[PLUG] slackware experts?

[Rich Shepard]

On Tue, 7 Feb 2006, Bruce Kilpatrick wrote:

> Here is the question I am wrestling with. I am considering trying
> Slackware. I am running Ubuntu and it uses GRUB as the bootloader.
> Slackware seems to install LiLO. If I don't install LiLO, will GRUB
> recognize Slackware? Will they work together? Or is this more trouble than
> it is worth?

Bruce,

   I'm far from an expert since I've used slackware only about 2.5 years now.
However, it will work with either GRUB or LILO. My Sony from Emperor Linux
came with GRUB installed. When I inadvertently trashed /usr (don't ask!) and
went through the recovery process it came up with LILO. I've left it there
since I have only one or two kernels on a system at any given time. Only once
in the past 8+ years have I forgotten to run /sbin/lilo after changing
/etc/lilo.conf. That lesson has really sunk in past the hubs.

> Some of the rants about Slackware say that I will learn more about Linux in
> one install of Slack than most other Linux flavors...what say you Mr.
> Expert?

   I have found it much easier to install and maintain slackware (from
8.0-10.2) than I did Red Hat (from 4.1-7.3). The major differences are that
Slackware uses the BSD-style init scripts (/etc/rc.d/rc.<whatever>) and other
distributions (Red Hat I know) use the SysV-style init scripts; Patrick likes
KDE and not Gnome so the latter is not included; Patrick likes MySQL and not
PostgreSQL so that latter is not included.

   Nothing's been a show-stopper for me. It's far back from the bleeding edge.
Unless I get a security update from the team, I do nothing between
distribution upgrades. Those take about 1/2-hour per machine; most of the
time is drinking coffee and watching the packages upgrade, then sweeping up
some detritus. Very smooth, very simple. There are a couple of package
grabbing/management tools for those who want to upgrade to the current
version periodically; I don't use either.

   But, listen to Rob. He's the real expert (and has helped me tremendously
a number of times). I just use the stuff to get my work done.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |   Author of "Quantifying Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)   |  Impact Assessments Using Fuzzy Logic"
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