[NBLUG/talk] Slackware install

[thiessen at sonic.net]

Hi,

A few quick comments...  (I've used slackware at home almost exclusively
for years.)

> *Long rambling account follows; feel free to skip*
>
> I've got Slackware 10.2 up and running on my desktop.
>
> The verdict: 1) Despite its reputation, if you can install Debian, you can
> install Slackware; 2) Slackware is *fast*.

The slackware install is not hard, if you don't mind reading the brief
instructions.  It doesn't hold your hand, though.  For example, if you
have
no idea what hard drive partitions are and prefer never to learn, then
you'd probably be better off with some other distro.

<snip>

> As for the actual install... Slackware immediately dumps you at a command
> prompt with the hint to run either "fdisk" or "cfdisk" manually, and then
> run "setup". Once you launch "setup", you've got a pretty standard
> curses-based installer running. Figuring out the partitioning is really
> the
> only part that's any scarier than Debian (and is about the same as Knoppix

I used to really like the installer - in some ways I still do, because it is
simple and doesn't assume much.  My biggest complaint is its lack of
of robustness.  If something goes wrong during the install, it's very poor
at recovering, and you're usually stuck with starting the whole install
over again.  It also doesn't do a very good job of putting error messages
up on the install screen when something bad happens.  Oftentimes they
flash by,
leaving the screen slightly corrupted, too quickly to read or recognize if
the errors are fatal or not.

> Two things that stood out: 1) The installer never prompts you to create
> any
> user accounts other than root; this seems like an open invitation to just
> do
> everything under root, and strikes me as a bad idea. 2) The installer
> lists

Yep.

> all the installed daemons and prompts you to select which ones to launch
> on
> boot. I like this a lot better than the usual
> if-it's-installed-then-it-should-launch-on-boot-by-default approach used
> by
> most distros.

Agreed.  This helps a lot with boot time.  Watching Fedora laboriously
load daemons I can't even identify always annoys me.  (Yep, I know how to
turn them off.  I just dislike the fact they start up by default.)

> Slackware has a bit of an "old time" feel to it; between the material on
> its
> website, and its installer, it looks like it came out of the early 90s.

It's really got a pre-linux unix feel.  Which is usually fine with me.  But
it does entail a bit more work for the end user.  I used to be more willing
to make that trade-off, but I also used to have more free time.

<snip>

> One final random comment: Slackware, by default, launches a command shell
> at
> startup instead of a graphical login window. You get to log into bash and
> run startx from there. I poked around to see if KDM or GDM was installed,

And this saves you from the rescue-disk reboot shuffle that occurs if you
have some weird video setup that the default Redhat/Suse/Whatever distro
installer mis-identifies and starts up X on non-existent hardware at boot.

<snip>

JUstin