[SWLUG] Which distribution?

[dof at codepoets.co.uk]

Carter N. wrote :
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm considering upgrading my distribution, and thought I'd invite people to
> recommend/decry the distributions (I bet this is a perennial topic!).
> 
> Would anyone care to suggest their favourite distro, and the reasons for
> their favour?
> 

I'd recommend Slackware with Dropline Gnome.

Slackware is a pretty good trade off between upto date packages, 
and stability (i.e. you don't have to wait years before you
can get package xyz like you might with a stable debian). However after
a release has been made there is often a quiet few months (at which
point I suspect the single maintainer Patrick Volkerding goes on
holiday).

Dropline gnome is a 3rd party gnome desktop built for Slackware which is
currently using gnome 2.2, it is pretty slick and has a nice ncurses
interface for upgrading/installing it automatically over the net.

Slackware doesn't do the whole dependancy checking with packages etc,
which some die hards think is a good point. It also doesn't yet use
pam, which i believe all the other main distros do.


If you go for Slackware download the -current branch from a nice mirror
(e.g.
ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current )
Or you can get prepared iso's from places like :
ftp://ftp.kpn.be/pub/linux/slackware/current-iso 


The -current branch is currently using gcc 3.1.something and lots of 
other nice recent packages, and is normally very stable. (See
http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=i386 for a list of
what's in there etc) for what's currently in the -current (which will
 be slackware 9.0 sometime soon)

DropLine Gnome (http://dropline.net/gnome is a 3rd party gnome desktop
for Slackware. It also installs pam, gives you decent fonts and seems
pretty good. (You can of course use the KDE 3.1 desktop with Slackware
if you wish, and skip the dropline thing but I prefer Gnome 2.2).

If you're running on a less capable machine, then try using xfce or some
other lightweight windowmanager (e.g. windowmaker, icewm etc)

Semi useful URLS :

http://www.linuxpackages.net - for slackware packages
http://www.userlocal.com - announcements etc
http://www.dropline.net/gnome - dropline gnome
http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=i386 - contains
announcements of new packages / security fixes etc etc.


thanks,
David.

-- 
David Goodwin 

[ dof at codepoets dot co dot uk   ]
[ http://www.codepoets.co.uk       ]