to slack or not to slack?

[soulestream]

ive been planning on switching from FC2 to slackware 10.0. New job uses Unix thought slackware would be good to keep my typing straight. Ive downloaded 10.0, got my boot disks and read the install help. i'm ready to go. then it hits me ive got FC2 setup great, samba shares working with my network, tuner card, mplayer, YUM, everything configured the way i want it. I'm learning to compile programs already do to the "ease" of use of RPMs, but other than that i like my box. AM i justified in switching to slack. Is it worth the next 50 hours of resetting up my box. Dual boot is an option, but im kinda limited on space. Any suggestions from the slackware users?


soule

[rbrimhall]

It won't take 50 hours to set up with slackware

[fatTrav]

Tough call manno. It is a pain in the as* to have to resetup everything.

One of the advantages of Slackware is that there are no gui tools to configure things; you have to configure things they way the program's authors intended them via conf files. That is the big Slackware secret. By not having any global gui tool we are forced to learn how to do things the original way and that manner of doing things just carries over to most other distros.

I'd suggest trying FreeBSD if u want to gett more of a UNIX feel. http://www.freesbie.org/ A link to a live cd version. If you're happy with FC2 then don't change. If you want to learn a different distro, then maybe change. I used FC since the beginning and recently switched...do it gradual.

[Hmse]

I agree with FatTrav. Using Slackware teaches you to do things the "real" linux way. And not to mention it is a lot faster than FC2.
It only took me about 5 hours to practically setup everything.
I would say yes it is justified.:)

[Daedrus]

I vote to slack. I still have SuSE 9.1 on my laptop because I didn't have the time to get the wireless working yet, but I made the switch to slackware 10 on my main system at work. I hade the benefit of having an exact match to my original system so I could set slack up on the spare and get it configured before making the swap.

It is definitely worth the switch and you will learn a lot more.

[Jata]

Can you lay your hands on a second pc? You could learn Slackware that way and not bugger up your current setup.
The other option of course is to dual-boot. Do you have space?
I recently swapped to Slackware and was surprised how well it worked straight off. I had a bit of tweaking to do but not as much as I had anticipated.
At the end of the day it's up to you.

[fatTrav]

Dual-boot or just having a testing box, the best way, as I said earlier, is to do things gradually. I wanted to test out Gentoo so I used my "testing box" for it. I installed, configured, tweaked, broke, fixed, broke, fixed for about 3 weeks before I put gentoo on my main box across the room.

It's always good to know your way around before you "break" something that works.:D

[techwise]

are using Unix at work, why not go the BSD route. I have a friend with bsd 5.X on his laptop and it was totally plug n play with all his hardware.

Slack is nice but still not Unix like as BSD is.

I use Slack and love it but hey, if it aint broke, dont fix it.

Mike

[soulestream]

Bsd or slack on a test box might be an option. i can get my hands on a pII or something and set it up and VNC or telnet in to configure it. ( idont want to play monitor swap all the time) I know linux wont have probs on slower systems, will BSD?


soule

[fatTrav]

Originally posted by soulestream
Bsd or slack on a test box might be an option. i can get my hands on a pII or something and set it up and VNC or telnet in to configure it. ( idont want to play monitor swap all the time) I know linux wont have probs on slower systems, will BSD?


soule

telnet?? telnet is a big no-no. Use ssh isntead, one of the "s" is for secure! telnet is plain-text...

[mscole]

In the past I have run both Redhat and Suse, but now I am stuck on Slack for many of the reasons that others have mentioned here. My approach to your problem would be to start out with a dual boot setup. Keep your Fedora Core installation intact and use it when you have to. Take your time tweaking Slackware, use configuration files from FC as references for configuring Slack when you can. When you are confident that you have a Slack setup that is every bit as well-tuned as your FC, back up what you need from the FC partition(s), backup whatever you need from the Slack partition, and most importantly, backup your Slackware /etc partition. Then you can start from scratch if you want to, do a clean install of Slack-only on the machine, and you will have all of your configuration files available from the Slack /etc backup. If you don't want to go to the trouble of a dual boot, make a Slackware live cd http://www.linuxpackages.net/howto.php?page=livecd&title=livecd+HOWTO do your tweaking, and save your config files from that setup to make the switch.
Mike.

[tmcG]

I could not agree with fatTrav & Hmse more! That is the great thing about Slack, it teaches you to learn Linux!

I switched from Mandrake to Slack and love it!

:)

[soulestream]

1. If i dual boot, will i have probs with Lilo or would grub be better.

2. is there a non-descrutive way to partition my linux box, like with partition magic? Fdisk and cfdisk are destructive.

3. thanks for all the help and i use SSH , telnet was a misuse of term.

soule

[mengle]

Well, just to be different from everyone else:

Don't Slack. Don't even think about it. It will destroy your life, etc etc. end of the world......etc... you'll end up in a gutter tired and lonely with a unholy craving for cherry, lime, and strawberry soda.

Actually I've never used slack so I don't really have an opinion but at least I wasted 15 seconds of your time and bumped my postcount by 1.

[fatTrav]

Originally posted by soulestream
1. If i dual boot, will i have probs with Lilo or would grub be better.

2. is there a non-descrutive way to partition my linux box, like with partition magic? Fdisk and cfdisk are destructive.


1 Slackware uses lilo by default, so just use that. I actually grew up using GRUB until I switched to Slack and lilo. I think lilo is a bit better but both work well.

2. I can't really say. I've never done it any other way than to use c/fdisk. I always back-up onto another system/drive and then reimport my data.

[Admiral Frosty]

I just started slack after a year or two of puttzing around with knoppix and suse 8.1(Going on month number two in slack). I love the simplicity! I works, unless I really screw it up! No GUIs for your conf.'s sounds scary, but really its not. Just DONT PANIC. Its really easier this way, once you know how it all works!

Nor is there simple support for .rpm/.deb installers. You build from the source. Ahh, use the power of the source, Tux! It too is not scary. It involves simply installing its dependences (simple, since they should tell you what it needs to run) and typing four commands. Your done! Than all kinds of cool crap scroll by on your screen, impressing passersby! You little linux guru you, I know you can do it!:D

[davo]

Originally posted by soulestream

2. is there a non-descrutive way to partition my linux box, like with partition magic? Fdisk and cfdisk are destructive.


I have great luck using QTParted. It is most likely already installed on your system.

Better yet, go burn yourself a copy of SimplyMEPIS 2004.02. It is designed to be BOTH a live CD and to be installed. Then you can use QTParted from the live CD. Mepis is also a great rescue CD for linux or THAT OTHER OS.

www.mepis.org (ok -- how do I make this a link?)

Although I've never had any problem ALWAYS BACKUP FIRST!. Anybody who does not backup first deserves to be drawn & quartered. Scratch that, when they screw up and lose important stuff then they will know what it's like to be drawn & quartered.

Davo

[soulestream]

QT parted ...intersting

ill check FC2 to see if its there.

and yes i keep backups, sadly ill have to back up my linux install to my win box.


soule