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a slackware thread


saturnian

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Easy, I was tired of building packages from source.

 

That's the kind of simply reply I was expecting to see in that thread, but I don't think anyone has written something like that there yet!

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securitybreach

It can be a problem building packages from source, that's for sure!

 

Well this was 2005-06, so there were no slackpkg and such available. If you go through Dep h311 a few times, you will understand.

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Oh man, this thread and the one over at LQ has so much potential to be click bait. I hope I don't add to the problem.

My view is that if you are intelligent enough to "get" Slackware, you can end up as a long-term user and supporter. I never have been that smart I guess.

My problem with Slack was that years ago it seemed so KDE-centric and I didn't want to use KDE. Now there was a derivative distro Vector Linux that used Xfce and that distro worked great on a particular old piece of crap laptop I had. But I never upgraded from VL 4.8 because after that the distro would not run the fan on the old laptop anymore. No other distro would either. But VL isn't maintained much and after the old laptop was essentially useless I stopped installing it.

I know Eric uses Slack with Xfce but if I want to do that I could install Arch or MX-17 - both of which I "get" a bit better.

Nobody can be a guru on every distro and so I stick pretty much to the Debian world - or Arch. We already have a pretty smart Slack guy here so I don't feel the site is missing anything if I let him handle the questions on it. Or Arch Linux for that matter. Lots of good Arch gurus here.

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Well, I thought the OP's questions were legit, and I certainly wouldn't characterize any of this as "click-bait" -- simply an interesting and informative thread, in my opinion. I linked to it here because I wanted to know what folks here might have to say about it.

 

A good friend of mine has been telling me for years that I'll start using Slackware eventually, but I'm not so sure about that. I can tell by the things I've read -- not only in these two threads, but elsewhere -- that Slackware is a great distro, and that its users generally tend to stick with it over time. It might not be the best fit for me, but threads like these help give me a better idea of what the distro is all about.

 

Why did they stop using Slackware? Because they're all spineless, lazy wussies. ;)

 

Ha-ha!!! You forgot "pathetic."

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The thread over at LQ continues to be civil and interesting - no signs of a flamewar. I would never expect a flamewar here.

Harking back to the age of Bruno, he basically maintained 2 distros - Slackware for enthusiasts and Mandriva for recreational users. He was much more of a guru than this of course. As a relative naif I went for Mandriva (or Mageia today.)

I installed Slackware (it isn't that hard to do the basic install if you can handle a text based installer.) At the time I didn't appreciate the simplicity and stability, and I didn't find that Slackware offered me any advantage in use over Mandriva (which has a dynamite GUI control center.) It might be a different story today.

As to whether Slackware is for you, only a trial installation will tell. We have an experienced and helpful Slacker here so I'd just follow his advice.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Slackers are pretty mellow, usually. Occasionally, Pat V. will have to come to LQ to set some "asshat", as he likes to call them, straight. There are MANY Slackware users at LQ.

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It can be a problem building packages from source, that's for sure!

 

Well this was 2005-06, so there were no slackpkg and such available. If you go through Dep h311 a few times, you will understand.

 

Oh! So Slackware users no longer have to build packages from source? I'm looking at this page: https://docs.slackwa...ckware:slackpkg

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securitybreach

It can be a problem building packages from source, that's for sure!

 

Well this was 2005-06, so there were no slackpkg and such available. If you go through Dep h311 a few times, you will understand.

 

Oh! So Slackware users no longer have to build packages from source? I'm looking at this page: https://docs.slackwa...ckware:slackpkg

 

You haven't had to do that in many years..

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V.T. Eric Layton

The last time I built anything from source was when I was trying to get Chromium to work on my system. I had to do this after v53.x because something they changed upstream made it so neither Chrome nor Chromium will run on my Slackware. That's why I'm using FF these days. I miss my Chromium. :(

 

If I ever get around to upgrading to 14.2, that will probably solve the problem.

 

Anyway, Slackware comes with much software out-of-the-box, and if that's not enough, there are thousands of SlackBuild packages out there. Easy-peasy! :)

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Harking back to the age of Bruno, he basically maintained 2 distros - Slackware for enthusiasts and Mandriva for recreational users.

He also had Debian and started the Debian Updates thread. I still maintain that. Was thinking of stopping but monitored views and it gets 40-50 every day!

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V.T. Eric Layton

Heh! I still get the Debian updates from the mailing list. :)

 

---

 

I quit doing the Slack updates because Slack updates so rarely that it was like being the Maytag repairman. ;)

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I have to admit, Slackware is sounding a lot more appealing to me now, after seeing what folks are saying here and in that LQ thread. Maybe I'll get around to installing it someday. I quite enjoy running Debian and Arch, though.

 

Any comments about dependency resolution in Slackware would be much appreciated.

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V.T. Eric Layton

If you can do Arch, you'll have no problems with Slackware. I've been running Slack for over about 14 (actually, it's 12... my math was bad) years now as a primary OS. I've gotten lost in dependency heck just once. Of course, that's just me. Installing software is a personal thing. The stuff I look for and install has been very simple to achieve, usually. I either install from the Slackware repos (0 effort needed) or I install from SlackBuilds (a little effort needed) or I install via binaries (also very easy-peasy). The only time I had to chase down dependencies was when I was trying to install the "new" (at the time) Firefox on Slackware manually instead of using the repo version. Well, Pat V. knows his s^|t, that's why the FF in the repos worked and the new version I built from scratch didn't.

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When I used Vector Linux I never had any dependency problems. I just installed everything they had and then never worried about updates until the next release came out.

Edited by raymac46
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