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It's simple so it's somewhat easy to take apart and re-purpose. I was able to use it to build an internet enabled kiosk for instance without a lot of extra weig

by jqm 11y ago

It's simple so it's somewhat easy to take apart and re-purpose. I was able to use it to build an internet enabled kiosk for instance without a lot of extra weight. It's super stable also so it make a good server. Lack of package management means you won't find it in the standard VM distro line up though. As for other uses... using it to reply to this comment right now.

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
Lack of package management There is no lack of package management. There is a lack of automatic dependency resolution without third-party additions. This is nowhere near as debilitating as often presented by outside observers who have never tried the distribution. YMMV, but I've ran into circular dependencies and conflicts in addition to configuration updates rendering systems unbootable multiple times on distros like Debian with their non-transactional resolution heuristics that make your life easier, until they don't. Slackware's spartan package management has not failed me once, it's rock solid no matter how much you thrash your file system hierarchy. In addition, when I want to install SlackBuilds, I have never used a more convenient package manager than sbopkg before. Dependencies can be cleanly recorded and built with queuefiles.
- jsizz 11y ago
  > I have never used a more convenient package manager than sbopkg before. Dependencies can be cleanly recorded and built with queuefiles. http://idlemoor.github.io/slackrepo/index.html http://idlemoor.github.io/slackrepo/index.html
- mlvljr 11y ago
  Let whoever wants downvote me, but I'd just like to bring people's attention to what your 2nd paraghraph says. ...to me it often is Ubuntu's apt breaking itself (and even reporting this back with cheerfullness I cannot understand) just in time for a save-home-dir-then-wipe-and-install-latest-ubuntu action sequence :)
- jqm 11y ago
  So it does... I mispoke. But it isn't the same as yum or apt-get. (which is ok w/ me).
deelowe 11y ago
Slack has package management. It doesn't do automatic dependency management. That said, Slack's packages are built in such a way to make dependency resolution relatively painless to the point where it's almost a non-issue.
- igravious 11y ago
  Really? How so? How is dependency resolution managed to the point that it's relatively painless without resorting to automatic dependency management? I'm not saying I don't believe you, I'm just curious. Slackware was the first distribution I ever used oh so many moons ago that I've forgotten how it all worked. Ah sweet nostalgia as someone else mentioned.
  - massysett 11y ago
    Libraries are built as a single package, not split into separate "-dev" packages with headers, so there are fewer packages to manage. Also, these days it's easy to just install the whole of Slackware for a desktop system (when even an SSD is hundreds of gigabytes, a few gigs is no hardship.) So when you do need to build third party applications, your system probably already has what you need. Slackware already comes with a good set of the major libraries, even if they're not GNU (pcre, for example.) Slackbuilds.org will tell you if one of the packages there has dependencies that aren't in Slackware. Typically installing them is not onerous.

by jqm 11y ago

vezzy-fnord 11y ago

Lack of package management There is no lack of package management. There is a lack of automatic dependency resolution without third-party additions. This is nowhere near as debilitating as often presented by outside observers who have never tried the distribution. YMMV, but I've ran into circular dependencies and conflicts in addition to configuration updates rendering systems unbootable multiple times on distros like Debian with their non-transactional resolution heuristics that make your life easier, until they don't. Slackware's spartan package management has not failed me once, it's rock solid no matter how much you thrash your file system hierarchy. In addition, when I want to install SlackBuilds, I have never used a more convenient package manager than sbopkg before. Dependencies can be cleanly recorded and built with queuefiles.

jsizz 11y ago
> I have never used a more convenient package manager than sbopkg before. Dependencies can be cleanly recorded and built with queuefiles. http://idlemoor.github.io/slackrepo/index.html http://idlemoor.github.io/slackrepo/index.html
mlvljr 11y ago
Let whoever wants downvote me, but I'd just like to bring people's attention to what your 2nd paraghraph says. ...to me it often is Ubuntu's apt breaking itself (and even reporting this back with cheerfullness I cannot understand) just in time for a save-home-dir-then-wipe-and-install-latest-ubuntu action sequence :)
jqm 11y ago
So it does... I mispoke. But it isn't the same as yum or apt-get. (which is ok w/ me).

deelowe 11y ago

Slack has package management. It doesn't do automatic dependency management. That said, Slack's packages are built in such a way to make dependency resolution relatively painless to the point where it's almost a non-issue.

igravious 11y ago
Really? How so? How is dependency resolution managed to the point that it's relatively painless without resorting to automatic dependency management? I'm not saying I don't believe you, I'm just curious. Slackware was the first distribution I ever used oh so many moons ago that I've forgotten how it all worked. Ah sweet nostalgia as someone else mentioned.
- massysett 11y ago
  Libraries are built as a single package, not split into separate "-dev" packages with headers, so there are fewer packages to manage. Also, these days it's easy to just install the whole of Slackware for a desktop system (when even an SSD is hundreds of gigabytes, a few gigs is no hardship.) So when you do need to build third party applications, your system probably already has what you need. Slackware already comes with a good set of the major libraries, even if they're not GNU (pcre, for example.) Slackbuilds.org will tell you if one of the packages there has dependencies that aren't in Slackware. Typically installing them is not onerous.