[ale] Slackware questions for Slackware users

[Transam]

On Sat, Sep 27, 2003 at 11:10:38PM -0400, Greg wrote:
...
> 1.  What do you think are the main differences between Slackware and the
> rest ?

> 2.  How do you update ? is this the one that uses the apt-get stuff or is it
> via rpm's ?  The website only had a package/port  installer that looked
> similar to the BSD type system - which is fine by me.
They send email notifying me of security problems.  I download (using
my "updatesw81" alias that mirrors their update site).  I install what
I need with their "updatepkg" that is similar to RPM.  It doesn't have
all of the RH dependency checking but then again no dependency hell and
yet installs always seem to succeed.

Btw, I have to deal with a RH "up2date" failing due to a Perl security
patch failing because it stupidly depends on the Set-UID version of Perl.
I *ALWAYS* nuke the Set-UID Perl for security.  Jerks.  No such problem
with SW.

> 3. Can a base install of only the kernel be achieved, without all of the
> unneeded (by me) crap of Sendmail, bind, mutt, etc., etc, .... ?
Yes.  You can select what packages to load and what programs within those
packages to load.  It will advise of dependencies during the install process.

> 4.  What is it about Slackware that you prefer to run it over other distros
> ?
Less unneeded junk.  I don't want five different "dancing girls" aps
to get my work done.  I don't have to fight buggy GUI SysAdmin programs
(and figure out which one actually does what I want) nor figure out how
to "sync" one when I need to do something that it is incapable of doing.
(Hacking sendmail.cf comes to mind.)

You learn more about the guts of Linux by directly editing configuration
files.  I need to be a good SysAdmin, not a clueless user, in order to
be able to troubleshoot client problems.

Far less bugs to deal with.  Some of this is due to having less things
that I'm not interested in but still need security patches (or deletion)
if vulnerabilities are discovered.  Some of it is due to better quality
code.  Contrary to popular belief, the different Linux Distros are not
"all the same code except for Install tools and SysAdmin GUIs".

Even something as basic as the time conversion library ctime(3) is a
different code base on Slackware vs. RH/Mandrake.  The different is that
the SW version works; RH/Mandrake is broken.  (The bug shows up in
my Sunset program.)

Slackware is less commercial and MS-like.  (I want RH to survive as it
and SuSE are best able to defeat MS but I want the purer Distros like
SW and Debian to survive too.  I always purchase the SW CDs rather than
do free downloads.)

Slackware, because of less stuff tied into X, requires less resources.
Thus, it runs faster.  On lower-end hardware this is an issue.

Slackware supports a wider variety of hardware, in my experience.

I do run a Red Hat system as well to "keep in practice" as most of
my clients use it and I keep a Mandrake partition around for the same
reason.

> Thanks to all that reply,

> Greg

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
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   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002