Does anyone here REALLY use slackware as their main OS?
- Thread starter seymourskinner
- Start date
I did for a few years. It seems like there are a couple of people who still use it as their main driver here.
@captain-sensible
@captain-sensible
Ahh, the good ole CDE still lives on.
I like.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Not used for many a year, there are two sayings, "horses for courses" or its Marmite [Vegemite] you love it or hate it,
as a distribution, I found it no better nor worse than any other, It is not what I would consider newbie friendly and as such never appears on my recommended list,
as a distribution, I found it no better nor worse than any other, It is not what I would consider newbie friendly and as such never appears on my recommended list,
Slackware is, of course, incredibly stable. 'Slacko' Puppies are considered the most stable members of the kennels by a country mile. But it's remained true to its mid-90s roots; it only JUST gets you to a functional desktop, anything you want you're expected to compile/build/install yourself; it doesn't track dependencies, not does it track updates. Even the package management system is largely a product of community cooperation.....it's "nothing to do with" Patrick Volkerding at all. It's the oldest still maintained distro extant, and it shows.....the whole ethos is still mired in the early days from almost 3 decades ago. And the funniest bit has to be that its enthusiastic community considers this state of affairs to be perfectly normal..!
It's never had a 'regular' release schedule at all. In the early years, there were often 3 or 4 releases a year. In recent years, the frequency has dropped WAY off.....like 2 years between 14.1 & 14.2, then over 5 years to 15.0. Volkerding has stated quite categorically that "it gets released as & when I consider it's ready".
You also cannot try it out as a 'Live session', to take it for a test run. The installer is not user-friendly, being text-based; indeed, the whole thing would appeal mainly to geeks from the early, formative years of Linux, who mostly had UNIX backgrounds.....and probably developers.
But there's a ton of enthusiasts out there who think it's the best thing since sliced bread.
(*shrug*)
Mike.
It's never had a 'regular' release schedule at all. In the early years, there were often 3 or 4 releases a year. In recent years, the frequency has dropped WAY off.....like 2 years between 14.1 & 14.2, then over 5 years to 15.0. Volkerding has stated quite categorically that "it gets released as & when I consider it's ready".
You also cannot try it out as a 'Live session', to take it for a test run. The installer is not user-friendly, being text-based; indeed, the whole thing would appeal mainly to geeks from the early, formative years of Linux, who mostly had UNIX backgrounds.....and probably developers.
But there's a ton of enthusiasts out there who think it's the best thing since sliced bread.
(*shrug*)
Mike.
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You can do that now. I've not tested it since 14.2, but there's this:
https://download.liveslak.org/ (I've played with a previous incarnation.)
I think there's a way to have a GUI installer, as well. I've never tried as I'm content with the distros I use.
As the oldest distro, it's also often accompanied with, "Is Slackware dead yet?" (Usually tongue in cheek.)
BigBadBeef
Active Member
I got updated not so long ago, didn't it? What was that, the first update in a decade?
My first Distro if you can call it that back in the mid 90's was slckware. But over time I got lazy and was lured away by then Redhat. and many distros since. i still have a fondness for Slack but as I said got lazy. Did packaging for a now defunct Distro named Vector for a while a good slack desktop version which was quite nice. But the Dev's got tired I think and gave up the project. In todays world Slack is Stable almost too stable but still require a lot of time to keep up dated and working well.
So I've moved on for better or worse.
So I've moved on for better or worse.
D
Deleted member 108694
Guest
I have always used either a Debian or Ubuntu based OS myself, never actually used Slackware
Yup and nearly. See:
Slackware - Wikipedia
It was version 14 for quite a while, with a couple of point releases.
Slackware lacked a package manager for a long time in the early days which made it less appealing, less convenient and more laborious than distros using apt (dpkg) and rpm. The cry used to be "tar.gz is a package manager NOT!" Then there were the 24 floppies that it came on when others used CDs. It's default hostname "darkstar" was regarded with irony for the distro still in the dark and a distant sky object from the rest. In fact however, it was an excellent distro, reliable, no less capable than any other distro, just it's own fiddly thing.
I remember the 24 floppies I ordered to first put slack on my machine. Actually got 25 floppies as I ordered them via a ham Radio web site and the 25th floppy came with extra ham software which had to be built to install. Was lots of fun. But when Redhat came out with their boxed set don't remember the version but it was sold in Staples office stores. I bought that and installed readhat on my machine. We only had dialup back then so buying the discs was the way it was done. Been a lot of years since then and I like the new distros better now
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Shush don't tell anyone but I still have a full set of MS dos+ Windows 3 somewhere, but its a long time since I have seen a 16 bit machine
BigBadBeef
Active Member
Can't go unstable if you don't update it... like at all!
I have been using Slackware for over 20 years. It was my first Linux distribution. However, the community is not the same as it used to be. I feel like the core expertise of the early Slackers, the enthusiasts, is no longer present. That's why I will probably switch to Debian in the near future. My router/NAS has been running stably on Debian for many years already. It will likely happen shortly after Debian Bookworm is released.
Like you I too have discovered that the enthusiasm and drive of Slackers is not there anymore. I noticed a decline in some of the Slackware Forums about 5 years ago.
It was my experience that some of the members in those forms didn't illustrate or practice much empathy, kindness <or> respect to new or old Slackware users.
I'll continue to run Slackware regardless and practice my dedication to assisting others who want to learn and run it:-
