Where Have I Been...

... all this time that I had not found your fine site before? I must have been under a rock. I regularly search for new Slackware related sites. I'm not sure how I missed this one. I'm here now, though. I'm impressed; a very nice site indeed, Oncle Jean.

I found you this time by tracking back links you posted here to my some of my blog articles. Thanks for that. I am pretty spread out on the Internet on any given day, but I would like to try to remember to squeeze in a minute or two to stop by here and visit. I run my own boards (non-technical) and am an Admin at Scot's Newsletter Forums - Bruno's All Things Linux, so that stuff keeps me busy, usually.

I'm off to snoop around a bit. Have a great day!

~Eric

Hi Eric,

Nice surprise to see you here ! Welcome !

Thanks for your kind words. I really wish you intend to come back and post whenever you want. I know you're an experienced Slackware user.

You may have noticed that Nocturnal Slacker v1.0 & 2.0 are on our list of Slackware Blogs. Here:
http://slacklinux.darkbb.com/t9-non-static-list

Regards,

That is an excellent Slackware resource list, Oncle Jean. Many of the sites that I visit regularly are on that list along with quite a few that I'm not familiar with. I'm afraid you've now tied up an hour or so of my time this evening. I'm going to have to investigate and bookmark some of those newer ones.

I promise to try to stop by regularly. You've been officially added to my Firefox Speed Dial Tech Boards page:

img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/vtel57/Screenshots/techboardsshot.png

These are the boards that I visit (or try to) on a daily basis. I don't always get to all of them everyday, though. You know how it is... so many boards and blogs, so little time.

I'm humbled by having my blogs on that list with some of those great sites. Thanks for the publicity. I will link back to you from my links pages on NS1 and NS2 first chance I get to edit those pages.

Off to explore now...

Eric,

Thanks for the addition to your "Firefox Speed Dial Tech Boards page". And for linking to me on NS1 & 2 ! ) Kind of you !

I'm glad you like our list of blogs. They're not all actively maintained but I rarely remove entries from that list. Our readers can have a picture of these past years too...

I'm very glad you intend "to stop by regularly". Your blogs show you can be a very interesting contributor.

None of the distros I have tried gives me as much satisfaction as Slackware. Arch, Debian and Gentoo must be great systems too, never used them. I rarely try other distros now. I did that much in 2007 and 2008, though.

Regards,

While there are some who absolutely love Gentoo, I'm not one of them. I've never been able to get a working installation of Gentoo going on any of my systems in the past six years or so. I've given up on Gentoo. I tease that you have to really be into self-flagellation to enjoy that distro.

I see.
Yes, I've heard it's not an easy one to install. But what (I think) I know is once this is done, it's not a very complex Linux system to maintain and operate. Do you agree ?

Among the distros I've tried, I like these: Ark, KateOS (now dormant), Knoppix and a few others. They all come with a great concept and show much originality. Different distros attract me in some ways:

- Draco, which is a "mixture" of Slackware and BSD
- Some source-based ones (Lunar, Source Mage, etc.)
- Paldo, for its package management
- SliTaz, light and attractive
- Pardus, for all the good comments we can read

I don't intend to try them very soon, though.

Regards,

I have friends who have successfully installed and now run Gentoo on their systems. They love it. I guess it just takes a lot of patience. About those others you mention... I used to always have an Ark installation on my systems somewhere. It is a wonderful (and original main branch) distribution. When I use the term main branch, I'm referring to distributions with no ancestors, like Debian, RedHat, Slackware, etc. You can check out the Linux Family Tree to see how the distributions evolved...

A simple one --> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Linux_Distro_Timeline.png

A much more complete version --> http://futurist.se/gldt/2012/01/10/gnulinux-distribution-timeline-12-01/

Oh, and Pardus is no more, sadly. You can read about it in this post by Tomas Forsman, one of the Foresight Linux devs who visits Scot's Newsletter Forums - Bruno's All Things Linux regularly --> http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=51939

* Note: The forum software does not allow new members to hyperlink or post links, so you'll need to add h t t p : / / to the above links. Actually, if you just copy/paste them into your browser as is they should still work.

First, your links are OK now. Sorry, I never checked this default setting but I just changed it, which means you can now post links.

Useless to say I don't intend to try to install Gentoo. You know Linux more than me so... I can add that here have been "relational" problems on the Gentoo side and this may be why many Gentoo users are now Arch users... Once in a while I take a look at what Daniel Robbins is doing with "Funtoo".

One of the the things I like about Ark is its "Mission Control". Very good addition and I don't know any other distro that offers such a tool.

Hey, thanks for the links ! Interesting to see the "parenthood" between the distros and where they come from.

I'm sorry to learn Pardus no longer exists. It will be a big deception for many. Sad that more and more Linux distros are "dormant" or no longer supported. This is probably why tons of Linux users only want distros behind which big companies can be found. I think such distros have a better chance to stay "alive" for long. Maintaining a Linux distro is not an easy task for a small group of people.

Well, now I have to clear all that snow from my driveway.

Have a great night,

Thank you for allowing me to post links now.

There are so many distributions out there. Each one has its own little core of faithful users. Sometimes though, that small core isn't enough to keep a Linux alive. Pardus had a good run. I'm not at all sure why they gave up on it. It happens with distros from time to time, though. Sad. It's almost like watching one die.

Ark is a very good distribution of Linux. It doesn't get the publicity or the cheering that other more popular distros like Ubuntu get, but that doesn't mean it's not a good distro. The Ark devs don't seem to be interested in popularity as much as they are in quality. That's OK, though. Quality is a good thing.

I wrote a review of Ark on one of my blogs. If I can find a copy of it somewhere, I'll post a link for you here. Some of the Ark Testers contacted me after writing it to thank me for the bit of publicity.

Snow? Hmm... that's usually not a big worry for me in Florida.

Take care...

~Eric

Here you go... I pulled that little article out of my archives and republished it just now:

https://noctslackv1.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/todays-featured-distribution-ark-linux-revisited/

Nice Ark review, Eric. You're absolutely right when you say "It’s not bloated or overloaded with fluff." Ark is actually one of the fastest distros I've tried. And as you mentionned, it supports APT and RPM, which is something. I agree with all that you wrote. I know its main developer is Bernhard Rosenkränzer (or "Bero"), which was previously with RedHat, if I remember well. A few years ago, I spent three months with Ark.

Have you ever tried some BSD systems ? If so, may I know what you think of them ? I haven't. Maybe some day. They have the reputation of being rock-solid.

Let me come back to Slackware now. I think it's very good, before using "the real thing", to try Slackware-based distros. That's what I did and I can now realize that many of the things I learned with these distros were very helpful after I installed Slackware. Do you agree ? I don't think this is a necessity, though, mostly for those with some good Linux experience.

Yes, snow. Fact is Quebec City is "slightly" more in the north than Florida...

Regards,