“The developers at Vector have allowed MadPenguin.org a shot at their newest 3.2 Deluxe release. I for one was pretty stoked about the whole thing, as I grew fond of this distribution very quickly.” Read the review at MadPenguin.
Vector Linux 3.2 Deluxe Ripped Apart
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I’ve never used Slackware. I’m interested by Vector Linux because it’s supposed to be small and light. However, I’m wondering how dependencies are handled during installation of software. I’m reasonably happy with Redhat 8 but I still don’t trust RPM. I would try Gentoo but I’m stuck with dial-up
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really handle dependencies at all.
Sure you can use pkgtool but I usually just install from source. In which case, you’d better hope that you have the latest/required libraries installed. Most of the time though, you just view the ./configure output to find out what you need. Not as nice as RPM, but then again, who said Slackware was easy?
The good thing it has going for it of course is that it *is* extremely light and fast, depending on what types of modules you load at startup (or how big your kernel is). Then of course there’s the DE – running GNOME or KDE would probably make it seem like you were using MDK or RHAT. I’d recommend Fluxbox or even WMaker.
Aerick.
Eugenia gets stoked.
@Rimmer
I think I read on the Gentoo site that you can order a CD now. Of course, you’ll still have to ’emerge world’ to get everything up to date, but at least you’ll have a majority of the stuff installed.
Hmmm… I will go look at the Gentoo website again. It would be perfect if the CD would contain a complete install of Gentoo (similar to RedHat) and I could then upgrade the parts that I use/want. Hopefully the next release (1.4?) will work this way if you don’t have broadband.
i downloaded & installed it, runs good too
…it does sound interesting, but how is it with regards to speed. Alternatively, does anyone know of a review that compares Linux distros in terms of speed (eg, how long does it take to open up a Konqueror window or openoffice.org?).
To add in my own experience, on a P2 266 with 256 MB RAM vs. a P4 2.4 GHz with 512 MB RAM, OO.o takes about the same time to load. Maybe slightly faster on the P4, but not by much. Both computers were running Slackware.
Somehow I doubt that OO.o would open any faster on a RHat, Debian or MDK box (in fact on my brief MDK 9 install on the P4 it was as slow if not slower).
Might give this a try – I use slackware and find it by far the best out of the distro’s i’ve used. Redhat 8 just didn’t cut it for me – rpm’s sucks. They’re a good idea but i’ll be damned if i can ever get dependancies sorted.
For slack, just get all the usual important libs installed – SDL , libdvdread and libdvdcss, liba52 etc. and then you should have no troubles. I’ve been running an install for about four months now and I find that I no hardly ever have to go chasing for libraries anymore.
./configure
make
make install
It’s really not that difficult – although FreeBSD’s packaging puts ALL os’s to shame – even winblows – you still have to search for the software you want in the M$ OS.
I can’t see anyplace on the Gentoo site where you can buy a CD. They do have several different versions (stage 1, 2, and 3) you can download. Stage 3 is the most complete install. I’m not sure if this will give you a reasonably complete Linux workstation. Maybe someone who has tried a stage 3 install to clarify?
PS – I did find a place (on the Gentoo site) to buy a Gentoo hat, mug, and shirt. No CD’s though
How does Yoper handle dependencies? The website is very thin on details (other then Yoper is wonderful). Yoper is going to sell for ~$100? What is so great about it?