Longest Running Linux Distribution Slackware Adopts MariaDB

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Longest Running Linux Distribution Slackware Adopts MariaDB

Posted by timothy on Sunday March 24, 2013 @04:25AM from the onward-and-upward dept.

First time accepted submitter Gerardo Zamudio writes with the news that Ur-distribution Slackware is replacing MySQL with MariaDB. From an update posted to the Slackware news feed yesterday: "This shouldn't really be a surprise on any level. The poll on LQ showed a large majority of our users were in favor of the change. It's my belief that the MariaDB Foundation will do a better job with the code, be more responsive to security concerns, and be more willing to work with the open source community. And while I don't think there is currently any issue with MySQL's licensing of the community edition for commercial uses, several threads on LQ showed that there is confusion about this, whereas with MariaDB the freedom to use the software is quite clear." (Here's a link to the mentioned poll.)

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Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:27 · Score: 4, Funny

MariaDB sucks. I'll stick with MS Access. Best. Database. Ever.
1. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:32 · Score: 0
  
  Access? I use FileMaker.
2. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:36 · Score: 0, Flamebait
  
  Say what you will about Oracle, but they know a thing or two about databases. Mighty Wideanus (who originally created MySQL and then forked it to MariaDB) has an abysmal track record (ie, MySQL and MariaDB). MySQL was only usable due to InnoDB (also owned by Oracle), a third party MySQL database storage engine that reimplemented everything since MySQL did it wrong.
  For a simple, single access database, use SQLite. For anything else, use Postgres. There just isn't a use case for MariaDB.
3. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  We use post-it notes... When the data is accessed, my secretary manually types in the data from the related notes according to the SQL query.
  SELECT * FROM the_yellow_ones_by_the_office_fridge WHERE handwriting LIKE "Larry"
  We use SMS to connect to this fancy database.
4. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:47 · Score: -1
  
  It never takes long before some sanctimonious wanker spouts their drivel about PostgreSQL in anything that MySQL related. Grow the fuck up. People can choose what they like, whether tossers like you agree or not.
5. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:20 · Score: 0
  
  Access? Oh, please. You can only get that with the deluxe Office package.
  No, you should switch to Excel. Everyone with the most basic Office versions has it.
6. Re:Frosty piss by mortonda · 2013-03-24 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  Real programmers roll their own database files with b-tree indexes. ;)
7. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:22 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, people can and do choose what they like. People are dumb. MySQL is very popular.
  You join the dots.
8. Re:Frosty piss by Mister+Liberty · 2013-03-24 05:37 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Real men remember where they left their stuff.
9. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:45 · Score: 1
  
  InnoDB is great with MySQL if you require a "proper" ACID compliant transactional RDBMS. MyISAM is great if you need rapid data logging. The various other database engines that MySQL wraps are also great for their designed purpose. Saying MySQL was rubbish until InnoDB came along demonstrates an embarrassingly superficial understanding of what MySQL, InnoDB, MyISAM et al are for.
10. Re:Frosty piss by jedidiah · 2013-03-24 05:48 · Score: 2
  
  No. It just betrays a certain bias that is common among the sorts of people that employ relational databases. It comes with the whole "SQL" thing. These people are very demanding and don't suffer fools or excuses lightly.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
11. Re:Frosty piss by Kwpolska · 2013-03-24 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  No, you should switch to LibreOffice Calc, or whatever fork is the "current" one.
12. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:20 · Score: 0
  
  MySQL used to have a section in its manual which was titled "Foreign Keys are Bad" (no joke, it really did). MySQL was complete shit until InnoDB came around and they started paying a little attention to basic SQL compliance.
13. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:39 · Score: 0
  
  Fuck indexes, my app takes 5 minutes to generate a report because it's doing Real Work.
14. Re:Frosty piss by sensei+moreh · 2013-03-24 07:44 · Score: 2
  
  MariaDB sucks. I'll stick with MS Access. Best. Database. Ever.
  You youngsters have no sense of history. The "Best. Database. Ever." was dBase. No run along and play
  
  --
  Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
15. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 08:10 · Score: 0
  
  Real men play with real men databases, like SQL Server, Oracle or DB2
16. Re:Frosty piss by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2013-03-24 08:16 · Score: 1
  
  Fuck indexes, my app takes 5 minutes to generate a report because it's doing Real Work.
  Real work, as in pushing stuff around, W=Fd? Wow, I didn't know people still used relay computers.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
17. Re:Frosty piss by mwvdlee · 2013-03-24 09:21 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  SQL server a real database... that's +1 funny!
  
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  Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
18. Re:Frosty piss by maxwell+demon · 2013-03-24 09:39 · Score: 1
  
  Fuck indexes, my app takes 5 minutes to generate a report because it's doing Real Work.
  Real work, as in pushing stuff around, W=Fd? Wow, I didn't know people still used relay computers.
  Relay computers? No, I use crowd computing: A crowd of people physically moves my bits around!
  
  --
  The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
19. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 10:33 · Score: 0
  
  Saying MySQL was rubbish until InnoDB came along demonstrates an embarrassingly superficial understanding of what MySQL, InnoDB, MyISAM et al are for.
  That's correct - a competent person would say that MySQL is still rubbish, InnoDB or not.
20. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 11:12 · Score: 0
  
  Mighty Wideanus (who originally created MySQL and then forked it to MariaDB)
  There's some reason to suspect the poster above might have been a troll. They post inflammatory things hoping to get the soft-headed, the learning challenged, the humour impaired and the just plain dumb to respond.
  Looks like our troll scored 4/4.
21. Re:Frosty piss by higuita · 2013-03-24 15:57 · Score: 1
  
  let me say it slowly: T E X T F I L E S
  
  --
  Higuita
22. Re:Frosty piss by xenobyte · 2013-03-24 19:48 · Score: 1
  
  MySQL was only usable due to InnoDB (also owned by Oracle), a third party MySQL database storage engine that reimplemented everything since MySQL did it wrong.
  InnoDB is crap! - Major headache to maintain compared to MyISAM tables which clearly separates each table into separate files. Much easier to shrink (optimize) tables as well as it doesn't require all data of all other tables to be reprocessed as well.
  
  --
  "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
23. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 20:46 · Score: 1
  
  And it's still faster than MS Acess.
24. Re:Frosty piss by Chrisq · 2013-03-25 00:06 · Score: 2
  
  Say what you will about Oracle, but they know a thing or two about databases.
  
  Let me correct that for you:
  
  Say what you will about Oracle, but they know a thing or two about marketing.
25. Re:Frosty piss by silentcoder · 2013-03-25 00:06 · Score: 1
  
  >Relay computers? No, I use crowd computing: A crowd of people physically moves my bits around!
  Hah, you youngsters and your hard drives. I got a crowd of illegal immigrants in my basement punching cards !
  
  --
  Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
26. Re:Frosty piss by jimdouglass · 2013-03-25 04:38 · Score: 0
  
  posting as an Anonymous Coward makes me think this is tongue in cheek or a paid Micro$oft person putting us all on. ??
  
  --
  James Douglass Garden City, Kansas Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle
27. Re:Frosty piss by BitZtream · 2013-03-25 08:33 · Score: 1
  
  Well, it was bought and built on what was once considered a real database, does that count?
  
  --
  Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
28. Re:Frosty piss by tfigment · 2013-03-25 15:31 · Score: 1
  
  innodb_file_per_table=1
  Of course this does not fix the ibdata01 file growth issue in heavy transactional systems. Putting all that meta crap in a a file that does not shrink ever is the stupidest design decision in innodb. We have have had to rebuild several times because the ibdata file has grown to fill the disk despite not having any table data. Something to do with flush logs and transactions or something.
  Saw something in labs build that may mitigate the need to rebuild completely from scratch when this happens but not sure if its in production yet.
29. Re:Frosty piss by Hognoxious · 2013-03-26 01:47 · Score: 1
  
  And more reliable than MySQL, as long as she doesn't start writing too close to edge of the paper.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
30. Re:Frosty piss by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-26 02:45 · Score: 0
  
  I personally use FinalData from Softwood on the Amiga. Best thing is, noone can access that computer unless they are actually pfysically sitting on my chair in fron of it.
  How is THAT for security measures :lol
Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:32 · Score: 1

Is mentioning "Longest Running Linux Distribution" vital in the context?
1. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by ArchieBunker · 2013-03-24 04:37 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Not really. But Slackware is probably the only distro I'd consider running. Most other distros have so much bloat and dependency on scripts that modifying anything breaks stuff. I really dislike how far things have changed from the 2.0 kernel days.
  
  --
  Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
2. Re: Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:43 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  yes, as it shows that a important distro, known to not doing risky decisions and taking stability as a main goal, will make what everyone thinks but little admit
3. Re: Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:52 · Score: 0
  
  But wouldn't of "Slackware Adopts MariaDB" sufficed?
  Slackware (as the longest running distribution) hardly needs an introduction...
4. Re: Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:40 · Score: -1
  
  nevermind that every other major core distro is only like a month or 2 newer, slackware felt like a rush job, and to this day a almost neglected system under the guise of "stability"
5. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by grasshoppa · 2013-03-24 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  Well, yes; you need to understand how a distro does something before you go modifying their config files. It's not hard really, it's just something to keep in mind.
  Personally, I don't see what the big deal is.
  
  --
  Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
6. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by hobarrera · 2013-03-24 06:00 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Have you tried ArchLinux?
7. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:03 · Score: 0
  
  one word: Arch
8. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by Skapare · 2013-03-24 06:28 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Modifying things in CentOS, Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu isn't a simple task to get it all right. In Slackware it is definitely simpler.
  Oh, the topic? I use Postgres.
  
  --
  now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
9. Re: Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:44 · Score: 0
  
  It saddens me that at one time I used to rely on Slashdot for pertinent opinions and comments to the posted articles. Now there are still a few of those but most of the time there's just crap comments like these focusing on dumb shit aspects like how some don't like wording in titles or whatever.
10. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by ArchieBunker · 2013-03-24 07:28 · Score: 2
  
  No actually. I'm more of a BSD fan.
  
  --
  Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
11. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by TheRealMindChild · 2013-03-24 07:41 · Score: 1
  
  The problem is when your distro overwrites your config file every boot, just to make sure everything is fresh. To modify it, you really need to modify the underlying m4 file, which needs a script run before the system takes effect!
  
  --
  
  "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
12. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by mwvdlee · 2013-03-24 09:24 · Score: 1
  
  Yes. It distinguishes between "Nobody should give a damn what this distro chooses to do" and "The is a rather significant choice, considering the distro's notability" and does so using less words and more proof.
  
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  Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
13. Re: Longest Running Linux Distribution by higuita · 2013-03-24 15:46 · Score: 2
  
  you clearly don't know what you are talking about!
  to be stable doesn't mean that system is old or outdated, means that it works always. slackware software versions are as updated as other distros, but they will only update the software is its known that will not bring problems! nobody wants a Xorg server that is full of bugs or that cant be used with nvidia or ati/amd drivers. In slackware, after one upgrade, the system will continue to work... not all distros can say the same.
  check the distro timeline, its not a month or 2, only debian is close to that, the others is a lot more... and even that, slackware first releases were usable, most of the first releases of the other distros were barely usable, and they were using better software and tools.
  please remember that what other distros released as their first version is totally different from what you have today... yet slackware is almost the same, the software is new (its even newer than debian in most cases) but the concept is almost the same as the original one. That is not a bug, its a feature, what worked in that time, still works today.
  You can see in the timeline that most distros disappeared, but you cant see how each distro changed nor the problems they had... go read about the a.out to elf migration in each distro to learn why slackware is looked as a very stable distro.
  slackware may not be a top distro, but slackware never tried to be that, never tried to grab the desktop window users, like most other distros... slackware is for those that want to learn, those that want control, those who want a stable system. If you aren't one of this, please go to other distro, after all, each distro have its own market niche.
  Today, many people want a windows like distro, like ubuntu or mint, but that doesnt mean that the users that want to learn have disappeared. yes, after installing slackware, you need to configure some things... but its YOUR system, you take the decisions, you enable or disable things! not someone in ubuntu or fedora or gnome developement cycle that thinks what you should or should not use.
  
  --
  Higuita
14. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 21:15 · Score: 0
  
  ArchLinux was basically Slackware with more packages and a better package manager. Until last summer. Then it became infested with Systemd, forcing /bin into /usr/bin (so now /usr is required to be on /, just too bad for those who have small but fast SSDs for /. And then two weeks ago, Wayland became a dependency of several packages, including Mesa and GTK3.
  So for those who like Slackware, I wouldn't recommend Arch Linux.
15. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by zixxt · 2013-03-24 23:32 · Score: 1
  
  Have you tried ArchLinux?
  Arch lost its way when it started shipping and System D as the default init and banning users from its forums for disagreeing with that dreadful action.
  I was once a Arch user a couple years ago. It was a awesome distro back then but now it has lost the KISS way!
  
  --
  ---- GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
16. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-25 00:38 · Score: 0
  
  Yes. I moved to Slackware (against the admonitions about how scary hard it was) from, what, Red Hat 5.2 or Mandrake or something. Corel was big at the time. What I found was one of the easiest distros ever to install (if you had enough clean floppies!) and maintain. I moved to FreeBSD at 4.8 and have been there since, but I have kept a Slackware subscription ever since because The Man might be one of the last no-bullshit distro guys out there.
  Yes, it's Nostalgia Day!
17. Re: Longest Running Linux Distribution by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · 2013-03-25 02:51 · Score: 1
  
  In slackware, after one upgrade, the system will continue to work... not all distros can say the same.
  That seems like the understatement of the year after seeing the back and forth over with the most recent Slackware 14.0 and the delays to ensure that everything actually works. As far as the initial configuration after install that has gotten better, I really don't miss trying to get X working like in the old days, and will ovten work out of the box. The other think I like is that stuff appears in the correct spot with the correct name so if you need to build something from source you don't have to try and track crap down that is installed but put into some strange location or has an unexpected name as some distros do.
  
  --
  Time to offend someone
18. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by hobarrera · 2013-03-26 00:58 · Score: 1
  
  systemd has it's issues (mostly design issues), but from an admin/user POV, it's easier to maintain and pretty much adheres to the KISS principle.
19. Re:Longest Running Linux Distribution by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-27 19:06 · Score: 0
  
  2.0.28 (iirc) had a buggy network stack but once they got past 30, it was pretty good. I felt that Linux really hit its stride in the 2.2 series. I had some Linux boxes getting the crap beat out of them and they took it like no other consumer level OS I have ever seen. With the loads my Linux servers were smoothly handling, Windows would have dropped to its knees crying like a little girl before getting decapitated.
  The 2.4 series went off the cliff with a kernel based web-server and some nasty bugs. WTF?! I have not tracked it closely since then, especially since both KDE and Gnome went off the deep-end.
  Oh, I use postrgesql
  (captcha is baited... I wonder how that applies. The captchas are usually insightful)
GPL and LGPL? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:34 · Score: 0, Informative

A quick google says MariaDB is GPL.. How is that a better license for commercial development than MySQL? GPL is a terrible license for using in commercial software. https://kb.askmonty.org/en/mariadb-license/
1. Re:GPL and LGPL? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I don't think you're supposed to ship your software with MariaDB or MySQL.
2. Re:GPL and LGPL? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:35 · Score: 0
  
  Let's say I'm making a program that is for idiots....that is supposed to just work, not have to hand hold them through some ugly faq/wiki on installing MariaDB or MySQL on a semi-supported platform (they're idiots, remember)?
  Think Finance, Sales, anything that needs a good DB on Windows or Mac.
3. Re:GPL and LGPL? by ThisIsSaei · 2013-03-24 05:41 · Score: 0
  
  Congratulations, you've just landed aninstall contract AND a software support contract. Jesus, are you new to capitalism?
4. Re:GPL and LGPL? by Gwala · 2013-03-24 05:55 · Score: 1
  
  No, but the interface bindings are shipped.
  MySQL proceeded to piss off a whole bunch of developers by changing their bindings to GPL a few years back.
  
  --
  #!/bin/csh cat $0
5. Re:GPL and LGPL? by jedidiah · 2013-03-24 05:56 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  > Let's say I'm making a program that is for idiots....that is supposed to just work,
  That's your responsibilty like it's always has been. It doesn't matter if it's your own code or depedencies. The fact that things like package managers and Installshield scripts exist doesn't alter the fact that you still have to roll up your sleeves and do the relevant work.
  The GPL doesn't alter this. Even the requirement to distribute source code of derivative works doesn't impact this. It's an entirely separate problem.
  It's a total red herring.
  Although supporting a relational database server is not for dummies regardless of what Balmer or Ellison will try to tell you. It doesn't matter "how well supported" it is.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
6. Re:GPL and LGPL? by hobarrera · 2013-03-24 06:01 · Score: 1
  
  Just make an installer for your app that silently downloads and installs mysql, easy as that.
7. Re:GPL and LGPL? by Skapare · 2013-03-24 06:29 · Score: 0
  
  Your database-using commercial application should "just work" on any database.
  
  --
  now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
8. Re:GPL and LGPL? by w_dragon · 2013-03-24 06:43 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  The mariadb c connector license is LGPL, the mysql one is GPL. Not a lot of companies will create a derivative work of the database server, but a lot will want to link against the client api.
9. Re:GPL and LGPL? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 07:19 · Score: 0
  
  MySQL proceeded to piss off a whole bunch of developers by changing their bindings to GPL a few years back.
  Exactly. That was back in the MySQL 3.x days. MySQL 4.x onwards was GPL only where *developers* had to pay for the privilege of developing for MySQL or license under GPL. Well, sorry, but that is not how most other databases work. You could get Oracle or MSSQL or PostgreSQL or even SQLite free of charge for the developer (and user in most cases - see Express versions of MSSQL or Oracle) - they were all also better databases.
  MySQL does not add any value that is not readily available elsewhere to justify paying for it.
10. Re:GPL and LGPL? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 08:19 · Score: 0
  
  What am I missing? An install contract and support contract would be business as usual for the above software types...
11. Re:GPL and LGPL? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 08:31 · Score: 0
  
  read those licence, and the post about it on /. . They allow commercial use, the only thing that licence doesn't allow is turning it into proprietary shit, but that's a different story.
12. Re:GPL and LGPL? by amiga3D · 2013-03-24 09:16 · Score: 1
  
  Oracle works on linux does it not?
13. Re:GPL and LGPL? by mwvdlee · 2013-03-24 09:36 · Score: 1
  
  If your program is for idiots, use SQLite or another embedded database. They are a lot better suited for the job.
  You don't need a pick-up truck for grocery shopping, you don't need a full-blown database for most applications.
  
  --
  Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
14. Re:GPL and LGPL? by mcrbids · 2013-03-24 14:31 · Score: 1
  
  SQLite just called and wants you to take back your stale information back!
  We sell a product using SQLite and have literally tens of thousands of installs with an error level low enough that our half dozen or so support staff keep up nicely. True, we use Post GRES on our central servers, but even there the admin requirements are quite reasonable...
  
  --
  I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Poll was garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:35 · Score: 3, Insightful

A 59 user poll without the option repeatedly mentioned in the comments (which was to dump all of them) at a site pretty much devoted to answering easy linux questions (ie, newbies...)
Who fucking cares? It's not a big deal, at all, for anyone running Slackware.
1. Re:Poll was garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:52 · Score: 0
  
  A 59 user poll without the option repeatedly mentioned in the comments (which was to dump all of them) at a site pretty much devoted to answering easy linux questions (ie, newbies...)
  Who fucking cares? It's not a big deal, at all, for anyone running Slackware.
  It is especially questionable considering that there aren't 59 people still using slackware...:)
2. Re:Poll was garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:07 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I agree. There was no option for CowboyNealDB.
  The poll was worthless.
3. Re:Poll was garbage by DarkOx · 2013-03-24 05:36 · Score: 2
  
  Well independent of what the main website is devoted to doing, the forum there is the "Official" web form for Slackware. If you want to post something the developers; mainly Patrick, will read LQ is the place to do it. So for anyone running Slackware and having strong feelings about anything in particular, your opinion matters Pat cares, and you should pay attention to what goes on at LQ; because chances are good you will be affected by it.
  
  --
  Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
4. Re:Poll was garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:44 · Score: 0
  
  I stopped using slackware when Patrick died after taking anti-viral meds and was replaced by a bash script.
5. Re:Poll was garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 07:38 · Score: 0
  
  59 users isn't bad, that's 57 more than the entire openBSD user base!
6. Re:Poll was garbage by higuita · 2013-03-24 15:49 · Score: 1
  
  Just in case you dont know, LQ is the oficial slackware forum. Many important slackware users and admins are there.
  there is also a internal mailling list and the freenode IRC channel. All serve as a feedback for decision making.
  
  --
  Higuita
7. Re:Poll was garbage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 22:28 · Score: 0
  
  ....and 57 more users than Windows 8....
Come on... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 04:41 · Score: 1

An important change in the distro affecting hundreds of users is based on a poll from only 59 people?
1. Re:Come on... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  That is, in fact, a massive sample size if it's only going to affect "hundreds" of users.
2. Re:Come on... by ShanghaiBill · 2013-03-24 05:49 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  An important change in the distro affecting hundreds of users is based on a poll from only 59 people?
  A sample size of 59 is more than sufficient. A more important concern is whether the sample is representative, and whether the question is biased in some way.
  People often greatly overestimate the importance of sample size in polling, but increasing the sample size usually makes little difference. For instance, if you are conducting a political poll by phone, you need to consider that Democrats are more likely to be home, more likely to answer the phone (rather than let to go to an answering machine), and more willing to talk to pollsters. You also need to consider that Republicans are more likely to have multiple phone numbers, and are more likely to actually vote. Properly accounting for these factors will improve your results far more than increasing your sample size.
3. Re:Come on... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 07:56 · Score: 0
  
  Pretty sure that Nate Silver has thoroughly debunked your assertions. Right leaning pollsters over-estimated GOP voters precisely because they refused to call cell phones(cough Rasmussen) and as a result got the election comically wrong.
4. Re:Come on... by DNS-and-BIND · 2013-03-24 09:15 · Score: 1
  
  So, why do we bother with the expense of elections? Serious question. If polling 1000 people can tell you what it is we want, then why bother asking everyone? Because of some fiction regarding waiting outside a polling place for 4 hours? Wouldn't it be better if we just let the smart people in our society take all the positions of power instead of dumbfuck politicians?
  
  --
  Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
5. Re:Come on... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 09:21 · Score: 0
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franchise_%28short_story%29
6. Re:Come on... by amiga3D · 2013-03-24 09:25 · Score: 1
  
  I could not figure out who they were polling. Romney sucked so bad a lot of Republicans actually preffered four more years of Obama. At least let him get the blame for all the negative shit that has to eventually hit the fan. I figured I would rather have a real socialist in the Whitehouse than a socialist who pretends he's a conservative. I remember when all those candidates for the Republican nomination were debating I told my wife that they'd pick Romney and she asked why and I told her, because he's my least favorite and that's the way the Repubs have been running since Reagan. Ronnie was the last Republican to actually believe in less government, the last 2 bastards just grew it and if Romney had gotten elected he'd have grown it even more than Obama. Maybe when government runs every single tiny little part of our lives they'll finally be satisfied......but I doubt it.
7. Re:Come on... by ShanghaiBill · 2013-03-24 09:37 · Score: 1
  
  So, why do we bother with the expense of elections? Serious question. If polling 1000 people can tell you what it is we want, then why bother asking everyone?
  Legitimacy. If properly conducted, the result would be the same, but people would not trust the process and would not accept the result.
  
  Wouldn't it be better if we just let the smart people in our society take all the positions of power instead of dumbfuck politicians?
  Who are the "smart people"? Obviously I am one of them, but I am too busy to run the country.
8. Re:Come on... by tehcyder · 2013-03-25 04:45 · Score: 1
  
  Wouldn't it be better if we just let the smart people in our society take all the positions of power instead of dumbfuck politicians?
  Well, obviously I'm the smartest person in the whole world so I'll be Prez. You seem fairly bright, so how about Secretary of State for Wars and Shit?
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
So Slackware continue to... by DiamondGeezer · 2013-03-24 04:46 · Score: -1, Flamebait

...blaze the trail that nobody wants to follow. Good for them.
Here in the real world Slackware blows as a VM and is irrelevant to the future of cloud computing.

--
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
1. Re:So Slackware continue to... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:02 · Score: 0
  
  Nobody? Pretty much every major Linux distro dropped MySQL already. Slackware's move only affirms that pissing on community was Oracle biggest mistake.
2. Re:So Slackware continue to... by armanox · 2013-03-24 05:27 · Score: 2
  
  ...blaze the trail that nobody wants to follow. Good for them.
  Here in the real world Slackware blows as a VM and is irrelevant to the future of cloud computing.
  Say what? Cloud computing is nothing more then a marketing name, which nobody really cares about (except those selling the magical cloud).
  Also, Slackware isn't any worse then Windows, Solaris or Fedora as a VM, so your comment makes even less sense.
  
  --
  I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
3. Re:So Slackware continue to... by jedidiah · 2013-03-24 06:00 · Score: 2
  
  Given the way that Oracle operates, this move is pretty obvious. If anything, the question should be what took them so long.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
4. Re:So Slackware continue to... by Noryungi · 2013-03-24 06:49 · Score: 2
  
  Here in the real world Slackware blows as a VM and is irrelevant to the future of cloud computing.
  Right. This is why I have Slackware VMs all over the place, with uptimes in the hundreds of days.
  Oh, and "cloud" computing can be based on any distribution - not just Ubuntu or Fedora. Slackware is ideal for this, since it is (IMHO) much easier to personalize, manage and configure on a daily basis.
  
  --
  The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
5. Re:So Slackware continue to... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 07:17 · Score: 1
  
  The problem is that it's not at all clear that MariaDB is a viable alternative either, IMHO.
  They have rewritten a lot of the internals, but are still committed to complete compatibility with MySQL. That is going to take a lot of developer resources. Do they have the backing they need to continue long term development?
  Their main claim to legitimacy seem to be that MySQL founder Monty is now leading development of MariaDB... But MySQL was always terrible. If you asked whether people wanted to return to the "good old days" of MySQL development, they'd answer an empathic no.
  I'd want to see more big players come out and say "yeah, we'll contribute to this", and not just "yeah, that's cool".
  For now, our small firm will probably keep legacy applications on Percona Server, and avoid MySQL completely for new applications.
6. Re:So Slackware continue to... by fluffy99 · 2013-03-24 07:47 · Score: 1
  
  It would be more accurate to say that VM support for Slackware is not nearly as good as other mainstream Linux distros. VMWare and VirtualPC for example don't have packages for slackware guests as they do for Redhat and Windows which can introduce performance issues. A quick Googling shows the reverse to be true, that getting VM programs to run with Slackware as the host is not as well supported either and requires more hands on effort to get them running.
  If I were planning to run Linux in a VM (or the reverse as the host), slackware would not be my first choice unless I was attempting to migrate and existing system from physical to virtual.
7. Re:So Slackware continue to... by petteyg359 · 2013-03-25 04:24 · Score: 1
  
  It's a perfectly viable alternative to MySQL. The emphasis is on MySQL. Nobody's saying that you should replace a real DB server with it, but if you want to get away from Oracle, you can, and there's a strong possibility that it will actually be better.
Fedora 19 making MariaDB the default by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 05:13 · Score: 0

I guess the story on /. from January has been forgotten.....
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/01/22/033201/fedora-19-nixing-mysql-in-favor-of-mariadb
percona by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:21 · Score: -1

worth checking out http://www.percona.com
LQ hosts the official Slackware forum by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:48 · Score: 0

So this should help in terms of being representative of the Slackware community
Went from Arch to Slackware by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:52 · Score: 1

I used Arch for over a year and really liked it. One day I decided to try Slackware. Biggest improvement was not having to constantly update. Arch is great but it turns out I didn't really need rolling release. Additionally less (admittedly) minor issues with Slackware. Arch is a great distro but Slackware is better (for me).
Arch is very nice but I moved onto Slackware by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 06:55 · Score: 0

Slackware suited me better than Arch. Though that is still my second favourite distro.
My personal distro history since late 90s: Red Hat, Mandrake, SUSE, Centos, Mandriva, Arch, Slackware.
I think it is very unlikely I'll be switching distro again.
Bye Bye Slackware by 7zark7 · 2013-03-24 10:10 · Score: 1

Been using slackware from day one, looks like it's finally time to move on.
1. Re:Bye Bye Slackware by El_Oscuro · 2013-03-24 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  Ironically, I just ordered my first Slackware DVD today. I have been running Red Hat and Debian variants for years. At work, our enterprise has had a strictly Windows only policy for years. Now, our management is fully committed to an enterprise-wide migration of Windows to Linux for our Oracle database servers (over 500 of them), and I am in charge of it.
  The reason I ordered slackware is because it requires in-depth knowledge of Linux, something the other distros don't require as much. I figure this will help out with the deployment at work.
  
  --
  "Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
2. Re:Bye Bye Slackware by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 23:56 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, because Oracle will support that configuration.
Amazon doesn't offer MariaDB by cellurl · 2013-03-24 10:26 · Score: 1

when Amazon offers MariaDB, I will know its time to embrace it. For now, I will stick with Mysql. I think MariaDB is "my" future, but not this year. Why won't it just get bought up by Larry Ellison or worse?

Help eliminate stupid speeding tickets
sort | join by billstewart · 2013-03-24 11:03 · Score: 2

Back in the early 90s I was working on a project that had a really large database (about 10,000 rows.) My coworkers were doing the user interface, and I was doing backend data interfaces. I spent a day learning enough SQL and Informix to do what we needed, but management didn't want to spring for $5K for an Informix software license, so I built the pieces I needed out of the standard Unix sort and join. It worked well enough, though it took an extra week or two because there are lots of slightly different versions of join out there (between v7, BSD, SystemV, SunOS, v8, maybe gnu by then, etc.) The alternative would have been to use dbm / Berkeley db stuff to get all the b-trees and such, but our data spent most of its time sorted in text files, so it was easier to build shell scripts and occasional awk to glue commands together rather than writing it in C.

--

Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The name's Mint, Linux Mint. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 11:35 · Score: 0

As a first distro, where you want everything to just work first time, I can readily recommend Linux Mint. Go with the LTS (long term support) version (Maya) and the Cinnamon desktop. Many other distros _assume_ (cough, cough) an already guru level knowledge of the OS and all the myriad utilities.
Linux Mint - What a joke... by arfonrg · 2013-03-24 13:12 · Score: 1

"As a first distro, where you want everything to just work first time, I can readily recommend Linux Mint." - Are you kidding me? I DL'd the latest Linux Mint (XFCE) version and installed it on my Father-in-law's computer.
Grief right from the beginning with it partitioning, then not wanting to install to the partition then more headaches from there.
I was very disappointed...

--
Your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
1. Re:Linux Mint - What a joke... by Osgeld · 2013-03-24 16:41 · Score: 1
  
  I jumped the mint ship really quick, every version I have tried just had a pile of nitpicky bullshit headaches added on to its half thought out, partially broken tacked on enhancements... I dont see why people would recommend it, its just ubuntu with more junk to break. If I just want to drop a disk in and install its typically xubuntu these days
2. Re:Linux Mint - What a joke... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 19:08 · Score: 0
  
  Lets say that XFCE isn't quite as "robust" as the main distribution. I started with Ubuntu and soon ran into sound and video driver and then many other core system issues. The solutions - as gleaned from Ubuntu forums - was almost in every case to "build from source". I have trouble building "Hello World" (joking), nevermind an entire complicated core package in Linux, on my own, at 2am (not joking). Especially as to build, you need an entire menagerie of libraries and stuff you never heard of. Dependencies with dependencies of dependencies - recursion without exit! I gave up and went mad(ly in love) with Mint.
  I have been running Mint since Felicia(release 6) and have not run into anything major. It even runs (not crawls) on some hardware that should have been scrapped 10 years ago, and some that actually was scrapped (and was revived) a few years ago. And on the new stuff, like my i7 laptop, it flies!! I have tried XFCE and "light" flavours, keep coming back to the main edition. Maybe I'll give the KDE one a try, but currently all the machines are happy.
  BTW - I had posted in this thread by a bit of a mouse slip. It was meant for the article above it, asking for a 1st distro recommendation. Apologies for any confusion, colliding eyebrows, kicked dogs, cats, penguins or ferrets.
3. Re:Linux Mint - What a joke... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-24 19:33 · Score: 0
  
  =) =)
  > "a pile of nitpicky bullshit headaches added on to its half thought out, partially broken tacked on enhancements"
  To really fit that description, try ZorinOS.
  For Linux packaged without the OS, try #!.
  For purist obscurist, try Trisquel.
  To percolate a penguin, strangulate a salmander, or tantalize a tarantula, you know which distro... but snazzy names don't make Linux work.
4. Re:Linux Mint - What a joke... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-25 04:19 · Score: 0
  
  Don't forget Sodomy Snake, Fucked Flea, Intercourse Iguana, Pregnant Panda.
5. Re:Linux Mint - What a joke... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-27 23:10 · Score: 0
  
  I tried several versions on my old Thinkpad T40 and all had problems. Some wouldn't install at all, others wouldn't let me change the window manager. WiFi seemed to work, but only within the local subnet (I assume there's a config file somewhere, but isn't the point of mint that you don't have to faff with stuff like that?).
What is this place coming to? by Hognoxious · 2013-03-26 02:08 · Score: 1

A hundred posts and nobody has asked if it's webscale yet?

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."