Linux users...

[sparkeyjames]

Why slackware? Have they added some package management functionality, or is it just that you feel other systems force you to do some things in a certain way and you want full control? I haven't used slackware since probably version 3.x so maybe things have changed significantly, but i've wondered why it still exists given what else is out there now. I'm not trying to be critical, just curious where slackware fits in these days.

Slackware has had package management since the 8.x days. So that is not really a problem. I dislike the startup control code in most distributions as it tends to resemble spaghetti code to me, or it does too little with too much code. Slackware's startup/shutdown system is fairly simple and pretty straight forward and is easy to customize. The other distributions have gone in a direction that makes modifying a system an unpleasant process. This is because they are trying to gear themselves to the basic system operator training and/or sell to corporate environments that frown upon modifying systems (banking and other financial institutions). Yet the most publicly visible Linux/Unix systems are highly modified systems (google, yahoo, akamai etc).

Slackware is the oldest Linux distribution. It is still maintained by it's original creator as well. I like to custom compile my own kernels for the best optimization for the hardware and it's intended usage (server or desktop). Most of the major distributions modify a lot of the software they include. This makes making changes to the system on them a real challenge. The software included with a Slackware distribution is put in place with no modifications and a "just as the author intended" attitude. Plus I have been using Slackware for so long that I have done some customizations to the system that I am unwilling to give up. I also have written a custom firewall for servers that I probably would not have a good time making work under another distribution.


Jim

[LinuxRandal]

Started out with Redhat 5.2, Mandrake (various), which I used for sometime. When I had a Windows 98 system, that had a drive failure, I put in a new drive with only Mandrake and said I would give it 30 days. About two years into XP,long after I had been given a copy by a company who I had helped, and I installed it, in a dual boot, for games only machine. When Its motherboard croaked, I didn't have Windows or my game until I had my netbook/notebook. (Asus N10J)

My old server, which needs a hard drive replacement, was Suse 10.0 (it was new and so was the hardware). My N10J, I have running either freeware on top of Windows (mostly for the last month, since no time to fix my systems), or some form of Ubuntu (currently on Easy Peasy), off of a SDHC. There are several other distro's I would like to try, as well as GUI's (under Suse I was getting to like the blackbox/openbox styles). I know a few years back, before the whole APT thing, there was an argument on a group I was a member of, between DEBS and RPMS. I said a victor would "emerge". A Linux joke some know (and another distro, I hoped would have a little more staying power, since I thought it was a good step forward from Linux from Scratch)

[crokett]

dbhost, I am not that worried. There are ways around it like installing Virtual Box and putting Windows inside Linux but I no longer have the desire to work that hard. When the printer dies or my wife decides we need a new one I will look into one that is Linux compatible.

[affyx]

Blender is a real S.O.B. to learn, but VERY powerful when you get it down... My Blender manuals are all pretty old now, I need to look into some new ones.

Look for a book called Grokking The GIMP. GIMP is REALLY easy to use, once you get used to it. The book deals with the older versions, the interface changed slightly, but not enough to make the book irrelevant. I believe it is online for free if you's like to read it that way...

If you use Microsoft Office macros, yeah, OpenOffice won't do VB macros. It's a patent / copyright thing... Every single last bit of functionality I need for my spreadsheets is there. But I was using Star Office (Open Office's predecessor) on Solaris before I ever saw Microsoft Office. I guess I am used to it. Since Microsoft "upgraded" to Office 2007, some functionality that I rely on a LOT, specifically importing comma, space, or tab delimited fields from text files is now MUCH harder to use. I actually have OpenOffice installed on my work Windows PC to handle that function...

Thanks! I will look for that book. I avoid macros unless absolutely necessary, but use arrays in excel and can't get OO to open them correctly/consistently, otherwise I would use it more. I have to see if OO will handle one of the cool new functions of XL07: "iferror" which is a stop-gap in my opinion, but helps with div/0 errors using the average function in arrays.