Mad Penguin’s Adam Doxtater reviews Slackware Linux 10.1: “It’s stable, fast, and has a reputation for the most excellent quality control in the business.”
Mad Penguin’s Adam Doxtater reviews Slackware Linux 10.1: “It’s stable, fast, and has a reputation for the most excellent quality control in the business.”
It’s a good review and a good distro!
does it have automatic dependency handling yet? No?
I have less dependency problems with Slack then I ever have with any distro that does.
> does it have automatic dependency handling yet?
Yes and No. If you wish depency handling, you can install third party tools like Swaret [1], Slapt-Get [2] or Slack-Get [3] : they are kind of Apt-Get like tools. Which one is the best ? You have to try each of them to get your own answer as I don’t use any of them.
[1] Swaret : http://swaret.sourceforge.net/
[2] Slapt-Get : http://software.jaos.org/#slapt-get
[3] Slack-Get : http://slackget.infinityperl.org/
No dependency handling, exactly why I choose this distro. DIY has given me the least problems. Your milage may vary though. I tried Debain and other variants, as well as a few .rpm distro’s. All I can say is that I would rather set up my hardware myself than have an install try to make an educated guess. Im running the show, not my software.
What’s the deal with Pat? Is he back to 100%? It seems like Slackware is pretty much a one man show? I could be wrong though.
Why does Slackware still have the 2.4.* kernel?
IIRC, you can install it with 2.6 without the problem. Anyway, thanks to it simplicity you can just grab source from kernel.org and build your own. 😉
A.) 10.1 is getting old anyway.
B.) Pat didn’t think 2.6 was stable yet, and he’s correct it’s not stable (think Debian stable, not non-crashing stable).
> A.) 10.1 is getting old anyway.
True… afaik 10.2 is getting closer : in the slackware-current changelog, you can see that pkgtool is now on version 10.2 and also this entry :
bootdisks/*: Regenerated bootdisks with “Slackware 10.2” label.
Can’t wait for 10.2 (even if I’m mostly on -current now) – since I’m getting a laptop soon, a fresh install with 10.2 would be quite nice!
>True… afaik 10.2 is getting closer : in the >slackware-current changelog, you can see that pkgtool >is now on version 10.2 and also this entry :
.. and then the odd thing i noticed. The installer says Slackware 11 in slackware-current.
It’s a fine DIY distro. Everything, from startup scripts to packages is DEAD SIMPLE. If you want to learn about how Linux works, get it and play with it. Even if I’m a member of Ubuntu community I still admire Slackware for it clean design.
Go, Pat! 🙂
“The interesting thing is that no matter how many distros I use, or even how much I enjoy them, it seems I always come back to Slackware Linux. This is the distro I consider home.”
100% ACK
Amen.
There was a time when I had tried all the major players – and even some that weren’t. And as the other Anonymous points out.. I always came back to slackware.
I hadn’t touched linux since my last job and took some time over the weekend to play. From Slackware 10.1 to a fully functioning E17 desktop it was as silky smooth and user controllable as I remember.
Amen too…
i have used ( daily ) Mandrake(s), Red-Hat(s), Debian and Gentoo… but at my home desktop and here at my notebook, i only use Slack ( i confess i have used Vector, hoping it would squeeze some more performance from my old PII 300… but it didn’t ) and a Slax livecd i carry around.
No distro is easier to admin than the one you know best ( in my case, Slack ), but no one is easier to keep smoothly running than the one that does not have dependency handling glued to its “core” ( have you ever tried to upgrade a less-than-important application and realize your package manager decides to upgrade everything up to the glibc, and then a unexpected full upgrade became necessary ? I have… both urmpi and synaptic gave me those surprises ).
ACK, too.
Slackware Linux: simplicity is beauty
Other distros is bloated !
PS: I have been using Slackware since 2000 and never had problems !
Thanx a lot Pat !
Anyway, thanks to it simplicity you can just grab source from kernel.org and build your own. 😉
Yes, i have ran Slackware for a while,also due it’s so called simplicity performance is impressive.
And that’s the whole trick. We’re giving away some of nice features provided by other distros, but we gain a pleasure of hacking and a bit of raw speed.
If you’re using a motherboard with the Intel 82845 video chip, the video will disappear and not return if you switch from X to a console (Ctl-Alt-F1, etc.). I’ve had this on 2 machines now and only when using Slackware 10.0 or 10.1.
Intel has a Linux driver for this chip on their website. Installing this driver and changing (or adding) the driver in “Section Device” in xorg.conf from “vesa” to “i810” fixes the problem.
Just try kernel 2.6.11.7 with i810 and i845 support and acceleration support enabled.
I have installed it on my friends system with 845 chipset. Kernel 2.4 is bad for intel chipsets
but 2.6.x is great. 3D works fine with 2.6 in slackware and the “console” and “black titlebar” and “black boxes in the movie” is gone.
Hey, I never knew there were so many package handlers for Slackware. This is great for keeping people’s system up-to-date. Although it would be nice if Slackware officially supported at least one of them, this is a good start. 🙂
Although it doesn’t do dependency handling, SlackPKG is included in extra/:
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/vol/1/linux-slackware/slackware-10.1/extra/slac…
Very nice review,
Keep up the good job
I just made a little script that checks if the Slackware-current-ChangeLog at Slackware.org has changed and mails me when it has and informs me of the changes made to it.
For package updating I use Swaret, but that’s just for updating previously installed packages (hence “updating”). For new stuff i just download it from my nearest Slackware mirror and run installpkg on it – if i find it needed for my box. I bet there’s tons of easier ways of dealing with this, but it has kept my box secure and stable for ages. I’ve been running Slackware Current for quite a few years now and i can’t remember having any severe problems at all.
It can’t compete with, say, Fedora or Ubuntu when it comes to desktop usage for John Doe, but for my purposes it’s just plain ol’ awesome.
i think the netpkg program that minislack uses is pretty neat. its not as feature filled as apt-get or yum but its quick and clean and fits well with the slackware mentality.
I have been tinkering with Linux since 1997. I started with Slackware 3.5, redhat 4.1 and tried most of the other mainstream distros.. Knoppix is a winner, Mepis is great, Debian is an extremely important part of the communnity. Their apt-get and repository are foundation for the entire community. but Slackware10 is running on my 2 desktops and my webserver. I just keep coming back to it. Slackware is clean, configurable, fast, reliable and predictable. I also do much CLLI work, and Slackware is very, very useable as CLLI system. It may not be the very best, but for me it is definitely the most comfortable. The Author is ‘right on’.
why do people persist in perpetuaing the myth that Slackware is fast? prove it. numbers and comparisons would be more useful than “the desktop feels snappy, apps load faster”.
How come no Slackware icon in the article header? just regular tux.
Anyway, I recently moved over to Slackware and I love it. It is totally comfortable and easy. And for dependencies? I have had the least amount of problems with slackware as compared to any other distro. Compiling apps actually works, when it often didn’t on other distros. Rarely have I encountered dependencies and when I do, I just download ’em and compile them too. Piece of cake!
I honestly think Slack is the easiest distro to maintain.
one more thing: I am almost positive pat will release 10.2 with 2.4.x kernel before moving to 11.0 and kernel 2.6.x. Personally I think that’s a good thing. 2.4.x works just fine for most, and if you want 2.6.x, install the one in /extra or roll your own.
There are some VectorLinux vs Slackware benchmark numbers here: http://madpenguin.org/cms/index.php?m=show&id=583
Putting less packages into a system, to me, it could minimise the security risks. And I have slackware 10.1 installed as my coporate DNS server with less than 130mb of disk space (package group ‘a’ and some networking stuffs in ‘n’) on 2 old acer machine. isn’t it sleek?
good distro, good article, and it’s a real pleasure to see that so much people happily using slack like i do. i moved from freebsd to slack 2 years ago and i just love it. and i don’t get what’s the prob with 2.4 kernel, it’s so easy to upgrade to 2.6 if you need it… anyway, happy slackin’, everybody!