Frankly, if you really want to learn GNU/Linux, use Slackware. Knowing Slackware in my opinion, will allow you to pick up and use any other distro you may come across, should for whatever reason you need to, lol, prolly fixing someone else's Ubuntu box! But seriously, if you just want to replace windows Slackware might not be for you, but if you want to learn, use a extremely stable and fast OS, use Slackware. As the others have said, read the slackbook, and documentation, and possibly check out of a few of my favorite books like, Linux in a nutshell, Linux Kernel in a nutshell, and Linux command line and scripting bible. Good Luck, and welcome to Slackware!

Hi,
You will be getting into a exploration of a GNU/Linux that is the oldest and best distribution to experience Linux as it was meant to be experienced.

Slackware is not hard! It is just labeled as hard by the ones that cannot comprehend or fail to read the necessary documentation to complete a task. As others have pointed out, the computer OS has become a point & click mentality. Not a real necessity but a lot of people feel they can get more done by letting someone else do the rudimentary work. Not so! If you use Slackware at the cli then you should be able to do work on just about any system with Linux. Sure some of the configs or file structures maynot be the same but you will be able to find them when necessary.

Sure you can configure your Slackware to use 'X' if you desire. I won't get into the DE or WM because that can be very personal to some.

I would suggest that you read the documentation that PV has provided; Announce 12.1, Slackware-Howto, CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT, UPGRADE.TXT. Plus the other text files relevant to your needs.

I would read the above before I even start a installation.

I would invite you to look at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

BTW, Welcome to Slackware!

Thank you all.

I've tried many types of Linux Distributions. I have to say that Slackware is not only the fastest and most reliable, not to mention is the ONLY distribution that works with my laptop (Dell latitude C610).

It's awesome !

I've been running Slackware for a few weeks now and I've had the most pleasurable experience which at first I was only doing in order to learn more about linux but within a day it replaced Ubuntu as my OS of choice. Most people consider having to even open the terminal as hard and that slackware is only for linux gurus but in reality I'm no master of linux and I still enjoy slackware. It all comes down to whether you are willing to put in the time to research, look up stuff, read howto's, and etc etc.

I have been using slackware for about a week now. I set it up to get a better feel from Linux.

I moved from Ubuntu and I have to say that honestly.. I scared myself more than I should have. I love Slackware. I got my Wifi Card working a lot quicker in Slackware than what I did in Ubuntu (using ndiswrapper for both). My Audio card provided a bit of a challenge and my video drivers was cake bc of the sticky on this forum.

I have begun more advanced features like scripting what I want done with several RH servers automatically (getting logs through SSH, etc) and I didn't believe how fast Slackware grew on me and I felt more comfortable with SW than Ubuntu (which is, from what I have heard, the easiest Linux distro to use, probably because of aptitude). And I can't believe how well my 3000+ sempron with 1gig of ram can multitask compared to Ubuntu and Windows.

If you work with it and get everything configured correctly and learn it as you go you will love it just as I do.