Does it have a package manager yet?
Slackware does not and very likely will not have dependency resolution. Its package manager is pkg which is a script that explodes a gzipped tarball from root.
Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
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Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#12For those of you that don't know about Slackware. Slackware is the oldest distro and it is still plenty alive today. When to setup linux on my computer in the early days with other distros (red hat/suse/etc), this would eventually crap up (rpm hell) and give me something unusable. Using Slackware forces you understand how everything works in a linux distro. This lets you fix your own problems.
And then SalixOS lets you benefit from Slackware without understanding much at all, like some kind of slack Ubuntu.
To me the understanding that Slackware forced upon you, at least earlier, was the benefit.
They could have bumped the version number to 15, I don't think anyone would mind.
Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#13For those of you that don't know about Slackware. Slackware is the oldest distro and it is still plenty alive today. When to setup linux on my computer in the early days with other distros (red hat/suse/etc), this would eventually crap up (rpm hell) and give me something unusable. Using Slackware forces you understand how everything works in a linux distro. This lets you fix your own problems.
It's not the oldest. SLS predates slackware (as do a few others iirc) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System Slack was awesome back in the day, but the the philosophy as being "as unix like as possible" prevented it evolving and adding nice things like package managers. Using slackware is a good exercise, but I'd never use it for an application I care about.
If you only need a couple of applications, it's great. We use it for 200+ POS terminals for our ERP/CRM software. It's obscure enough that the end users have no clue how to mess anything up (aside for occasional icon deletion in KDE, but even that needs the "unlock" step).
Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slackware has always had a package manager, from the beginning. What you probably mean is "does it have a package manager with dependency resolution, yet?". And the answer has been "yes" for years now. Several, actually. They aren't included in the main installation, but they are widely used. See also http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:package_management
Right, what I mean is can I type apt-get/dnf/zypper/emerge/whatever install apache and have that work
swaret, slapt-get, etc. listed in Unofficial Tools section on that page do exactly as you wrote.
However, I find that people who choose Slackware usually like to compile stuff on their own. It can be a painful experience with some programs that have narrow version compatibility ranges for some libraries. For example, I recall building Inkscape and Workrave to be a nightmare because you had to try 5-10 versions of some dependencies until it clicked.
Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, what I mean is can I type apt-get/dnf/zypper/emerge/whatever install apache and have that work
swaret, slapt-get, etc. listed in Unofficial Tools section on that page do exactly as you wrote. However, I find that people who choose Slackware usually like to compile stuff on their own. It can be a painful experience with some programs that have narrow version compatibility ranges for some libraries. For example, I recall building Inkscape and Workrave to be a nightmare because you had to try 5-10 versions of som…
I remember this, trying to install various dependencies. It was a complete nightmare.
Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#16Slackware is the muscle car of linux distros. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, it's fast and solid. Plus if you can master Slack, you can waltz into any other distro and not break a sweat.
I've run it on desktops/servers since version 8 and love it. People knock it for not having a "real" package manager, but if you like the control of compiling from source then this doesn't really matter (and you always have the latest versions of any packages available). There's almost always a slackbuild for the project you want. Plus there is the official slackpkg (and slapt-get/swaret for dep resolution as well).
So yeah, it's a bit more work, but I guess for some of us that's fun.
Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#17I don't see systemd in there anywhere.
Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#18Slackware is the muscle car of linux distros. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, it's fast and solid. Plus if you can master Slack, you can waltz into any other distro and not break a sweat. I've run it on desktops/servers since version 8 and love it. People knock it for not having a "real" package manager, but if you like the control of compiling from source then this doesn't really matter (and you always h…
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Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#19For those of you that don't know about Slackware. Slackware is the oldest distro and it is still plenty alive today. When to setup linux on my computer in the early days with other distros (red hat/suse/etc), this would eventually crap up (rpm hell) and give me something unusable. Using Slackware forces you understand how everything works in a linux distro. This lets you fix your own problems.
It's not the oldest. SLS predates slackware (as do a few others iirc) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softlanding_Linux_System Slack was awesome back in the day, but the the philosophy as being "as unix like as possible" prevented it evolving and adding nice things like package managers. Using slackware is a good exercise, but I'd never use it for an application I care about.
This is simply false. Slackware has a package manager. It just does not resolve dependencies. It has also evolved. The Slackware developers have worked on packages such as wicd, which makes networking easy without dependency bloat; other distros reap the benefits of it too.
Re: Slackware 14.2 release candidate 1
#20Slackware is the muscle car of linux distros. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, it's fast and solid. Plus if you can master Slack, you can waltz into any other distro and not break a sweat. I've run it on desktops/servers since version 8 and love it. People knock it for not having a "real" package manager, but if you like the control of compiling from source then this doesn't really matter (and you always h…
How does the difficulty of installing Slackware compare to Arch or Gentoo?
I've only ever installed and used Arch.