> Dont you mean, "when you run slackware you learn slackware"? Otherwise the old adage is not true.
No he means what he said. There are no distro specific tools for Slackware. You don't `system-config-network` or `system-config-services`, you edit the config files. You don't run a tool to update which Java runtime is your default, you edit config files, or write a wrapper script for what ever applications need a specific version. Or do both, if you as the admin determine that is the right way to go.
You don't have a tool coming back and undoing your changes because you edited the file instead of using the tool. You're not reliant on a tool to enable or disable an Apache module.
You, as the admin, are the be all and end all. The distro is not second guessing you. There are no special tools to learn in running the system, just vi. That is why it was said when you learn Slackware you learn Linux.
I too ran Slackware in the Way Back When days, and I think it's simplicity helped admins to understand how Linux works, on a more general scale, than user-friendlier distros nowadays might not.
There's a time and a place for both. Simple upgrade mechanisms and scripted/UIed management tools make the OS more accessible to the less hardcore Linux enthusiast; but these benefits come at a price - larger distros, somewhat higher system requirements, some abstraction between what the user wants the system to do and what the system actually needs in order to do it.
I see Slackware used now in very small embedded Linux systems in a few places, and I think I would be hard pressed to come up with a better choice of distro for a limited resource environment (no distro wars argument here, I know there are others that'd fit, I just my opinion from using it).
No he means what he said. There are no distro specific tools for Slackware. You don't `system-config-network` or `system-config-services`, you edit the config files. You don't run a tool to update which Java runtime is your default, you edit config files, or write a wrapper script for what ever applications need a specific version. Or do both, if you as the admin determine that is the right way to go.
You don't have a tool coming back and undoing your changes because you edited the file instead of using the tool. You're not reliant on a tool to enable or disable an Apache module.
You, as the admin, are the be all and end all. The distro is not second guessing you. There are no special tools to learn in running the system, just vi. That is why it was said when you learn Slackware you learn Linux.