Vector Linux 4 Reviewed

SilentBob4 writes "On October 7th, the developers at Vector Linux released the latest version of their lightweight Linux distro, version 4. Vector has always been built upon the Slackware Linux framework and this time around it is based on Slack 9.0. The interesting thing here is that there was quite a delay between releases from the Vector camp, so as they were readying version 4, Pat Volkerding was releasing version 9.1 of his Slackware distro. This past Friday, the first review of Vector Linux was released (Distrowatch.com posted a link to it today). It was a pretty good review for the most part, but the interesting thing about it was that they actually benchmarked it against Slackware 9.1 and posted the results. I'll spoil the ending right now and tell you that Vector Linux won, but you should check out the findings. There are some pretty interesting numbers obtained from the two distros. The reviewer has published three PDF documents detailing the results. Everything was tested from the kernel to filesystem performance. It is interesting to say the least. Even if you don't have to time to read the whole article (it's two pages long), do check out the benchmark results. "

Comments

when birds have radios installed in their butts

[Anonymous Coward]

there'll be music in the air at all times.

Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner. If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, we don't care.

0 robbIE, you've become such a phonIE corepirate nazIE shill.

Where's fucking Waldo?

[Anonymous Coward]

I read this story submission and could not immediately determine which link had the review article. This guy used some kind of William Shatner mode of emphasis to point us to the review. "This. past Friday the. first review of. Vector Linux was. RELEASED"

Re:Okay, "stupid question" time

[Anonymous Coward]

And how does that matter if you build the system on your own hardware (a la Gentoo)?

It doesn't. (ie. Gentoo users are mostly idiots and morons)

They tweek compile settings and such. The fact that you're compiling on your own hardware has absolutely no effect on the output. Recompiling with tweeked settings really has barely any effect at all, it's mostly a waste of time. But trudge on Gentoo users! You're l33t 'cause you compile your own stuff! I love you!

Yeah? So?

[CoolVibe]

Debian is still the best!

*runs away, ducks for cover*

(DISCLAIMER: I'm a FreeBSD user. This post is a joke. Please don't take it seriously)

my response:

[CAIMLAS]

Vector has always been built upon the Slack *bzzzzzztttt - white noise*

Could someone please explain to me why people still use slackware? It's un-standard, inefficient, and has many more bugs than, say, gentoo or debian. What is people's reasoning, when gentoo does the whole "set every option myself" feature, plus it has an artful, well designed package manager and other things that people have grown to expect in modern distributions. Slackware has none of these. (Please note, I said an artful, well designed package manager.)

I'm not being critical of slackware, persay, or even the people that have been using slackware since the Beginning (unless they're vehminent slackware zealots, in which case they're likely not too clued), because that's what they're used to, and that's fine. I'm mainly being critical of the idea that slackware should be migrated to from another distro, or picked up as an initial distro, and asking the question, "How is it that slackware continues to have user momentum?" Is it that it has a 'cool name', and that appeals to the hax0r variety?

So as to remain fully on topic, I wonder how slack and vector compare against other distributions? That would have been a more appropriate benchmark, IMO, and worth the effort if effort is going to be spent on such an endeavor at all.

Re:MY response:

[CAIMLAS]

I've met people like you before. They've never had to use linux in a professional capacity before. Slackware takes time, and time is money.

First off, Slackware does not "just work", and it is inefficient - you said so yourself: Package system? Who needs one. Build from source. The slackware packaging programs are crap. There are precious few scenarios where you need a different compile-time option, additionally, so compiling things is out the picture in terms of practicality of efficiency. I'm not sure if you knew this or not but the definition of 'efficiency' is "producing results, actively operative; not slack (emphasis mine) or incapable." I think that speaks for itself, but it seems I need to elaborate for you. Slackware is, by very definition, inefficient. Building your own packages when it's unnecessary is inefficient, yes (and no, you do not get a significant performance increase by doing so).

The standards I speak of are LSB standards. The bugs I speak of are in the design of the system: it encourages slackness in updating critical components due to the time involvement required. Don't think that's a bug? Then maybe "design flaw" is more apt. I know of quite a few people that run slack on multiple computers who do not have the time or motivation to constantly be updating them. Thus, as a result, they remain unpatched. Version control would be nice, here.

Now, your arguement for using slack as a learning tool (in the 'geek-ness' of chasing down deps, and the like) is valid and true, and I agree with you on that. I've learned quite a bit from doing such things myself, as well as doing a little LFS and various other things. But that's where it stops. It's impractical to constantly do those things. Once I understood how things work, and the concepts behind them, I found out there was a better way to do things. Debian might not be 'best of breed' but it does things well, and it does them susinctly. Hopefully you'll get past your fledgeling slackware stage like the rest of us, and figure these things out on your own.

As far as my initial questions, they were mainly intended as rhetoric. I know -why- people start using slack nowadays. It's because it's trendy, and there's an elitist culture built up around slack. Just join any slack IRC channel and you'll see what I mean.

When you grow up a little bit, you'll realize that there are things that are more important than the geekyness of your operating system. Things like spending time with your family. Showing affection towards those you love. Even something as banal as mowing the lawn or raking the leaves. Or maybe even doing something important, as actually writing code or being productive.