quote: Original post by Some Guy
Without starting a new thread, may I ask how much disk space all you guys needed to install slack? My old computer has only 2GB of disk space, and when I tried to install Slack before with only a single basic package installed, that 2GB ran out real quick.

PS: Yes, installation was a breeze.

I managed to cram 7.1 onto a 500MB harddrive. With gnome. Not enough room for KDE...

Installing slackware is pretty easy, it''s the configuring XFree that''s an arcane art at least to me anyway.

I think most people are in agreement that XFree86 is a piece of crap. Honestly, if there was a much better graphics standard, linux could become more of a standard. Of course, many other things would have to happen as well. Just take a look at OS X: the only all around user-friendly UNIX, and it doesn''t use XFree

Heh it wouldn''t be that bad if it came with some kind of working config tool.

To sidetrack from this topic a little, how big is a barebones Slackware installation (for personal workstation use)? I agree with the earlier poster on RH''s heavy system requirements. A barebones install without any of the options checked on the install dialog is easily 200MB.

Well, if there was a decent setup/configuration tool for XFree, it would be better, but honestly, the only time linux ever "crashes" for me is really when X dies and takes my keyboard with it... Sometimes I''ll just telnet into my computer from another to kill X, but that would involve going all the way downstairs, and with journaling filesystems, it''s just as easy to restart It''s amazing how fast linux boots up compared to windows. It literally takes maybe 1 minute, including loading the kernel, logging in, and starting X up.

As for Slack''s install size... There''s something called ZipSlack which was meant to fit onto a 100 MB zip disk for new linux users to try it out, so it is possible to have a very basic system in under 200 MB. In fact, there still are some linux distros out there that fit on a floppy or two. Why you would want this, I don''t know, but they do exist.

I''ve only ever had one total system lock up with Linux* and that was when I was using Konq, that program is the pits honestly it''s seg faulted about 8 times so far and I''ve not exactly been pushing it hard, I mean google crashed it! Mozilla is as good as always though :D

*apart from when I was doing the use linux inside windows thing, that was so slow I couldn''t tell the difference between a fatal crash and a program hang.

quote: Original post by CmndrM
... the only time linux ever "crashes" for me is really when X dies and takes my keyboard with it...

If you really hate it when that happens, turn on the ''magic sysrq key'' (see .../src/linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt for more information). I haven''t tested it against X locking up, but it does sound like it has the ability to ''unlock the keyboard''. I found out about this recently, so I thought I''d share it.

Yeah, I''d seen something about that before, I just couldn''t remember what it was called. Next time I feel like fscking with my kernel, I''ll compile the support right in