Another (not so) Newbie

[Xyberbat]

Greetings all at Linux(org)!

I am here because I want to 'upgrade' all my family & household PC's from Windows to Linux.
(I have Win 8.1 and hate it; all 10 other PC's run Win XP 32 or x64, some multi-boot)

In my previous life I used to be a HP-UX sysadmin, so the CLI is no problem for me, but times have changed.

My only previous Linux experience dates from Slackware ver 9.
Thus I am looking to use any of the Slackware-based distro's. (because I'd like to be a Slacker!)

Currently researching my most 'safe' option to enable wife and kids to still use their PC's, but not with MS.Windows. AND I need to make the transition as painless as possible; ~ no CLI/command promt for them.
I plan to dualboot their PC's to accomodate their off-line Windows games, but all on-line actions via Linux.

Any suggestions welcome.

Hope to digitally meet again on the forums.

 

[arochester]

Why not just use Slackware, rather than "Slackware-based"? Now 14.1.

http://www.slackware.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackware

 

[Kryyll]

I agree with @arochester

The slackware based distros aren't as good as slack in my opinion. Slack has everything you need out of the box!

 

[Yesyesloud]

Try Slackware with dependency resolving package managers such as Gslapt (slapt-get GUI) or Porteus package manager (USM gui), a more user friendly one, software store-like - you can teach your family how to use it.

I would also advise you to stick with Slack itself, but if you want to try something slack-based with a lot of stuff out of the box, Porteus OS is nice.

 

[Xyberbat]

THANK YOU all for your support & suggestions. I shall go the native Slackware route on the main PC's, and it seems Porteus will be a good option for the not-so-active ones. (mainly older PC's)

Tried an installation of Slack 14.0 from an old cd last night, but my soundcard has a serious problem. Seems the latest version of Alsa solved it, but I shall download the current 14.1 this weekend from home, and try again. (VERY limited internet during the week due to workplace)

The effort to get a system as I want it, will take some time and experimentation, but I am excited that it will be possible.

So, you all sent me . . .

 

[Yesyesloud]

Try Slackware with dependency resolving package managers such as Gslapt (slapt-get GUI) or Porteus package manager (USM gui), a more user friendly one, software store-like - you can teach your family how to use it.

I would also advise you to stick with Slack itself, but if you want to try something slack-based with a lot of stuff out of the box, Porteus OS is nice.

Porteus is very up-to-date, you can use it in any system (current kernel version: 3.13.6-porteus). I love that it can download and install applications from many Slack distributions repositories through a handy gui. It also enables persistence by default on live disks.

A traditional Slackware install is fairly great anyway and there are scripts to turn it into a rolling distro (slackware-current).

Good luck!