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I ran Debian Wheezy as my daily drive OS. Since dual boot is not an option for me, i mostly look for stability in whatever OS i choose. I'd have to tell you, though i like each and every Linux OS, if you are looking for stability, give Debian a try. It is one of the most stable systems i've come across,it is extremely reliable.In Debian, things just work. Now Arch on the other hand, i would say it is one of the most technologically advanced system. It is a very different experience then most Linux distros, it is a bit more "terminal" demanding work, but it is just a very beautiful system once you set it up. You can virtually install every piece of software ever created for Linux, and the customization is limitless. It is indeed one of my favorite OS's, and if i wouldn't rely so much on my laptop, i would probably be running Arch! But since it is a rolling release, things tend to break a bit easier, so a bit more knowledge is required. I don't have much experience with Slack, so i can't say much, i played a bit with it on a Virtualbox, but never installed it on my native hardware, so i can't speak for it.
I used Slackware on both my work computer and personal laptop for years. I like it on two levels: On a philosophical level:
- I like the concept of simplicity (KISS)
- Slackware is managed by experts thus it is more coherent, than community run distros
- It is the most UNIX like distro
- It is relatively the most minimalist of the 3 distros
- It is the oldest surviving Linux distro
Practically
- Sys-V-init works a lot better for me than SystemD
- I like to manage config files via text file management, it gives a lot more control
- Slackware boots into the TTY CLI, which is faster, stable and I do most of my work on a shell as opposed to CLI
- Slackware is bundled with Emacs, a choice of any - or all - of Desktop Environment/Window Manager (KDE, xfce, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Window Manager)
- Slackware does not resolve dependencies automatically, which prevents bloating, but, Slackbuilds makes the job easy
- Packages are vanilla packages
- Once installed it is a very stable distro
- It has stable release and rolling release (current)
Debian
It is the second longest surviving software that takes pride on community driven choices, and it stays true to its concept of freedom, it comes with GNOME, and it comes with SystemD. It has apt-get install with automatic dependency resolution
Arch
Arch is the youngest of the three it runs on SystemD, and has extensive ArchWiki support and pacman as its package manager.
It varies from a person to a person depending on their expectations and needs, but Slackware has been a great experience, it is slick, stable and light on resources as compared with others.
I used Slackware on both my work computer and personal laptop for years. I like it on two levels: On a philosophical level:
- I like the concept of simplicity (KISS)
- Slackware is managed by experts thus it is more coherent, than community run distros
- It is the most UNIX like distro
- It is relatively the most minimalist of the 3 distros
- It is the oldest surviving Linux distro
Practically
- Sys-V-init works a lot better for me than SystemD
- I like to manage config files via text file management, it gives a lot more control
- Slackware boots into the TTY CLI, which is faster, stable and I do most of my work on a shell as opposed to CLI
- Slackware is bundled with Emacs, a choice of any - or all - of Desktop Environment/Window Manager (KDE, xfce, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Window Manager)
- Slackware does not resolve dependencies automatically, which prevents bloating, but, Slackbuilds makes the job easy
- Packages are vanilla packages
- Once installed it is a very stable distro
- It has stable release and rolling release (current)
Debian
It is the second longest surviving software that takes pride on community driven choices, and it stays true to its concept of freedom, it comes with GNOME, and it comes with SystemD. It has apt-get install with automatic dependency resolution
There is the Debian-based and arguably "easier-to-use" but SystemD-encumbered SparkyLinux
There is also the good Debian-based and SystemD-free distro Devuan GNU+Linux.
Arch
Arch is the youngest of the three it runs on SystemD, and has extensive ArchWiki support and pacman as its package manager.
Two other "easier-to-use" and vastly more popular Arch-based distros are Manjaro and EndeavourOS.
A much less popular but yet SystemD-free Arch-based distro is Artix Linux.
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