Slackware or Gentoo?

[Istonian]

Ok, I have Mint as my main OS and i got a little bored. So I am going to try to install Gentoo or Slackware on a spare partition. I want the most challednging and customizable OS. Which one fits my wants?

[NightwishFan]

Try Gentoo. Good luck. :)

[scragar]

well slackware is known to be the most customiseable OS, but then gentoo does offer the bigger chalanges, since everything must be compiled before use.

[Istonian]

I was thinking about going with Gentoo because I don't like the idea of dependencie hunting. Hmmmm.... maybe I will try both.

[Balazs_noob]

i know that you haven't listed arch but it is also a option :)
no dependency hunting, very customizable and you
have to install everything ...

[tdrusk]

Gentoo is pretty complicated. It's fun, but I never got it installed.

[Ptero-4]

For challenging, try linux from scratch.

[tdrusk]

For challenging, try linux from scratch.

good call

[Istonian]

Ive never figured out LFS. I have tried. I have tried arch and I liked it, but really not good for my main OS. I might give LFS another go. I am going to try Slackware first. Wish me luck!

[SunnyRabbiera]

Yeh slack is pretty solid, I like it but I dont think I can use it at this level...
its got a great packaging system but it seems archaic in some of its policies

[handy]

Personally I'd go for Arch, if you get tired of the customizability of Arch, which is an OS you also build from the command line, then head to the realm of compile your own OS.

Pacman rules! :guitar: (imho) :guitar: :lolflag:

Sorry, I'm a new Arch user who can't believe how incredibly efficiently Pacman (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman) does its job let alone Yaourt (http://archlinux.fr/yaourt-en)!!! Which is just an amazing piece of software (Pacman wrapper) that enhances Pacman beyond belief.

[srvm]

Try Gentoo.. It's fun to compile *everything* and then finally get a usable system in the end. X didn't work in my case (probably due to my old hardware) but I did get a command prompt - which I used for 5 mins before switching to Debian ;)

[chris200x9]

try arch pacman rules!

[Istonian]

Im going to try Arch again. The first go wasn't a pleasent one for me. Im trying slackware on an old lappy. I will be trying Gentoo at a later date. One thing I could not figure out is which Arch to get. Core of FTP? Last time I went with FTP.

[cardinals_fan]

Slackware! Whoever said that Slack has bad package management was completely misinfor... ah forget it, the package management IS bad. Still a great distro.

[fedex1993]

i would say gentoo since you can build i from a stage and up and up

[handy]

Im going to try Arch again. The first go wasn't a pleasent one for me. Im trying slackware on an old lappy. I will be trying Gentoo at a later date. One thing I could not figure out is which Arch to get. Core of FTP? Last time I went with FTP.

I recently did a Core install, it went very well.

I guess the advantage of FTP is that you don't have to spend the time updating all of the Core install files that have been superseded.

[Rumor]

Im going to try Arch again. The first go wasn't a pleasent one for me. Im trying slackware on an old lappy. I will be trying Gentoo at a later date. One thing I could not figure out is which Arch to get. Core of FTP? Last time I went with FTP.

As handy mentioned, the advantage of FTP is that you do not have to do the initial update before you begin to install xorg and your desktop or window manager.

Either ISO is going to get you the same result. They will both install the base system and leave you at a command prompt login on reboot.

[deepclutch]

archlinux is really a nice option :p easier too!(compared to gentoo!).
BUT...gentoo FTW!
gentoo with a stage3 install is enough for most of us.

[Hevoos]

I think that 90% of those that complain about Slackware's package management just don't know how to use it. Slackbuilds are really good and seems easy to make, and if you don't want to compile use slackpackages instead (binary packages).

Why would you trust me? You really shouldn't, check it out yourself at www.slackbuilds.org or www.linuxpackages.net.

Of course in gentoo you can customize everything but you can do that with slackbuilds aswell, and in gentoo there's no alternative way to compiling.

Enjoy whatever you chose! :)

[cardinals_fan]

I think that 90% of those that complain about Slackware's package management just don't know how to use it. Slackbuilds are really good and seems easy to make, and if you don't want to compile use slackpackages instead (binary packages).

Why would you trust me? You really shouldn't, check it out yourself at www.slackbuilds.org or www.linuxpackages.net.

Of course in gentoo you can customize everything but you can do that with slackbuilds aswell, and in gentoo there's no alternative way to compiling.

Enjoy whatever you chose! :)
I DO build all my programs using buildpkg (rather than compiling), but sometimes it's nice to have someone else do the work :)

[Hevoos]

That's exactly why slackbuilds.org and linuxpackages.net are out there. ;)

[deepclutch]

when will slackware by default carry Gnome?
I am NOT satisfied by HIS decision of bundling kde/xfce.
bundle GNOME default,let different providers give kde3,kde4 :evil:
while poor Gnome users have to try hard for a grip with 3rd party Gnome bundle(dropline) which CANNOT bind 100% as done by the distro maintainer.
That Sucks!
while we have various repos for kde4-svn,kde3 etc available a pleanty,slackware founder should have concentrated on Gnome more and ask kde guys to take care themselves(as kde is easy to package and maintain,while Gnome as of now needs a hard work from distro guys to maintain).

It is very sad day for all Gnome DE users that slackware ditched Gnome off the distro for kde(indirectly).

[cardinals_fan]

when will slackware by default carry Gnome?
I am NOT satisfied by HIS decision of bundling kde/xfce.
bundle GNOME default,let different providers give kde3,kde4 :evil:
while poor Gnome users have to try hard for a grip with 3rd party Gnome bundle(dropline) which CANNOT bind 100% as done by the distro maintainer.
That Sucks!
while we have various repos for kde4-svn,kde3 etc available a pleanty,slackware founder should have concentrated on Gnome more and ask kde guys to take care themselves(as kde is easy to package and maintain,while Gnome as of now needs a hard work from distro guys to maintain).

It is very sad day for all Gnome DE users that slackware ditched Gnome off the distro for kde(indirectly).
I don't like KDE either, but if GNOME requires "hard work from distro guys" to maintain, I can't blame him for not wanting to maintain it. I personally feel that Slack shouldn't include a default DE anyway, since it's more of a lightweight and clean distro...

You could try Zenwalk. It is closely based off of Slack and, while the default DE is Xfce, the GNOME packages are well maintained.