Salix Forums

So.....

The other day my girlfriend saw me playing yet another game of Go (on KGS, using CGoban3) on my laptop. I was deep in thought. She observed that my rating has gone up rather significantly. She realized it's because I've been playing more. Then it hit her that the reason I've been playing more is because I'm not spending all night on forums trying to solve Linux problems. She said:

You know, I have to say...you haven't had any real problems since you got this new operating system.

Translation:

You know, I haven't had to listen to a solid hour of Linux psycho-babble in quite awhile.

So basically, the only remaining differences between her Mac and my Linux-box are (a) my OS is free (as in freedom, not beer, of course) and (b) I have a basic understanding of how mine works and can fix it with a little work and help from reliable Salix developers/maintainers.

That's really awesome. Thanks, guys.

-Dennis in New Orleans

Great to hear! And thanks for the encouragement.

Funny story and nice to hear

Thanks. Maybe "Bonsai OS" was wrong. I guess we should have chosen "Salix, the couple/marriage counselor".

Dennola4 wrote:So.....
Then it hit her that the reason I've been playing more is because I'm not spending all night on forums trying to solve Linux problems.

Excellent! This also explains why this forum is relatively not very active - No problems!
Well, joke aside...
Although I am a new Salix user and my knowledge of Salix is quite limited, I see Salix as put together with the right vision, strategy of efficiency and dexterity. It takes the lead in the mid-size Linux world of ready-to-go systems, traditional style. It looks to me as suitable for most users to adopt as their mainstream Linux systems, replacing all those filled with bloat and inefficiency.
This is with the following understanding of architecture trends:
1 - Ultimate in small and light modular (In-memory) Linux systems - Tiny Core Linux taking the lead in that category (Over Austrumi, SliTaz, Kolibri). Best for ultimate users, who can compose their optimized configurations from modules.
2 - Salix taking the lead in mid-size (From Zenwalk, Wolvix, Vector). Best for mainstream users.
3 - Big and Bloated category - Many distro's that took the wrong turn of bloat and inefficiency following Windows Vista to focus on eye candy and away from functionality and efficiency.
There are many that are some place in between, further fragmenting Linux landscape...
It looks to me the role of Salix should grow and gain recognition to take the 'market share' from the big , bloated and inefficient ones...

I forgot to mention Igelle, a new architecture trend to use self-contained modules of apps.
Similar to TinyCore on modularity, but fixing the flaw Linux, which followed MS Windows to no longer keep apps in one place but sprinkle their pieces all over the place...

salixosuser wrote:I forgot to mention Igelle, a new architecture trend to use self-contained modules of apps.
Similar to TinyCore on modularity, but fixing the flaw Linux, which followed MS Windows to no longer keep apps in one place but sprinkle their pieces all over the place...

That's wrong. Linux distributions always complied closely to this standard: http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
So it's no surprise your system looks like this: From a single pretty small Salix package: And what is it like on Windows: Though the Windows system, mostly keeps stuff in one place, I wouldn't call it better. Ever installed a cli application on windows. You need to extend your PATH variable for every single application you add. Apart it makes everything really hard to find as there are no rules where to put what and thus where to search for it. You've got a hard time guessing where an application is installed and it's even harder to understand how the different parts are splitted there (apart from the fact that especially games store a lot in big encrypted binary archives) and almost impossible to find out where else an application might have installed something. Still some applications try to work around that problem by logging the installation, but that's imho a halfhearted, poor solution.

So conclusively, also the different parts are spread over many different parts, it's easier to find those as there are pretty precise rules where to put what. Often there are also on Linux multiple places for the same thing, but almost always there's a good reason for that (system-wide, per-user, ....). On top of that there's a package system, which keeps track of all installed files. This excludes files generated at runtime though. But most of the time they're stored at a view obvious places.

Apart, my unbelievably hyper-intelligent brain is suggesting to me that we might be diverging a bit too far from the original (intended) topic.

Dennola4 that was great. It certainly put a smile on my face. Thanks.

To close my diverging away from the original topic:
I did not say Windows is better architected vs. Linux. What I said was quite contrary - Linux took a bad example from Windows and started following Windows by dispersing pieces of apps in various places, rather than keeping them together in one place as used to be in Unix. I agree though it is not as bad as in Windows, where you can no longer find all pieces where they were deposited for the lack of rules, which Linux has.
In Windows world therefore a new trend developed over time - 'Portable Applications', where applications are made portable and self-contained in one place. Those that cannot be made portable easily, they can be turned into virtual 'ThinApps' with the use of VMware ThinApp or open source Xenocode.
In Linux space Igelle implemented also a modular architecture of self-contained application modules, a bit differently than Tiny Core Linux to mark this revolution...
This might clarify better. Sorry for getting away from the original topic - Salix it is...

@ devs: you're welcome. Now perhaps I should put my money where my mouth is and buy some Salix merchandise....such as baseball caps and tee-shirts. Do we have that stuff? Slackware, to their credit, was smart and made sure their merchandise was good quality. When I go to the gym I always wear my Slack gear. In fact, I have designed a few for Puppy Linux (my designs: Trippy Puppy; Bright Puppy; Pupguin; Bumper Sticker):

http://www.zazzle.com/tubeguy/gifts?cg= ... 2619499894

@salixosuser: Thanks for sharing. I checked out Igelle. At first glance I thought, "Huh. Interesting. A bit corporate and scary but ok, let's see what they bring to the table." So I followed links to the IG Pulse Desktop. The website will be up soon, but I was invited to learn about the founder, Job and Esther Technologies. So I clicked, skimmed, scrolled, and found this:

Our company is built on a Bible-oriented philosophy that places great emphasis on personal integrity, individual growth, and the power of a healthy family. We firmly believe that Christian values must shape the way we do business in order to provide a corporate atmosphere that promotes mental stability, creative breakthrough, advancement in learning, strong families, and win-win business relationships with the people and companies we have the pleasure of transacting with.

Huh. Perhaps a good time to mention that Slackware gets its name from The Church of the Subgenius. I am proud to say that its founder, Reverend Ivan Stang, has on his car (last we spoke) only one bumper sticker: a Dobbshead that I designed for him. Praise Bob!!

http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/Art_Mi ... copio.html