From the June issue of LinuxGazette: how to install and secure Slackware.
Installing Slackware and Making It Secure
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Well put together instruction on automating some things in Slackware.
This sort of thing is perfect for Slack Admins (Me) and I always wondered why they weren’t included in the actual distro itself. Slack is wonderful, and these simple script tools keep to the clean philosophy of Slackware and complement Slack wonderfully.
I fully agree with you evilEntity, you evil SOB. No really, I’m somewhat saddened to see (what I percieve) to be dwindling interest in Slackware these days. It’s unfortunate because it provides such a unique and hands on experience. With that, also comes a very time consuming experience; these automation scripts really improve Slackware in this area.
When it comes down to it, I generally compile all programs which will consume many processor cycles on my servers. This includes Apache, Postfix, et al. I think Slackware is so great because it gives you a very minimalist GNU/Linux install, that you can customize by hand if you so desire. In this way, it’s much like LFS, without you having to spend days downloading/configuring/compiling GCC and the like.
Wow, I’m bordering on zealotry here, so I think I’ll cut myself off. Long live SLACKWARE 🙂
No really, I’m somewhat saddened to see (what I percieve) to be dwindling interest in Slackware these days.
where has the interest moved on to?
A few things here.
Para: *Always* Glad to see another “Slacker” and one that relly knows the philosophy of what Slackware tries to entail as a Linux Distro. I do the same thing with my boxes, in that I compile most programs that will be the main use while using the tried and true packages from Slack Current for the base(upgrades). I think this gives the benefits of both roads that Linux has been taking (Binary & Source).
I do slightly disagree with you on the time consuming part. It is no more time consuming than setting up and maintaining any OS for that matter I think. Any OS (especially a Server) needs tweaking and fine-tuning after install. It is just that Slack it is mostly Command-Line work. And some might argue that is _less time consuming_ (like me).
Anon: Where has it gone?? Take a look at the OS Poll Eugina put up. There are more Gentoo minions out there always looking for the opportunity to give their informercial posts than all other distro’s combined! Praising their complete compile from scratch system and their “Ports-Type” (yeah, right) upgrading as the second coming. Source-based Distros have really attracted their share of zealots. If these zealots want a Pentium4 -O3 (etc) optimed “ls” that is their problem. I feel sorry for them.
RedHat is the largest Linux Distro distributor, Debian might be 4th, Slack is probably top 7-10 . Where are all these minions? Doing some real work and taking care of some real servers I suspect. You don’t see these guys taking every opp to pitch how *great* their new compile everything from source and automatically checking for new updates daily distro is.
See, what it all comes down to is what works and economics. When these Gentoo freaks start to enter the business work and come across a client who needs a Linux fileserver, webserver or whatnot that will see good use, they will realize that a solid setup that is silently in the backround doing its job day in and day out is MUCH better than the customer having to call you all the time with problems after that auto compile/update routine screwed something up. Yes, more work equals more money, nice for you, but from the client (or company head honchos) perspective, you are drowning.
“Bulletproof” instead of “Bleedingedge”. Only updating for security issues or to catch up after several versions, after of course researching what has changed since the one running.
And this all pertains to any OS. I am not picking on Source Based Linux (although it is ripe to be picked on as they cement the point of being all compiled with user chosen optimizations instead of the developer defaults and updated constantly).
Peace,
eE
I’ve been trying to get to LinuxGazette through the provided links all morning, it always times out. Is LinuxGazette down, or is it just me?
I’m trying to connect with Mozilla 1.3 WinNT.