[Cialug] what distros were out in 1996?

[Alan Maupin]

Let's beat this horse a little further. A recent review of Slackware.
http://www.manicgeeks.com/viewstory.php?id=3


Slackware 10.1 Review

2005-05-08 17:02:32
By Robert Burns


1. Introduction
As most veteran Linux users know, Slackware is the oldest Linux distribution
properly-speaking in existence. To many people, "Slackware" is synonymous
with "Linux". As the old saying in the Linux community goes, "If you learn
Red Hat, you learn Red Hat. If you learn SuSE, you learn SuSE. But if you
learn Slackware, you learn Linux."

This is quite true. Slackware is one of the "purest" forms of Linux
available. The Slackware package manager is little more than a front end for
various standard GNU tools. It retains no version information or dependency
handling, as Debian's and Red Hat's package managers do. The installer
guides you through only the most necessary of steps to install the system.
No proprietary software is included in the installation media.

In an era of computing in which ease of use and configuration is considered
to be of utmost importance, some would consider distros such as Slackware to
be hopelessly out of mode.

I disagree. A Linux system that requires a good deal of low-level
configuration provides a degree of flexibility and freedom from bloat not
found on most so-called "user-friendly" distributions such as Ubuntu,
Mandrake, and SuSE.

This is my second review of a Slackware distribution. I reviewed version 9.1
about a year ago, and I was very pleased with both its concept and its
execution. My philosophical sentiments regarding Slackware have not changed.
My thoughts on this version's execution are different this time around.

2. Installation
Slackware installation is straightforward, if not for the faintest of heart.
Most moderately experienced Linux users should have no difficulty installing
the system.

The installer is a simple but reliable and surprisingly user-friendly
ncurses-based utility.

Partition the disk using fdisk, install filesystems, select partition mount
points, install packages, configure LILO, write basic config files, reboot.
Nothing to see here - move along.

The only thing I will mention at this point is this: why, oh why, is LILO
still the sole option for a bootloader Slackware? There should at least be
an option to use GRUB. LILO is a pain in the neck when attempting to do
perform kernel upgrades. And personally, I find GRUB to be easier to
configure.

It's not a huge problem, but still, it is worth mentioning, and I believe a
legitimate gripe. I already had GRUB installed on my system, so I forewent
the LILO installation and just modified my existing GRUB configuration
files.

3. Initial Boot and Configuration
Unfortunately, this did not go too well. The kernel panicked on the first
attempt at booting. It was related to APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt
Controller). It's probably not Linux's fault - it's more likely related to a
flakey BIOS. Still, most distros don't have a problem with it, so I suspect
it's related to some particular patch.

So, I added "noapic" to the boot prompt, and tried again. While the system
was booting the second time, I received another kernel panic apparently
related to the hotplug system. This ticked me off, because no other
distribution has this particular problem with my system, and as my wireless
USB adapter requires the hotplug system, the only workable solution was to
recompile the kernel. This was the case with Slackware 9.1 as well.

An hour and a half, several hundred megabytes, and untold billions of
machine instructions later, my new kernel was ready for showtime.
Installation was without difficulty, and I was presently greeted by the
darkstar login prompt.

I proceeded to finish configuring my wireless card, network settings, and
Xorg.

4. Desktop Usage
Slackware 10.1 includes fairly generic installations of KDE, GNOME, Xfce,
and WindowMaker. However, they have placed an emphasis on KDE, and it shows.
The included KDE 3.3.2 is very nicely done. GNOME is just GNOME - don't
expect any surprises here.

To be honest, however, I'm not a huge KDE or GNOME fan. It's not that I
don't like them - it's just that I gravitate towards the lighter window
managers. So, I checked out Xfce, WindowMaker, and my favorite, Fluxbox.

I had not yet used Xfce 4.2, and I was quite eager to try it. I found it to
be quite snappy with an adequate number of features. The folks at Slackware
have done a very good job packaging it up. Overall, it was very enjoyable,
and I used it for about two weeks without switching to anything else. In
fact, I had no intention to switch to anything else.

Unfortunately, that's when I hit a very nasty snag. This has happened three
times, and it has only happened in Xfce, so I can only think this is an Xfce
bug. During normal usage, my monitor frequency would be sent out of range.
It appeared to be an entirely random occurrence. Obviously, this is
unacceptable, so I switched to Fluxbox.

Fluxbox looked pretty ugly by default, but that was corrected with a few
adjustments. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the latest
"development" version was included - not the older, much less featureful
"stable" version, which is used in most distros where Fluxbox is pleasant.
(Tip: to set a background in Fluxbox, use "fbsetbg").

WindowMaker also worked well. Hey, look, it's WindowMaker! Not much to
comment on.

As for end-user applications, Slackware includes a very broad selection.
AbiWord/gnumeric and the very solid KOffice are included, as are the
mandatory and ubiquitous GIMP, various PDF viewers, multimedia players, and
other applications. Interestingly, Mozilla is included instead of Firefox. I
was actually very happy about this, as I find Firefox to be slow in UI
performance and occasionally buggy, and Mozilla's level of integration is
welcome (tries not to go on a rant against the Mozilla Foundation for
killing Moz).

Slackware is as always very snappy. While boot time is not the greatest on
the planet, it is perfectly acceptable. No complaints in the performance
department.

5. Developer Usage
Slackware remains a very solid developer platform. All the tools you'd
expect to find on a platform that bills itself as a developer workstation
are present. My only complaint is that valgrind is missing. This is probably
my favorite developer utility of all time. Words cannot describe how much
this accelerates bug-hunting. It's only a small piece of software - it
really ought to be included.

There's not much else to comment on here, so I'll continue moving along.

6. Server Usage
MySQL, PHP, and Apache are all included in Slackware, and they all work
fine.

However, the working version of Apache is still 1.33. Correct me if I'm
wrong, but I see no reason why the transition to Apache 2.x cannot proceed
at full throttle. Functionally speaking, this isn't a big deal, but Apache
2.0 has substantially more sane configuration options, and is generally a
cleaner piece of software than 1.x. If I had a choice, I'd be all over 2.x
as opposed to 1.33.

My biggest complaint is that mod_perl is not included. This is a pretty big
deal, because there are currently no binary packages available for mod_perl
for Slackware. "Stop being a bum and just grab the source if you want
efficient Perl," I hear you say. Sorry bub, not that simple. Prior to
compilation, mod_perl requires that Apache be first completely reconfigured
and recompiled from scratch. Binary packages are the only way around this.

Perl is a very popular web development language. The disinclusion of
efficient Perl for Apache is a big minus to an operating system that bills
itself as a serious server platform.

7. Udev Bug
Now, I recognize that udev is not officially supported in Slackware.
However, its inclusion is very important to me as a user and as an
administrator. It has made the management of my system much easier and less
painful. Udev is in my opinion one of the most important developments in the
Linux community in the past few years.

However, udev appears to be partially broken in Slackware 10.1. I am using
version 050, and I did not have this problem with the same version in Arch
Linux. Specifically, permissions simply do not work as they are supposed to,
and I need this functionality for properly handling permissions for the DRI
interfaces. This is very frustrating, because I am now reduced to adding
"chmod" commands to /etc/rc.d/rc.local, which is horribly hackish and
inelegant.

Udev is a very important component that should be important and functioning
in every modern Linux distribution. Its borkage counts against Slackware.
These are the types of headaches that make Linux in general a pain to use. I
don't mind going to some lengths to configure my system; but I should not
have to fix bugs like this. That is the job of the QA guys prior to release.
To my knowledge, this issue has still not been corrected.

8. Conclusions
I have very mixed feelings about this release of Slackware.

I do not think that the underlying philosophy of Slackware is obsolete. The
concept of a system that can be configured and molded to the n'th degree is
still in my opinion very much a good idea.

However, this release of Slackware is not without its problems in execution.

The Xfce bug is forgivable. While it is annoying, it is entirely possible
that the developers never encountered it, or if they did, they mistook it
for a minor fluke.

The udev bug and lack of inclusion of mod_perl are bigger issues that can
cause a great deal of inconvenience for system administrators. These issues
really need to be rectified in the next version of Slackware.

I hope I have not seemed to pessimistic in this review. Overall, I still
find Slackware to be one of the best distributions available. It is quick,
includes a plethora of applications, and for a "geek" distribution, is
relatively easy to set up.

Slackware still has plenty of legs as a distribution. The execution of the
distribution certainly leaves something to be desired, but with the recent
turmoil in the Slackware community, it is certainly forgivable.

Despite its relatively few faults, Slackware is still one of the most
angst-free distributions available.

Now it's time for the ratings section. Please realize that I am a harsh
critic, and unlike most reviewers, I am not afraid to use both sides of the
rating scale