Exaggerate much?

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Slackware bloated?

I think not, Slackware is very useful.

There is a thread in the install sub forum for stripping down the install, or you can decide what is relevant for you.

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Whew! I actually debated for several minutes trying to decide whether to let nasty, sleeping dogs lie or to poke him with a stick to demonstrate he is toothless, sleepy and lazy. Obviously I chose the latter. It has become so common that the very first insult hurled at any software is "bloated" that I almost need a keybind to "rolleyes".

People throw this term around in the vaguest of subjective ways and never stop to consider that subjective definitions effectively destroy the usefulness and validity of a word. Here is the objective definition from Wiki

Please note that none of the above actual definitions/examples effectively apply to Slackware. In Slackware much of what is perceived by some as (let's use a less pejorative term) unnecessary, is there to accommodate package management that doesn't need the wholesale (and far more invasive than mere disk space requirements) changes required to support auto-dependency resolving. For some strange reason(s), people who long for this "feature" are among the first to holler "Bloat!" It utterly boggles my mind that there are those that actually run Slackware yet desire auto-dependency resolution. If you are one of these people I really have to ask since by far the vast majority of distros out there provide, indeed rely on this "feature", why do you prefer Slackware? To me that is like asking a waiter at a fine restaurant to get you a fine steak, but suck all of the juice out of it and cook it until it is very well done, dark brown all the way through and then douse it liberally with herbs and spices to make it taste like chicken. You may prefer chicken but if you do just order chicken and don't make the waiter and the cooking staff jump through hoops just for you.

If you have a somewhat more legitimate reason (albeit still arguable) ie: even with 3rd party resolving addons Slackware is more solid, more compatible, and more configurable than any other distro, then you might want to ask your self just how it got to be that way. If you've been at Linux long enough, perhaps you recall the original rationale for Gentoo - only install exactly what you need, compile it from source and set all the cflags to suit your hardware and as I think astrogeek quoted "ZOMG! I am going so fast right now". Seen any speed tests lately? Did it unfold that way? NO! (disclaimer - Gentoo has since found other ways that actually work to be a contributing member of the Linux Community so no slander meant. Twas perhaps a grand experiment that should have taught us all there just isn't that much to gain by trying to create an embedded system out of a desktop PC.

Bottom Line - stop trying to turn Slackware into an embedded system or tasteless, "also ran" gruel unless you choose to do it for yourself. Most of us don't need nor want the tradeoffs.

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In which version of Slackware was proftpd dropped?

I'm running proftpd in 14.1 (updated from 1.34 to version 1.35).

I'm not running -current but looking at the OSU repository for slackware64-current I didn't find evidence of it's removal in the ChangeLog.txt file by searching for "proftpd". It also shows up as a valid package in the PACKAGES.TXT file, but perhaps that file isn't updated for -current.

Where should I look to see that proftpd has been dropped from a Slackware version?

I am new to Slackware, so of course I chose to install everything, but one look at the installer gave me the impression that someone familiar with the system can choose to install only the package sets he/she wants. If I am mistaken, I doubt I am far from the mark.

This reminds me of people who install Debian with Gnome 3 or KDE and complain about the size of the system or resource use. People familiar with the system can install only a base system and then add only the packages they want.

In both cases, there is a common error in belief that the "default" setup is the only way or the way the system is supposed to be. That full-featured setup is useful for people learning the system. After familiarity is attained, a system can be modified to suit individual preferences. The complaint in the OP strikes me as a beginner's misconception of Linux and Linux distributions.

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No.

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Neither are you.

Unlike you, however, he distributes a Linux distribution called "Slackware". In the realm of Slackware, he's pretty damned powerful. A large number of us use Slackware since we continue to like the product that he puts out.

For those that stop liking the product that he puts out, there are many other Linux distributions from which to choose. Choose one and be happy.

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Er, I think I was mistaken.

Don't get me wrong but what you call 'bloat' , I call features. Tipo uma falsa gordinha, sacou =]

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...

Slackware provides tools needed for Linux, including compilers, kernel headers, and other stuff needed to compile from sources that other distros don't provide out-of-the-box. If I need to compile from sources on Mint, I have to install stuff first. If I want to compile from sources on Slackware, I just, well, compile from sources.

Slackware is Linux done right.

For someone who thinks Slackware is bloated, well, there's always tinycore.

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A view from another perspective:

Since what's on the DVD is by-and-large the extent of the official repo, its beauty is just how minimal that really is. Sure, the official advice is to install all of it to be on the safe side, but it seems to me that it's tacitly implied that as you grow as a user, you'll figure out what you need and install those programs and dependencies in the way Slackware is meant to be used - by managing that yourself. Not having a bloated panel menu in X has more to do with knowing what you want from the menus in ncurses, which is up to you to figure out.

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So let's say we trim the list of packages by a couple of hundred. What then? Trim the 15+ million lines of code in the Linux kernel? You don't need SE Linux and Tomoyo Linux after all, do you? How about all that stuff in the kernel for milking cows, powering nuclear submarines and driving the Large Hadron Collider? Need that stuff, do you? Nah - just go through the code and dump it then.

And when you're finished, come back and tell us how it went. Preferably in one of those blog things people like to use, not here.

Alternatively, go to Windows, where they have only 50 million lines of code in their latest kernel. Or one of the BSDs, where it's probably only 10 million lines of code or so.

If you want a more minimal KDE desktop with one application per task, you can give the new MLED a spin:

http://www.microlinux.fr/slackware/M...bit/README.txt

Cheers,

Niki

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