So it was my first Vote for slackware, when simplicity & robustness wins over the latest packaged graphical stuff.
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To decide my final distro. I made dual boot my laptop and ran both the distros for a week. ( ubuntu & slackware )
I made all the basic things like updating the systme with required packages which includes.
a) picasa
b) google-chrome
c) avidemux
d) Gimp
e) vlc
f) restricted codecs.. & multimedia related stuff
g) webcam software .
on Uubntu:
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1) I personally liked earlier that my system is upto date daily and I am on the bleeding edge software updates. But then I realized that daily updates doesnt mean you are always have a right and secure thing in hand. ( as on Ubuntu-- the next day update comes to fix some security issues ..because of daily updates of other packages. ) and so on...
2) Ubuntu looks shiney/polished and most of point and click which may attract and may suits user coming from Windows background or for non-technical user base.
3) I found Gnome packages well built on Ubuntu as its being supported in main stream and hence a better & polished look. ( but does the look always matters )
anyone could achieve the same using nice compiz effects and additional fonts, so thats not a major factor to decide on.
4) I found several minor glitches on ubuntu which made a first bad impression.
5) Missing of a "root" user in Ubuntu has its own philosophy but when I come from a development environment in corporate company, it always sounds weired as, SUN/AIX/Redhat/... has a standard mechanism to protect certain privileges using root account.
6) Better thing is Ubuntu is its software package management : as When I clicked a .avi file , gnome-player directly asked me that software missing to play this file and on a single click my system updated with the desired package and I'm good to GO.
on slackware:
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1) It looked very well built on first login and I found very huge list of desired packages directly available on http://slackbuild.org
2) after my investement of much time on setting up desired software, efforts went to "ZERO" updating the software. and my system is just running & running without need a KB downlod
3) I found that it actually using less amount of RAM & CPU while doing almost similar task ( RAM usage is noticable, as slackware is not that heavy on hardware )
anyway, this point may not be that valid as running Ubuntu (GNOME) and slackware ( KDE) definitely will have different RAM usage and depends on default services started.
4) I tried XFCE and its very good and good alternative of GNOME look ( GTK), if i'not trying other GNOME builds made for slackware.
5) Doing all the exercise above, I actually learnt some basics of Linux which Ubunut/Suse doesnt provide any feel of.
6) If I crash anything on Slackware, now I know in which file I need to make certain changes and I'll be Up & running again ( I sometimes crashed my Ubuntu & re-installed the OS as i didnt find that transparency )
7) The good point made earlier in comments, that it becomes a security issues when patches are made on kernel and just to make the system working. hence the frequent updates in Kernel as well ( which sometimes need a reboot ... may be not good if you are running a server like stuff.)
based on my experience, here is what I feel on rating of 5.
its just my opinion...
.............................Ubuntu.Scores....Slackware.Scores
Frequent.Updates......4......................1.(I consider low value good here )
Choices.of.Softwares..4......................3
Stability....................3......................5
Robustness...............2......................5
Hardware.Support.....5......................5
Customization...........4......................5
Boot.Time................5......................3
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just to off this topic. once I heard a small story which gave a message like.
When we/company come into competition, we try to get fame/ attention and want to be alway ahead of others.
That's the same what a Rival also thinks and want to Do.
Greed is the thing which makes money in the pocket but makes loosing of happiness and peace. ( saying : money isnt the happiness )
The people, who just do not because of competition, but for happiness and peace gets a perfect balance.
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getting back on topic, I think thats somehow suits the slackware philosophy.
no commitment on next release, it would just come when its ready ( no pressure) its a Trust
Other distro in competition, got the fame but not the peace what slackware user has at end of the Day.
So its being a choice ( as what Linux is popular for ). I'm deciding slackware for becoming my Linux
Nice and very impartial review,
ReplyDeleteI agree on your points, slackware rocks. :)