Distributions - Slackware
The american Slackware-distribution is something special among the available Linux-packages: Firtsly knowledge of linux distributions (other than 'big names' like SuSe or RedHat) is infinitesimally small in germany. Secondly Slackware can be proud of NEITHER accepting *.deb (Debian)-Packages NOR *.rpm-Files used by a lare number of distributions.
Driven by the motivation to build a near-Unix GNU/Linux-distribution the software handling is being done (as in *BSD and some other Unixes) via *.tgz archives which are installed and removed by a simple package management as you wish.
That Slackware is "near to the classical Unix" will be confirmed by everybody who still uses Unix for small operations such as using texteditors and command lines. Slackware works this way:
Homepage: www.slackware.com
After booting from CD-ROM or two bootdisks (Boot- and Root-Disk) the Slackware-Newbie is confronted with the installation systems' boot prompt waiting for input. After logging in as 'root' and getting an (english) login message, the installee is advised to partition the harddisk using 'fdisk' before using 'setup' to start the installation process which firstly includes existing Linux-/DOS- and Swap-Partitions, installs Software as well as configures mouse, modem, LAN and LILO, creates an optional bootdisk, give you the chioce between your desktop-environments (KDE, GNOME as well as some other window managers; this option is a bit strange because the X-system is to be configured far later by the user himself) and ends up (after making the suggestion to reboot the system) back at the command line.
Those waiting for automatic hardware detection will be disappointed as well as those waiting for a graphical installation tool which installs and configures the system using default-values without needing to ask the user.
Accordingly, the start process continues when the system must be changed to fit individual purposes: graphical (RedHat) or at least text-based (Debian) tools can seldom be found, most of the changes have to be done by the potential Slackware-User in the specific configuration files.
For some configuration work standard-tools are provided (XF86Setup or xf86config for the X-system, apsfilterconfig for printer installation) can be used, but overall, knowledge about a texteditor like 'vi' is a must for using the Slackware system.
It is remarkable that Slackware, although using the 'sysvinit' system for starting/stopping system and console services (shell or X) provides the configuration for several runlevels. This solution is a matter of taste but provides the possibility to modify the start-up behavior according to own likes.
After finishing the installation and configuration process, a 2.2.16 kernel using glibc 2.1.3 waits for it's restart. KDE 1.1.2 and GNOME 1.2 including a wide variety of software under XFree 3.3.6 provide a basic desktop system. A variety of free, 'classical' Linux-/X-software as for example xpdf, xpaint or gv as well as the Netscape Communicator 4.73, ImageMagick and xfig are included.
Beneath the graphical interface tetex 1.0.7, sendmail 8.10.2, apache 1.3.12 and samba 2.0.7 as some of the open-source-communities masterpieces can be found. Emacs 20.7. should also be mentioned.
Furthermore the user can of course install applications to his need using either the Slackware-Contrib-CD or the internet where all needed software can be found.
It's a pity that the very useful 'alien'-scripts for changing RPM- and DEB-packages into TGZ-archives, are not included in the standard installation.
Whereas Linux - after a fast walkthrough as server OS - now targets the 'consumer'-market Slackware is merely suitable for the Linux-Enthusiast who wants total control about the system and accepts to do configuration work without comfortable tools like 'linuxconf'.
Linux-newbies are advised to choose another distro because Slackware needs lots of know how regarding Unix/Linux basics and not everybody has enough time to crawl through tons of english-language documentation. Using the commonly known 'trial-and-error'-method can cause complete chaos faster than you think...
All users which know what they're doing (or want to), already have the needed knowledge and like the command line more than a GUI will have lots of fun using Slackware.
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