How to install Slack

[Member skeptichacker]

If you like to use Slack as a stand-alone application for your desktop, on Antix it is not quite straight forward.

1. The latest slack debian packages don’t install as they have KDE runtime dependencies.
2. Cannot use snapd due to the lack of systemd support

Here is a work-around I found by using the official slack RPM package. Experienced Linux users would find this
kind of obvious but here goes.

1. Download the RPM (Fedora) package from slack website -> currently it is slack-4.23.0-0.1.fc21.x86_64.rpm (assuming 64 bit here)
2. Install *alien* on your system ->
$ sudo apt install alien -y (takes some time)
3. Convert the RPM -> DEB package via alien ->
$ alien slack-4.23.0-0.1.fc21.x86_64.rpm
4. Install the resulting debian package ->
$ sudo dpkg -i slack_4.23.0-1.1_amd64.deb

This works because the RPM package doesn’t have the KDE dependencies of course. Its a much simpler package.

Hope this helps someone in the forum!

• This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by skeptichacker.

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[Member sybok]

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By the way, pidgin has plugin for Slack, https://github.com/dylex/slack-libpurple/
This means that you could use pidgin together with the plugin.
This may help to reduce number of native applications one uses.

The existence of a plugin does not mean you get full-support as in the native application, see open issues for the Slack plugin.
I have used Skype-for-business plugin in pidgin (7 to) 4 years ago and it had some issues (file-sharing) when trying to keep up with M$.
I had to manually install newer Ubuntu’s DEB package in antiX stable which was a dirty hack but I somehow manage to get away with it.

[Member blur13]

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I miss the days when you could use pidgin for everything. I had whatsapp, messenger, telegram, skype; all at the same time in one low resource, efficient app. It made the current “messenger hell”[1] era we live in much less noticable. Now it seems the plugins are not maintained and broken.

[1] https://petermolnar.net/article/instant-messenger-hell/

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by blur13.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Regarding Slack, you do not have to install an app or a plugin unless you want to.

It’s possible, and just as easy, to visit the site https://app.slack.com/. If you have a workspace you use, you can access it from there.
Though the Slack site sells products, do note that this is a *choice*, not a requirement. I use the free version on my computer and download the free app on my phone; both work fine.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member Shaynesherman]

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Many thanks for this. It is good to know that apps from outside Pop Store are less likely to work. I suspected this, based on vague recollections from running Linux back in 2002.

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