UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

yea, I'm a really dummie, I have been using Knoppix for a while on a bootable disk, but wanting to switch to Slackware, is this a good decision? could any of you link me to a slackware downloadable site? thanks


-Jace

mmmm..... http://www.slackware.org/getslackware ?

or try:

http://fedora.redhat.com/

or:
http://www.[insert distro name here].com/org/net/....

Google is your friend....

heh ty rogier, hmm yea I like Google, but I'm more used to Mozilla Firefox. is Slack more difficult to use then knoppix? my friend Ryan tells me peanut, slack, and knoppix are the easiest of the bunch?

I really dont now, my experience is limited to RH9. Btw http://www.linux.org has a 'distro finder': http://www.linux.org/dist/index.html

I been using Slackware for years. If all you ever used was a LiveCD, then Yes, it will be harder to use, since you will have to install it to the hard drive. Unless you want to run SLAX, which is a bootable LiveCD based on Slackware.

What other distro's have you tried? Other than a LiveCD, since a LiveCD is not hard for anyone to use.
Is Slackware easy? For me it sure is. But thats because I have spent years using GNU/Linux in general, and years using the *BSD's. The easiest in the *BSD camp to install, personally, I feel is OpenBSD, others might not agree.

If you have a decent background using DOS, any DOS, then using the command line and editing config files will be normal for you.

There are NO graphical user menus when installing Slackware, other than the typical ncurses menu. There is not automatic setup of anything in Slackware, RedHat does alot of probing for devices, but there is none of that in Slackware. If you have ever used Linuxconf, Diskdrake, or similar tools, they are absent in Slackware.

If you like the ability to control what programs are installed and you do not need hand holding, then Slackware is the ideal system for you. If you are comfortable using Vi/Vim, cfdisk, Fdisk, Slackware is the system for you.

If none of these above apply to you, does this mean Slackware is not for you? No, it means if your willing to learn and want a system that will not ever fail you, and wont force you to install dependencies you do not need or want. then Slackware is the one. Slackware does not do dependency checking, thats left up you, the user, to know what software deps there are and to install them.

Just FYI - Google is a search engine, not a browser (although Google have purchased the GBrowser.com domain, but that's another story ) You can find it at http://www.google.com - try searching there for Linux distributions - you'll find *millions* (literally) of sites with useful information.

If you use Google, you'll find sites like http://www.linuxiso.org/ with ease.

Cheers
ZB

thanks guys, ryans buring me a copy of slack, oh and btw do any of you have any gmail invites possibly?