[Wolves] Slackware

[Philip Moore]

On Tuesday 17 August 2004 09:06, David Goodwin wrote:
> > Is it worth persuing Slackware?
>
> Pros:
>
> 1) It doesn't tend to use as much resources than SuSE/RedHat etc
> 2) The packages generally have no custom modifications, so resemble
> closely what the developer(s) produced/support etc.
> 3) -current tree available for up to date bleeding-edge versions. From
> experience this is very stable.
> 4) Update tools like swaret or slapt-get are available to download and
> install packages for you.
> 5) The oldest commercial distro...
> 6) Unpatched kernel - unlike RedHat/SuSE.. some argue this results in
> greater stability
>
>
>
> Cons:
>
> 1) Doesn't have such a huge pool of packages as Debian and friends.
> 2) Lacks any real commercial support  (e.g. by Oracle etc).
> 3) You might end up compiling packages for your own use.. although this
> is good (learning experience etc), it eventually gets a bit boring and
> tedious, and a right pain in the buttock when you end up doing a complex
> system with many dependencies.
> 4) Doesn't use sysV style init scripts (i.e. /etc/init.d/smb etc). It
> does support them however, if you wish to install your own custom ones.


Hi

Thanks for your considered response - greatly appreciated.  

I think I will stick with SuSE 9.0 professional for the main work for the time 
being but I will persevere with Slackware (I have version 10.0) on the old 
laptop to learn how to operate the system properly as in the long term it 
looks like a good option as the future of the main distros seems (to me at 
least) to be unclear.

Philip Moore