Slackbuilds: A Slackware solution
I can't believe I've never heard of Slackbuilds.org. It's a great way to get the software you want on your Slackware box. Here's what it's all about:
One of the frequent criticisms of Slackware is the lack of official packages available. While the official package set provides a good, stable, and flexible operating system (and is quite adequate for many individuals), the fact remains that many users want/need quite a few additional applications in order for it to meet their needs.
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In our opinion, the best solution to this problem is for the admin to automate the compile process using a SlackBuild script. Patrick Volkerding, the maintainer of Slackware, uses SlackBuild scripts to compile the official packages, so it makes sense for us to use the same idea for extra applications we want to add.
Our goal is to have the largest collection of SlackBuild scripts available while still ensuring that they are of the highest quality - we test every submission prior to inclusion in the repository. We do not now nor will we ever provide precompiled packages for any of the applications for which we have SlackBuild scripts - instead, we want the system administrator (that's you) to be responsible for building the packages.
You'll still have to take care of dependencies (but they're probably all here, too) -- but this sounds like a very noble project, indeed.
They've got AbiWord (I already got that from Robby's Slackware Packages), OpenOffice 2.2.1, and a bunch more. One that I'm going to grab is msmtp -- the small smtp program that I like to use with mutt. And upon looking at the info on Slackbuilds.org, I see that Robby Workman is involved in this project, too.
It's another great reason to run Slackware.
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Steven Rosenberg aims to learn what he does not know. He writes about it here.
Steven Rosenberg aims to learn what he does not know. He writes about it here.
Hi there,
I made the same discovery a few months ago, and was immediately impressed. I have actually been a regular on the #slackware channel of irc.oftc.net for some time, a channel frequented by Rob and a whole bunch of other Slackware contributors and users. Both the Slackbuilds.org site, and the IRC channel, are extremely useful resources for anyone interested in making the best of their Slackware machine(s).
Daniel
Wow, I didn't know about this. I've used linuxpackages.net but couldn't find Audacity. I tried to build it from source but couldn't get the wxGTK to compile. Thanks!