WHY Slackware.

This blog is mainly about Slackware

and posting the solutions I used to solve the many problems I experienced setting up and running Slackware on a variety of hardware.

Okay, for those not in the know, Slackware is a Linux Operating System distribution, the oldest surviving distribution out there. I am not going to bore you all with the distributions history. I am almost positive the history of Slackware is well documented elsewhere.

Experiences With Linux

Slackware was not my first Linux distribution, that accolade goes Mandrake/Mandriva. I had just got a new computer at the time, running WinXP, so and my older hardware was now sitting dormant with Win98 installed. I hated Win98 and it's infamous blue screen of death. I fancied regenerating the old dog as it had served me well for near three years. I had some Mandrake installation CD's lying around so I installed them effortlessly on the old beast. At first I dual booted the hardware with Win98. I liked it so much that I downloaded at the time the latest iso's for the now Mandriva edition and ditched Win98. This I run for a lengthy period. The problem with Mandriva is that you need to pay for the updates. No problem as I was only experimenting with Linux at the time, so I never bothered with upgrading.

Laptop Problems

I acquired from a relative, free of charge, a no longer required laptop. A Dell C600, 20 Gigs HDD, 512M RAM. Running WinXP. It run slow, mainly due to the software already installed by the previous owner. An attempt at cleaning the system out resulted in a crash which required a complete re-install of WinXP. Problem! I did not have the installation disk. Rather than fork out for a new copy of XP, I decided to install linux on the system. As a part time student I got used to using the laptop at work when I had time. I had trouble installing the latest Mandriva due to the DVD drive problems on the laptop. I popped over to my favourite source of information for Linux and to where I had made previous excurrsions the numerous times I experienced problems and needed answers, The good old LinuxQuestions, and went searching for a distribution to fit my needs.
I installed the latest Suse. Nice.
I also liked the sound of Slackware, but some reliable source at my place of employment told me how it was a bitch to get configured. That was it, curiosity killed the cat, I had to try it. I still had the original old dog hooked up and running a now old version of Mandriva whilst Suse was running on the laptop. So I decided to re-juvenate the old dog with Slackware. This is where my adventures with Slackware begun.

Finally

Installing Slackware is not for the faint hearted. The rewards are you get a system that you CAN configure to your liking which will be fast and reliable. Initial problems can be ironed out with the correct advice from reliable sources.
Slackware has now been successfully installed dual-booting on a 2.6GHz, with 320G & 80G HDD's, 1G RAM as well as the laptop with specs as above.

My Slackware Desktop...
Click for a better view.



Pink Floyd background courtesy of http://lazzyslair.com.