Slackware: Myths and Cliches

“Myth 1. Slackware is for geeks/developers.
First of all, I think that if an instrument is used by experts and
professionals then this means that it is a really good instrument,
though it may really look or be too complicated for a rank and file
user. To figure out whether this is true or not for Slackware,
let’s split the above claim into parts.

“1a. Slackware is user-unfriendly.
It seems that Slackware developers make two a prior assumptions
about potential users of their distro: (i) users are not hopelessly
dumb and (ii) from time to time, users are able to use a keyboard
and perhaps even read docs. If these assumptions are not valid then
Slackware may look user-unfriendly. (In my opinion, a Windows-like
GUI as the one used in RH 8.0 and 9.0 releases doesn’t mean
user-friendliness. Perhaps, this is a matter of taste.)

“1b. Slackware is difficult to install.
This is definitely true if you have only one finger and it is
deadly glued to your mouse. Slackware installation procedure does
not have a GUI in the sense of Red Hat or Mandrake. One who decides
to install Slackware will need to type ‘root’ and even ‘setup.’ If
the hard drive is not ready for the installation it will also be
necessary to type ‘(c)fdisk’ after ‘root.’ Believe me, this is not
so difficult as it may look. More than this, it is much less time
consuming than clicking here and there. The rest of the
installation needs approximately the same number of keystrokes as
it is necessary in RH or Mandrake…”

Complete
Story