[Lilux-help] FreeBSD, compile from source and Distributions

[Patrick Kaell]

> I know this one is tricky, but I am also interested in what 
> distributions you use and for what reason.
> 
> Hope you've made it 'till here ;-)

I would recommend Slackware: http://www.slackware.com

First of all: I am using Slackware since october 1994(!) on the desktop 
and on many servers and firewalls, have tried many distros (including 
Debian, SuSE, RedHat). I have always comed back to Slackware.

Here are the reasons why:

* Slackware is a stable, fast, complete and resource friendly distro.

* Slackware is uptodate. Every 6 months there is a new official 
Slackware release (with downloadable ISOs).

* Slackware-current gets updated every day. You can always upgrade your 
current install to the level of Slackware-current by executing the tool 
'swaret'. If there is a new KDE version, you can be sure that two days 
later, Slackware-current contains the new version.

* There aren't new downloadable ISOs of Slackware-current every day, but 
you can download the whole tree with wget and make your own ISOs by 
executing a simple command.

* No dependency hell! Slackware install tools, configuration tools and 
boot scripts only require the shell. Most tools and utilities are 
written in C. You don't need perl or python, TCL/TK, etc. installed. A 
main advantage of Linux vs Windows is the fact that under Linux you can 
build a dedicated system without the bloat you don't need (good for 
dedicated systems like firewalls). Slackware makes this easy (unlike 
other distros). Even FreeBSD needs perl. FreeBSD 5 corrected this by 
rewiting tools like 'adduser' in shell code. Yast needs perl. The RedHat 
tools need python, etc.

* Slackware is the most UNIXish Linux distro around (I have experience 
with Solaris, SunOS, AIX, Tru64, HP/UX and *BSD). The init system is an 
enhanced BSD style init with support for SYSV init scripts for 
compatibility reasons. The only other Linux distro which uses BSD style 
init scripts is Gentoo.

* The whole distro (with the installation program) has always been open 
source (unlike Yast for example which only recently has been GPL'ed).

* I might not be the easiest distro for users who never touch the 
command line. But for users who want to know more about Linux, Slackware 
is the way to go. The streamlined boot scripts and configuration files 
makes it one of the easiest distros to master. It is also easier to 
understand than Debian, although some will say that it is also less 
sophisticated than Debian.

* Slackware was one of the first distros ever (only SLS preceded 
Slackware). In fact, the first versions of RedHat and SuSE were based on 
Slackware.

Here are some links:

Slackware main site:
http://www.slackware.com

Community site:
http://www.userlocal.com

Additional slackware packages:
http://www.linuxpackages.net

Recent discussion in Slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/16/1326202&mode=thread&tid=106&tid=117&tid=185&tid=190&tid=99

Patrick Kaell