7 Slackware Questions

[daviddutch1964]

Maybe clear answers here will help many other slackware users. Thanks in advance.

I'm returning to slackware after many years of using debian exclusively. Like many here Im sure, I started with Slackware back in the early days (1994-ish). Jumping into slack12, plus other linux changes since then, I thought to ask other slackware users what they are using and like.

I will have it on my HP zt3000 laptop (a few more "fun" things here) and (eventually) replace my debian web server at work (100% work related uses).

1)
What do you think about slapt-get or the other Slackware package
management (Swaret, NetBSD's pkgsrc, slackpkg, and the newer Gslapt-gui
system)?

2)
What, if any desktop (kde, gnome, xfce, etc) do you use/like?

2a)
If you DON'T use a desktop (and its given window manager), what window
manager do you use/like on its own with no desktop? personally?
professionally?

3)
what do you think of OpenOffice? I use it and like it. Haven't had too
much reason not to. A few MSword docs were a bit "off" and fixable, but I
try to use .rtf when I can. What office applications do you do/use?

4)
It seems I will have to try and figure out getting the wireless (Intel
PRO/Wireless 2200BG: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux) installed and
running on my own as its not automatic, which I guess is good as it make
'me' and not some auto-script set it up. Any experience with this one
(ipw2200 BG)?

5)
Im very much into astronopmy and belong to the Custer Institute
(Custer Index). Do you know of, or know of any
colleagues that run any linux-based astronomy software?

6)
Anything else you use and like or don't use and would warn against using?


Oh, and one REALLY big question I was never able to find a clear answer on:

7)
when I find a file/package that I want to install (as either root or me) WHERE should I put the .tgz before untarring it and begining the install process? Doest it matter or will the script put it where it belongs no matter where I untarr it and run the install script?

~david

[Juan Pablo]

What do you think about slapt-get or the other Slackware package
management (Swaret, NetBSD's pkgsrc, slackpkg, and the newer Gslapt-gui
system)?

I don't use any of these, I download and install my packages manually

What, if any desktop (kde, gnome, xfce, etc) do you use/like?

I don't like full blown desktops too much, but If I have to decide I'd go with GNOME

If you DON'T use a desktop (and its given window manager), what window
manager do you use/like on its own with no desktop? personally?
professionally?

I personally like Fluxbox and WMaker

what do you think of OpenOffice? I use it and like it. Haven't had too
much reason not to. A few MSword docs were a bit "off" and fixable, but I
try to use .rtf when I can. What office applications do you do/use?

I don't use it too much but I think it's too heavy for my crappy laptop

It seems I will have to try and figure out getting the wireless (Intel
PRO/Wireless 2200BG: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux) installed and
running on my own as its not automatic, which I guess is good as it make
'me' and not some auto-script set it up. Any experience with this one
(ipw2200 BG)?

The Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG card is a very well supported card on Linux, check the site with the driver Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux

Anything else you use and like or don't use and would warn against using?

Slackware is a distribution aimed to advanced users and you will have to configure most things manually from a command line after installation.

when I find a file/package that I want to install (as either root or me) WHERE should I put the .tgz before untarring it and begining the install process? Doest it matter or will the script put it where it belongs no matter where I untarr it and run the install script?

Anywhere, install it using the installpkg command if you are sure it's an Slackware package or build it from source if you know that it's a source package

[rudie_rage]

1) I think slackware could definitely use a larger package base. I'm often looking for something they dont even have, and I have to compile from source. Not that difficult, but its nice to not have to worry about package management.

2) I love fluxbox. My computer is top-notch, but I love minimalism, so its completely under-used lol. Everything I have is lightweight. Fluxbox helps me keep it that way. I think firefox is my heaviest app.

3) I like open office. I used it for school last year, but when school picks up again I dont know if I'll install it again. As much as I like it, its huge. See the above question :P

4) dont know that card... I have an atheros card and whatever intel card uses the ipw3945 module in my laptop.

5) cant say im into astronomy.

6) had some trouble configuring a lamp server. It was my own fault though. I just didnt know what i was doing. Other distros ive run made it easier, thats all.

7) no clue.

[TomX]

[QUOTE=daviddutch1964;486310
1)
What do you think about slapt-get or the other Slackware package
management (Swaret, NetBSD's pkgsrc, slackpkg, and the newer Gslapt-gui
system)?
[/quote]

2)
What, if any desktop (kde, gnome, xfce, etc) do you use/like?

I don't use a desktop environment, I only need something to manage my windows.

2a)
If you DON'T use a desktop (and its given window manager), what window
manager do you use/like on its own with no desktop? personally?
professionally?

I use Openbox.

3)
what do you think of OpenOffice? I use it and like it. Haven't had too
much reason not to. A few MSword docs were a bit "off" and fixable, but I
try to use .rtf when I can. What office applications do you do/use?

I only use when I have to read a .doc file (and if antiword doesn't produce a good enough result). Most of the documents I write are in text file format but if ever I need to create something more professional I use LaTeX, which is what I use for typing up maths too.

I use octave and gnuplot for graph plotting.

5)
Im very much into astronopmy and belong to the Custer Institute
(Custer Index). Do you know of, or know of any
colleagues that run any linux-based astronomy software?

I don't know of anybody that runs this sort of stuff, but here is a list of astronomy related programs: Gentoo-Portage - Browse sci-astronomy (this is a list from Gentoo's portage. You won't be able to install them from here, you'll have to install them through others means).

7)
when I find a file/package that I want to install (as either root or me) WHERE should I put the .tgz before untarring it and begining the install process? Doest it matter or will the script put it where it belongs no matter where I untarr it and run the install script?

I'm not sure what you mean. If you have a TGZ file (blah.tgz, for example) you just run: installpkg blah.tgz and then it's installed. You can keep the tgz file if you want, but it's not needed.

[Freston]

5)
Im very much into astronopmy and belong to the Custer Institute
(Custer Index). Do you know of, or know of any
colleagues that run any linux-based astronomy software?

I don't know if it's anything like you mean... but Slack comes default with an astronomy program: KStars.

[aliov]

1) - for me i install the package from mirrors and sometimes compile them from source code and i use checkinstall to make the slackpackage (just in case i want to remove/update it again) , but here i understand what you mean, i'm always with the dependencies checking of the packages,since as a Slackware lovers if we want this distro to go ahead we should have this kind of checking to make the life easy,but sure not complicated as RPM, since in my Scientific-Linux (red-hat based) i want to remove the libdrm , and then it asks me to remove a lot of other stuff like xorg-server,xorg-drivers , in other word to destroy my system, however the X will still operate , but i want this dependency checking.

2)- about the Desktop , for me i prefer gnome , since i like the GTK+ library , but KDE is powerful and easy to use.

3)-About the office suite, Openoffice is the best choice stable and fast enough.

4)-i have the same wifi as you running in Slackware 11, the main thing it's to install the firmware in /lib/firmware and make the script rc.wireless executable ,and that's it , the wifi works perfect.

5)-Stellarium is the best choice for me you can find precompiled one(version 0.82) in LinuxPackages: View , or you can get the new 0.9 with satellites support from the sourceforge and compile it , but this require cmake and qmake wish aren't in Slackware , but in any case this software is wonderful.

6)-I like to use the bootsplash .
-I prefer to use the uswsusp insted of the default kernel one.
-I want to have gnome included in Slackware (but the Dropline gnome guys are doing a terrific job ), i 'm using dropline gnome.
if you are planning to use KDE and you have a wifi ,use pywifi as a small applet for monitoring the wifi connection and wlanassistant ,they works perfect for me as GUI network.

7)- once you install the slackware package there ill be a log file placed in /var/log/packages ,

At the end , i want to say that a lot of my friends wanted to use Linux, but at the beginning i can't suggest for them Slackware my best Linux distro ! mainly because of the dependencies checking !!! Yes i know i'll receive a lot about this telling me that this is not important !

If Slackware remain like this it'll never be a famous linux distro, and if the slackers want this distro only for expert then it's okay !

Regards.

[Johnny Utah]

Why do you want to move away from Debian?

[Dapper Dan]

1)
What do you think about slapt-get or the other Slackware package
management (Swaret, NetBSD's pkgsrc, slackpkg, and the newer Gslapt-gui
system)?

Slapt-get runs about as well as apt-get Debian, only far less packages. Most of the time I install packages manually or with Kpackage. Other choices I've been satisfied with are Dropline Gnome and CruxPorts4Slack.

2)
What, if any desktop (kde, gnome, xfce, etc) do you use/like?

Though many Slackware purists don't like it, I've found Dropline Gnome to be a very nice desktop environment if you want all the bells and whistles.

2a)
If you DON'T use a desktop (and its given window manager), what window
manager do you use/like on its own with no desktop? personally?
professionally?

I've used most of them but always return to my first love, IceWM windows manager which is blindingly fast, minimalistic and extremely easy to configure.

3)
what do you think of OpenOffice? I use it and like it. Haven't had too
much reason not to. A few MSword docs were a bit "off" and fixable, but I
try to use .rtf when I can. What office applications do you do/use?

I really like Openoffice and use it in business as well as personal use. It does everything I need a word processor to do.

4)
It seems I will have to try and figure out getting the wireless (Intel
PRO/Wireless 2200BG: Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux) installed and running on my own as its not automatic, which I guess is good as it make 'me' and not some auto-script set it up. Any experience with this one
(ipw2200 BG)?

Never used that one but have used many others. In my experience, Atheros based wireless is the best choice for Linux. The Madwifi driver is very easy to install.

5)
Im very much into astronopmy and belong to the Custer Institute
(Custer Index). Do you know of, or know of any colleagues that run any linux-based astronomy software?

Though I'm not an astronomer, I found Kstars to be very interesting and entertaining...

6)
Anything else you use and like or don't use and would warn against using?

I love Slackware as my personal distro. It just suits my needs. I like the fact that you have to configure so many things from the command line as it forces me to know more about Linux than I otherwise would. I love Crux for the same reason. On the other extreme, when I'm feeling lazy and want to be chauffeured around, I absolutely love Ubuntu.

7)
when I find a file/package that I want to install (as either root or me) WHERE should I put the .tgz before untarring it and begining the install process? Doest it matter or will the script put it where it belongs no matter where I untarr it and run the install script?

When intsalling .tgz from the command line, I untar them from within the root directory. Most of the time though, I use Kpackage... just my personal choice. It should be included in your Slackware install if you choose to install KDE.

[mahlerfan]

Maybe clear answers here will help many other slackware users. Thanks in advance.

I'm returning to slackware after many years of using debian exclusively. Like many here Im sure, I started with Slackware back in the early days (1994-ish). Jumping into slack12, plus other linux changes since then, I thought to ask other slackware users what they are using and like.

Wow you're an oldtimer! I didn't start using unix until college, and only got into linux in grad school.

1)
What do you think about slapt-get or the other Slackware package
management (Swaret, NetBSD's pkgsrc, slackpkg, and the newer Gslapt-gui
system)?

The repos are too limited, so I just download source or binaries from the web.

2)
What, if any desktop (kde, gnome, xfce, etc) do you use/like?

I like all of them, I tend to use kde the most because you can easily configure hardware from the control center (like mouse acceleration, printers, hotkeys etc) and I don't have to wander through many menus, all configuration can be done through the control center. It would be nicer if gnome did that, and also would be nice if they didn't hide a ton of config options in the gconf editor.

3)
what do you think of OpenOffice? I use it and like it. Haven't had too
much reason not to. A few MSword docs were a bit "off" and fixable, but I
try to use .rtf when I can. What office applications do you do/use?

It's really cool, you can do so much with it. I especially like the intuitive ui and context sensitive popup windows (for example, create a table, a window will pop up for the table specific functions) I do have complaints-- it crashes on some .doc files, and can't work with some excel spreadsheets, and it's not as fast to startup as koffice, abiword, or ms office.

5)
Im very much into astronopmy and belong to the Custer Institute
(Custer Index). Do you know of, or know of any
colleagues that run any linux-based astronomy software?

My research area in grad school was in astrophysics, specifically gravitational waves. I worked on a very small part of LAL (an algorithms library for LIGO data analysis) which is gpl software that you can cvs checkout, compile and run on linux. You can check it out here.

6)
Anything else you use and like or don't use and would warn against using?

I probably should be asking you that since you've been using linux way longer than me.

Oh something you should know, and it's actually cool for Debian based and Red Hat based distros as well-- checkinstall. Alot of times it won't work right, but when it does it's sweet-- it makes a binary package out of a package (.tgz, .rpm or .deb) that you built from source. What's cool about it is that then you can install the binary with pkgtool instead of doing "make install" and then your package manager knows about the package and you can use it to cleanly update or remove the package later.

Oh, and one REALLY big question I was never able to find a clear answer on:

7)
when I find a file/package that I want to install (as either root or me) WHERE should I put the .tgz before untarring it and begining the install process? Doest it matter or will the script put it where it belongs no matter where I untarr it and run the install script?

~david

The logical place for source code you obtained from the net is /usr/local/src. A .tgz is usually an installable package though as mentioned by someone else.

[mahlerfan]

I use octave and gnuplot for graph plotting.

I use Grace for plotting. Gnuplot for quickly seeing something, and Grace if I want to make something to show others. I haven't used Octave before. That's the OSS version of Matlab right? I know there's one exception though, at least on the version I used, I never got Grace to do contour plots well, and gnuplot does them easily.