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Thread: Slackware... What's so great about it?

  1. #1
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    Slackware... What's so great about it?

    It seems like there are a lot of people who simply love Slackware. But my question is: what about it makes it so good? I've read around a bit and the only thing I found to separate it from other distros is that its installation is text-based and potentially a pain in the ass to install.

    If you wouldn't mind clarifying this for me I would greatly appreciate it

    Thanks,

    mjk

  2. #2
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    Well, I barely work with it (only used it a few times in my life at my friend Ryan's house) but it's interface and overall performance is optimal and work's pretty good. Of course I prefer RedHat and OpenBSD to it, but hey
    Space For Rent.. =]

  3. #3
    AO Antique pwaring's Avatar
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    There are a lot of other distros that are text-based, including Debian and Gentoo, so Slackware is not unique in that respect.

    Also, I've never had problems installing Slackware on any of my machines - it's always been Debian that's caused the problem.
    Paul Waring - Web site design and development.

  4. #4
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    If you're so scared of something not working right the first time then try CalculatorOS. It's text based to and does nothing but crunch numbers and spell funny words if turned sideways. It's also single user single tasking.

    Hard to install? Read my tutorial.

    It also prepairs you for work where UNIX is used, as Slackware uses .tgz files just like BSD and other UNIX OSs do. If you can't figure out Slackware you may not want to ever be an admin....Actually, if you use any key on your keyboard other than "D" to delete email, you're not an admin anyway.

    Shouldn't this be in the OS forum?

  5. #5
    @ÞΜĮЙǐЅŦГǻţΩЯ D0pp139an93r's Avatar
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    There are a lot of other distros that are text-based, including Debian and Gentoo

    Linux itself is text based. It's Gnome, KDE, Blackbox, whatever that give it a GUI. (Of course Xfree86 usually helps...)
    Real security doesn't come with an installer.

  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    With the greatest respect, Moderators...............Operating Systems forum, please?

    This one is interesting, to one or two of us at least.........hey no disrespect to the originator...............just please put it where we can "have it to ourselves"


  7. #7
    @ÞΜĮЙǐЅŦГǻţΩЯ D0pp139an93r's Avatar
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    Dude, if this appears on the front page, it'll turn into a flame war, remember the firewall discussion?

    It is fate.
    Real security doesn't come with an installer.

  8. #8
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    I said in my post it should be in the OS forum. And it won't be put on the front page as it has dick to do with security.

  9. #9
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    Hey,

    Sorry about posting in the wrong forum...

    But anyways, I've been looking around and I think I may download and try out Slackware when I get the chance. We have this old computer sitting in the garage that I want to install Linux on.

    Thanks,

    mjk

  10. #10
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    Hey Hey,

    Before I get started, I have to get this off my chest... Spyder32... RH? EWWWW... Worst Linux distrobution ever. Nothing good has come from RedHat since 7.3.. I hear good things about RHEL, however RH8 and 9 were horrid operating systems, Windows was more reliable.

    Now on to the question at hand. Even the text-based installs are simple to handle... there's really nothing to it.

    Like D0pp139an93r said, all linux distrobutions are text-based... Linux is text-based and contains no GUI. Think of it like running DOS with Windows 3.1 on top of it. DOS is the operating system (Linux) and Windows 3.1 was a GUI interface (X11 (running Gnome, KDE, whichever). This only difference is that some distros (those designed for workstations) set the inittab to runlevel 5 (GUI) by default and those designed for servers set the inittab to runleve 3 (Console).

    Like gore mentioned.. slackware will install .tgz files (using installpkg) which is a very handy way to do installs. There's a few ways that distrobutiosn install files..

    BSD has it's ports system, which Gentoo has borrowed from to develop emerge.
    RH, MDK and SuSE are RPM Distrobutions.
    Debian has apt
    and of course Slackware has installpkg.
    The difference is that BSD, Gentoo and Debian will get the package off the net for you and install it automatically, saving you the work of finding it and manually compiling it. They've gotten to the point where on Gentoo you can now type emerge vmware and vmware workstation will download, compile and install.

    Now there's been changes to these systems as well. Apt4RPM has been developped which works on all RPM based distrobutions and functions similar to Debians apt system. slapt-get has been developped for slackware and uses package indexes along with installpkg to mimic Debians apt. You also have swaret for Slackware which will update the distro, and download and install files for you.

    SuSE comes with a really nice automatic update system (YOU -- YaST Online Update). Slackware, as I mentioned, can be updated using slapt-get or swaret, and Debian can be updated using apt-get. Any RPM based distrobution can use apt4RPM. Last I heard, RH was the only that charged for automatic update abilities.

    Other changes in the operating systems are also evident. When using RedHat, SusE, MDK... you have /etc/rc.d which contains an rc. folder for each runleve (rc.1 rc.2. rc.3 etc).. each of these folders contain startup and kill scripts for the specific runlevels. On Slackware, which operates more similar to Unix (System V).. you have /etc/rd.d which contains scripts for each process, you chmod +x <script> to have it execute at boot and chmod -x <script> to not have it boot. Another difference you will notice is in your inet daemon. Slackware still uses inetd.conf (a single editable file, again like Unix), however other distros (RH, MDK, SuSE) use xinetd (a directory containing one file for each service.. considered to be a secure replacement for inetd.conf). There are many more config differences (/etc/sysconfig is another big one).

    The ulitmate choice is up to you. I'd look at the speed of the CPU (I ran X on a P75, however I wouldn't recommend it hehe).. so if it's quite an old PC... then go with textmode. Then decide if you want to go hardcore into a server or not. You'll find most people prefer slack minimal or debian for servers. Trustix is very nice and hasn't been mentioned yet. It's a secure Trusted distrobution for use on servers.


    Anyways, Good luck with your searches, hopefully you'll find an OS you enjoy,

    Peace,
    HT

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