Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 21st May 2007 23:27 UTC, submitted by FreeRhino
"VectorLinux has been one of my favorite projects since my first test of the distribution almost 18 months ago. I like VectorLinux because its roots are firmly planted in the stability and simplicity of Slackware, yet it comes with an extensive software base and lots of out-of-the-box great looks; in other words, a rock solid foundation with eye candy and useful functionality. While standard VectorLinux comes with the Xfce desktop environment and a variety of general-purpose applications, VectorLinux 5.8 SOHO offers the KDE desktop and a host of applications for small and home office users."
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Member since:
2006-01-23
The article could have been more to the point as to why Vector is a "better Slackware than Slackware."
That said, I found the review to be pretty good but my questions have more to do with Vector Linux itself.
With the next version--version 6.0--the developers or Vectelopers as they are known, plan to fork even further away from Slackware. How much forking is not known at this time but this may not be a good thing for Vector.
Secondly, this is a distribution that seems to fade as time goes on only to reappear when they deliver a new release. Does Vector have the resources to support their distro for the long haul? How committed are the developers to continuing the distro? Is there enough community interest to even continue with this distro? How many users does it actually have?
Finally, I have found that except for the eye candy Slackware can be made to do just as much if not more than other distros in its class. And believe me, there aren't that many distros that can compete with the simplicity, stability, speed and security that is inherent to Slackware.
Personally, I will probably stay with Slack as my main distro and "play" around with Vector on a spare machine.
One last thought: whenever a derivative appears, it always seems to do less and provide less than the parent distro.
I think Vector is fine for simple tasks but whenever a distro "dumbs down" or makes things easier they always seem to leave off some of the tools and resources that made the parent distro so great to begin with. This paring down of features usually happens while making the distro easier for the masses and prettier to the eye.
Personally, I'd rather have the tools and resources than a pretty face with missing ingredients under the hood.