try VectorLinux 6 Standard? XFce is the default GUI for VL Standard. Judging by comments on our VectorLinux user support board from former users of Xubuntu, XFce on VL is faster and has fewer problems. If you want Inkscape 4.6, it's a simple download from the VL repos and will pull down all required dependencies. I've been using Inkscape since Day One on VL 6 and it's a tremendous program that should be much better known among open source users (Inkscape is available for Windows, too). VectorLinux could be considered a friendlier, more desktop-oriented Slackware. VL uses slapt-get package management that would be familiar to users of Debian and its derivatives. There is a graphical front end, Gslapt. Slapt-get and Gslapt pull down all needed dependencies for properly made packages. The packages in the VL repos are properly made and some in http://slacky.eu will also find dependencies, though I haven't tried this. There is also a testing version of VL 6 Light with KDE 3.5 as the only window manager. (The regular edition of VL 6 Light has IceWM as the default window manager.) This testing version is intended for people who want to stick with KDE 3.5. It can be downloaded at http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-6.0/iso-test/VL6.0-KDE-Classic-B1.iso One thing I suggest to people who are looking to try Scribus on Linux: don't take people's suggestions as gospel. Every Linux distro has its fans and fanboys as well as people who hate it. Few people making recommendations have tried every distro--and making comments based on something you last tried in 2004 is ridiculous. Desktop Linux has come a LOOOONG way since then. It's true that some distros are newbie-friendlier than others, but unless you're starting out with Linux From Scratch or Gentoo or maybe genuine Slackware, you'll find easy-to-use features in all of them. I think a friendly and knowledgeable user support board is very important because if you're new (and even if you're experienced), you'll have questions and need them answered understandably without being made to feel stupid. This is one area where VectorLinux excels, but I'm sure many other distros have newbie-friendly support. The important thing is to start out with *something*. it's not a decision for eternity. You can always switch to something else if you're not satisfied with the distro you started out with. Also, don't flit around from distro to distro too much. Stick with one long enough to get familiar with it. You can't form an opinion on the basis of half a day's trial. --Judy M. USA Registered Linux User #397786 Being productive with VectorLinux 6.0 Standard, Deluxe Edition
