Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Slackware Handbook Released

Posted by timothy on from the slacking-does-not-mean-dozing dept.

Rob_Ogilvie writes "Alan Hicks and his team have finished revising the old 'Slackware Essentials' book and have now released a new and not outdated version for all you Slackware users out there. The old book was getting to be quite outdated, being a few years old. For those of you who like dead trees, this new version is available for pre-order now, in dead-tree format."

24 comments

  1. By the way.. by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 0

    How is Patrick doing from his illness? Havnet heard much about it recently, but hope he's doing well ;)

    I do like his work on Slackware ;)

    --
    1. Re:By the way.. by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1
      How is Patrick doing from his illness? Havnet heard much about it recently, but hope he's doing well ;)

      Apparently the worst is over, and he has since released 10.1. Slackware just keeps getting better and better.

  2. OT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is anyone else being affected by the German spam bombs? I mean seriously, wtf is going on?

  3. I'm starting to get the impression... by Teancom · · Score: 3, Funny

    that the previous version of this book was old? A little bit? Maybe?

    1. Re:I'm starting to get the impression... by Rob_Ogilvie · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yeah. Not my best writing ever. ;-)

      --
      Rob
  4. First Post? by Alan+Hicks · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey! I should get something! :-)

    --
    Slackware, what else when it must be secure, stable, and easy?
  5. Here's a hint by snorklewacker · · Score: 2

    If you would like readers to think Slackware isn't some crusty fossil, it might help to not link to the old outdated version of the slackbook to the phrase "not outdated version". People might get the idea that that's the "not outdated version". Or something.

    --
    I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
    1. Re:Here's a hint by snorklewacker · · Score: 1

      Egad, the links are correct. Taking note of which tab opened from which link is a good thing. Just ignore my babblings...

      See, this is why tabbed browsing is bad! MS is right! Bad!

      Ok, I think I'm getting silly from hunger now. Byenow.

      --
      I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
  6. Book is insuficient by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It doesn't discuss many things that me as an admin of a printer and file server need to know.

    1. Re:Book is insuficient by Alan+Hicks · · Score: 2, Informative
      It doesn't discuss many things that me as an admin of a printer and file server need to know.

      That's not a bug; it's a feature. Seriously.

      The book isn't intended for a file and print server admin. It's intended to introduce newbies to GNU/Linux in general, and Slackware in particular. If you're already capable of running your own file and print server, you're probably past the scope of the book.

      --
      Slackware, what else when it must be secure, stable, and easy?
    2. Re:Book is insuficient by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1
      It doesn't discuss many things that me as an admin of a printer and file server need to know.

      It seems to me that Slackware's biggest strength is in its simplicity, in so far as the user finds very few unnecessary hurdles in the way of finding out for himself how to get something set up. I'm unlikely to refer to it myself, but then I've been using Slack since it was SLS.

      Sure, the book may be insufficient for some, but given the apparent revival of interest in Slackware, it is probably timely.

  7. New? by Ramon+Maruko · · Score: 1

    a new and almost outdated version? gonna get some!

  8. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Heh. I used to use Slackware before I moved to Gentoo, I was always happy with it. But wow, they still have the same website that they did back when I was at university. In 1998. Well, they've inverted the colour scheme, but the layout's identical. I think even Slashdot updates its look more often!

    1. Re:Wow by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1
      But wow, they still have the same website that they did back when I was at university. In 1998.

      So? Slackware is a distro with a staff of one. It is probably that which makes it so solid. Pat probably doesn't have time to futz around with glitzy webpages, and I for one am content that he doesn't bother.

      I see no particular advantage in a triumph of form over content; the webpage reflects the simplicity of the distro. All the page has to say is who the distro might benefit and where to get it.

  9. Re:slackware's cutting edge offerings: by Narchie+Troll · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's absurd.

    cfdisk is provided and has been for quite some time, and X.org has been included since 10.0. A simple X -configure generates a good config for many machines. Your claims are more or less baseless.

  10. Huh? by MistabewM · · Score: 1

    Back in my day we used man. No panzy ass html. We also had a stack of floppy disks to install slackware off of. The first distro I ever used and still my favorite. Yes they were 720k disks.

    --
    "A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" - DNA
    1. Re:Huh? by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with man? It's not like there's a viable replacement.

      Well, there's info. But the best thing I can say about info is that it's almost always possible to avoid it.

      --
      I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
    2. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you know that groff, the 'backend' to the decrepit but ever usefull man system, can output squishy squashy linked HTML?

      $ find /usr/man/ -name man.1.gz | xargs gunzip -c | groff -Thtml -mandoc | lynx -stdin

      You can put that in a shell script to get the page and section from the args, call it man and stick it in ~/bin. Now if only those lazy bastards at GNU would keep the man pages synchronised with info!!!

      --
      LD

  11. Slackware, the only true distro. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    C'mon folks. You know you wish you were 1337 enough to run Slackware on the desktop... Bow down to all that is Slackware! Hail to the Dropline Gnome!

    1. Re:Slackware, the only true distro. by argan0n · · Score: 1

      BAH! What's 'leet about this "desktop" thing of which you speak? >;]

      --
      argan0n
  12. Thanks by bonkeroo+buzzeye · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've only read a bit into it - obviously any detailed post is going to be a while in coming - but it looks good so far. As someone who's spent a lot of time using Slack and a lot of time trying to help people out at LQ with Slack, I can't tell you how nice it is to have the opportunity to say 'Read the Book' instead of 'Read the Book. It's a little (ahem) outdated, but still pretty useful in places'.

    Forgive me if this has come up a zillion times already since, while I knew of the project, I hadn't followed it closely - any plans to maybe place it in a restricted wiki context to quickly fold in updates and *keep* it updated with 2.1s and 2.2s or do we risk several more years before a 3.0?

    Anyway - it's really nice to see this and hopefully will help ease others into the use of the fantastic distro.

  13. Re:Pat needs a book by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I happen to agree, simply because my processor doesn't have the cmov instruction. Those fucking twats at Dropline Gnome have the worst case of Gentooitis ever! If they weren't fucking twats and actally benchmarked the difference the cmov makes, it might be different.