OneAndOneIs2

Slackware is mostly OK, but the package management system is plainly stupid. With slapt-get officialy supported and compatible packages in the official repository (with support for dependency checking) it would become decent, but until (or if?) then, I just can't use it.

I need big (official repositories) and dependency checking, this is the first thing I want from a distro. And I think I'm not the only one.

Anyway, now I'm using Ubuntu Feisty installed with the alternate CD -> "Install a CLI system" and the installed afterwards the packages I need. This way I don't get that windows-like feeling with Ubuntu :D.

I cannot use Slackware because it's too much trouble to keep manually updating. Dependency resolution manually just doesn't attract me. It's neither a learning experience not does the prospect of editing a dozen text files for configuration really attract me any more.

These days I use Linux to get work done, not use Linux for the sake of using Linux.

Debian offers me everything of the best worlds. It allows manual configuration, but at the same time the package manager is so darn convenient and the *huge* repositories offer me all the applications I need without having to bother about manually maintaining them.

Yeah, I know a lot of Slackware users say, "Slacker for life". I'm just not one of them. It is a good distro for what it is, but I'm not a big fan myself.

It was the package management that made me switch last time, funnily enough.

"Getting isn't keeping" as they say - I might well not stick with Slack.

But I'm at least going to give it a try & see what Pat's been doing with it in the last few years :o)

Dominic, I think I understand how you feel. It's the same with myself. There's something very attractive about Slackware from the outside and the way Slackware fans describe its addictive qualities. I'm yet to experience that myself.

Its lack of applications in the main repository combined with the difficulty of maintaining a customized Slackware system (because every new release literally forces you to reinstall - the upgrade system is extremely quirky, even with reading all those changelogs). You are forced to do a lot of work to make Slackware into a full fledged multimedia box, for instance. You're just forced to do so much manual configuration that you hardly end up having time to use it.

I guess Patrick has his own philosophy and while he's free to have it, I am free to remain cool towards it. Also the fact that he sells Slackware as a commercial (though non-proprietary) distribution makes me believe that to some extent he doesn't want end users to be able to upgrade smoothly (like a rolling distribution) and therefore deprive him of subscription income on new CDs - I might be wrong about that, though, but that's the impression I get. Nothing wrong in that... I just don't want a hard-to-upgrade distribution.

There - I've got my Slackware rant out of the way. :-)

And about Gentoo. I find it a great distro in many ways, unfortunately the practical problem of having to compile every single application from source virtually made me abandon it. It still lies dormant in my hard-drive, but I hardly boot into it nowadays.

In the climate I live in, compiling for a long period (like days) can literally burn my CPU out. :-p

> I've got my Slackware rant out of the way

I'll work on getting categories for comments as well as posts when I get a minute ;o)

> because every new release literally forces you to reinstall

Yep, this is true, and it was in fact upgrading from Slack 9 to 10 that broke the whole thing badly enough that I looked for another distro.

But (there's always a but...) I have to say that I still haven't yet had a successful upgrade of Ubuntu from one version to another. Even installing one version and telling that totally-vanilla install to upgrade to the next release (Something I tried once) failed to work.

So while it's definitely easier to keep Ubuntu up-to-date with security fixes etc, as far as I'm concerned upgrading from one version to the next with either distro requires a complete reinstall.

Gentoo was better in that respect, having no "versions" as such, but the number of times a package would break because the old config file wasn't valid for the new version, or because the new file had over-written the old, or a new version of package X broke some other package Y. It got beyond a joke, it really did.

So I can't really say that having to reinstall Slack to upgrade ranks it as any worse than any other distro I've used. Gentoo is still on my HD, months out of date, because it's so badly broken I literally can't upgrade. And I'm still using Ubuntu Dapper because I can't face installing & configuring Feisty and I already know it will fail to upgrade.

> You're just forced to do so much manual configuration that you hardly end up having time to use it.

No arguments from me on that score. That did, mind you, make it an ideal distro for me to use as my first installation: I learned a huge amount about Linux by spending a few years making Slackware work exactly the way I wanted.

Assuming I can still remember enough of it, it hopefully won't take me too long to install & configure the latest version the way I want it ;o)

> the practical problem of having to compile every single application from source

Here is where having an always-on PC scores big: I just left it running overnight and didn't have to worry about how long installation took :o)

Strange about your problems upgrading *buntu, worked for me about 10 times, and failed only once.

Also, I saw systems with Debian installed years ago and still running the latest version, just by upgrading.

I have used Debian for around 4-5 years now and it has broken only once (when upgrading from XFree86 to Xorg which is tricky in any case).

Nothing was so unfixable that I had to reinstall from scratch.

I did once delete the Debian partition accidentally when trying to install Arch, but that is a different story.

Here is where having an always-on PC scores big: I just left it running overnight and didn't have to worry about how long installation took :o)

Nah... I had just left my PC on just last night and in the morning there was a burnt smell in the room... luckily it was the three-way plug to the mains which had burned and not the system UPS.

However, as you can realize, I don't live in a country where the power supply is not that great and even the UPS can take a serious pounding. Again the weather is warm and constant compiling leaves CPUs running at about 70-75 Degrees Celcius which is a dangerously unhealthy temperature for the device.

I've tried, I really have tried, to like Debian. Practically everybody in my LUG uses either Debian or a derivative of it, like Ubuntu.

apt-get is an amazing bit of kit. The repositories are huge. It's got everything going for it.

But try as I might... I just can't get on with it. I've tried numerous times, and failed. I don't know what it is, really, I just hate using it. I only cope with Ubuntu because it hides so much from you by doing it automatically.

Wish it were otherwise, because on paper Debian's a really good fit for what I want from a distro. I just can't get on with it.

Incidentally, hari, ever thought about water-cooling? ;o)

Well, I hope you find your favourite distribution. I've found mine: Debian. For around 5 years now it's been the mainstay on my desktop and laptop systems.

Incidentally the way you feel about Debian (tried, really tried to like it) is exactly the way I feel about Slackware. I've really tried hard. I've spent days manually compiling and installing apps and tried to enjoy that experience - I've sat and compiled custom kernels and learnt a lot that way too... But on my laptop, it would take a lot of work just to make Slackware work properly while I have a lot of stuff to do. And I just haven't worked up any enthusiasm for all the manual config stuff.

As for water-cooling, if there is such a technology either it's too expensive or it's not available here in India. Most PC vendors wouldn't have even heard of it.

This just bears out what's been said for years - often you like something because you like it. I have used *buntu and Debian and really like them. I prefer Slackware for no other or better reason than...I just do. So yah boo sucks to you!

I don't mind doing things from source - in fact I quite enjoy it. It's when something using a package manager breaks that I get flustered. I think it's a state of mind.

This just bears out what's been said for years - often you like something because you like it.

Quite true. From the beginning I think Debian just stuck with me. Before that I was constantly removing and reinstalling Linux and never really used it regularly. When I moved to Debian, it just seemed the correct distribution for my needs.

Of course, with better and better internet connection over the years Debian just seems more logical.

And part of the reason I never tried Slackware till very late in the day is because that distro does not seem to be popular in India. Mostly we have RedHat/Fedora and SUSE and such distros. Most magazines in thsoe days supplied RedHat CDs and so we all began our journey with RedHat Linux (mostly). Even my first Debian was a magazine DVD. Downloading Linux from the internet was a far cry those days.