Slackware v Ubuntu: Not What You Might Think - Part 2

So where does Slackware fall in those regards we talked about with Ubuntu last? That is, on package installation and repositories.

Well that package installation process for Slackware is just as simple as it is for Ubuntu. It's just a different kind of simple. The command line tool pkgtool is run and packages installed locally. There is no default ability to install over the network and there is no dependency resolution. A few simple add on tools like slackpkg (available in the extras parts of the Slackware repository) and sbopkg (availible online) allow for a bit more elbow room but still keep things rather simple.

I am aware, by the way, of a package called slapt-get that resolves dependencies within Slackware but I have yet to use it and probably won't. Not on my production machine anyways.

The lack of dependency resolution is a real gift in my book. I don't much like systems that try and automatically add more software for me, even if I do get to confirm it. If I need or want something else besides the package I'm installing I'll fetch it myself. This isn't even too troublesome for a beginner to Linux as the readme files of almost all packages list dependencies so you know what else you need to get to make it run. I have, so far, only run into one package that did not correctly list these in the readme file. Well it may have, it's a tough case to judge. It required an additional package for the build though not to run. While in some cases this can lead to frustration in not being able to get a package to work, it also relieves the frustration of having your package manager or system broken when it automatically installs something that doesn't play well on your machine.

On the repository side of Slackware you have relatively few choices compared to other major distributions. This can cause some problems but isn't too cumbersome. The plus side here is that you probably don't need access to the 25,000+ packages of Debian to get the software you want or need thereby making searches much faster. The down side is that most things that can't be found in the official repository or on the slackbuild repository (Managed by some Slackware developers but not official. Use sbopkg to automatically fetch and install packages from this source) will need to be compiled from source.

I, for one, don't usually mind compiling from source. It allows greater control over the outcome and it's really not as hard as many people make it out to be. Most programs can be compiled by following three steps as root. Jump into the directory containing the top level of the source code and use these three commands.

1) $ ./configure (options) [Discover options with ./configure --help]

2) $ make

3) $ make install

For 90% (if not higher) of the programs I have compiled that's all it takes. The second most common method I have seen will use the command 'ant' followed by something like './install.sh' but it's still fairly straight forward.

The big negative here is that it can be very time consuming. My only real grudge against installing things from source is how long it takes. When I bring a new system up in Ubuntu I can have everything I need or want installed on it in roughly 11 hours (including downloads). I am still working on that goal for my Slackware system after three days. Granted if I skipped work it may well be done right now but it's a process that has to be monitored constantly which is both good and bad for what is, I hope, obvious reasons.

Part 3 will go into configuration on both distributions.