Does anyone here REALLY use slackware as their main OS?

[kc1di]

Oh the days of slackware was my first distro with linux way back in 1996 I believe. 15 floppy discs or so and a lot of configurations later had a fairly workable system Think the machine was a 286 but my memory is foggy now. Here is a history of slack if anyone is interested.

The History of Slackware

The Oldest Surviving Linux Distribution

www.abortretry.fail

 

[Deleted member 204243]

I've never used Slackware, but for some time I had Slackware-based Porteus on an USB Stick. I liked it more than Puppy, because it had a proper user account (not everything was run as root all the time). The boot time was amazing - it was ready to use after a couple of seconds. Unfortunately, it took years between new versions.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@Tritone :-

I've never used Slackware, but for some time I had Slackware-based Porteus on an USB Stick. I liked it more than Puppy, because it had a proper user account (not everything was run as root all the time). The boot time was amazing - it was ready to use after a couple of seconds. Unfortunately, it took years between new versions.

It's a matter of personal taste, I think. I enjoyed the Slacko Puppies in the early days, despite them needing much more in the way of TLC. But then I got old, and fat, and lazy.....and found the Debian & 'buntu derivatives didn't need all that mollycoddling & pampering. These days, I simply don't have the time for all that DIY and configuring/building/compiling everything yourself.

Don't get me wrong. It's an amazing distro - always has been - but with my life the way it is ATM it's just not for me anymore.

Running as the root user all the time has never worried me (I have an in-built aversion to having to continually ask my own system for permission to do things. I prefer to rely on my own judgement.....and if I make a bad call & royally screw things up, restoring from backup is only ever a 5 minute job with Puppy). I have Puppy configured and set-up to automatically consign the entire session to cyberspace at shut-down.....unless I specifically tell her otherwise OR I decide to save particular files before doing so.

I don't "install" apps/programs these days. I either run 'portable' apps from outside the system, or at most I only ever 'link' them in via a sym-linked 'launcher' & Menu-entry.

I've spent a lot of time over the last few years figuring-out, scripting & automating almost every aspect of setting-up any new Puppy (my Pups are very highly customised, full of personalization and time-saving widgets). It'll take around 5 minutes for a quick'n'dirty install, then during first boot I'll run the set-up scripts, setting up all the 1001 personal touches that used to take days in a matter of minutes......followed by shutting-down and creating the 'save'.

Call me lazy if ya like, but the appeal of setting up a new distro has rather lost its shine in recent years. I like to see the results, but I no longer enjoy manually going through all those tedious steps one after another.....so for me, automation's the way to go.

In over a decade with our Pup, I've never yet been compromised. Not ONCE. Perhaps I've been remarkably lucky. I'll take it!

(shrug...)

Horses for courses (of course!)


Mike.

 

[osprey]

Oh the days of slackware was my first distro with linux way back in 1996 I believe. 15 floppy discs or so and a lot of configurations later had a fairly workable system Think the machine was a 286 but my memory is foggy now. Here is a history of slack if anyone is interested.

Thanks for that link ... a very informative read.

This quote from the article possibly hints at some reasons that slackware, despite its longevity and functionality, hasn't quite gained the prominence of some other distros:

There is no bugzilla, no public code repository, and no official procedure for someone to become a Slackware developer. There is a Slackware “core” team of contributors who work on things like testing new or updated packages, contributing to Slackware’s scripts, proposing new changes or packages, and so on. Slackware has also never had any particular use case in mind. It is meant to be suitable for desktop, workstation, server, embedded use, or any other purpose, and it makes no assumptions.

 

[coyotl]

Incredible that nobody in this somewhat old thread had heard about Salix, the easy Slackware. This adds gui tools, a package manager etc that make it quite easy to even for newbies. 100% compatible with Slackware. The main developer readily responds to specific requests for package updates to newer version etc. So it is not outdated even if last major upgrade was in 2022, following Slackware (14.2 to 15). I use this on several machines. Ideal for a machine you need to leave without frequent maintenance, grandma pc, whatever. Ideal for newbies who want to learn linux without too much struggle as it is easy to use if you just read a little documentation. It combines linux nostalgia and a modern, functional system.

 

[Brickwizard]

@coyotl Welcome to the forums, most of us know of Salix, but that was not the question

 

[coyotl]

Well, if you are using Salix as main OS you are also using Slackware as it is 100% binary compatible and does not draw in anything from Slackware current as Slackel/Slax does. So i found it curious that it did not get mentioned. There are other derivatives like Zenwalk and the discontinued Vector but I found them problematic on testing them

 

[Brickwizard]

There have been over a dozen Slackware derivatives over the years, most of which didn't last long, one of the problems in the past is if you had a derivative problem and asked for help on one of the slacko forums, you would have received a raspberry, which put new users off.

 

[coyotl]

Seems they think you should support Slackware, get a subscription. Fair enough, I have sent some paypal donations to Volkerding, and also supported Salix. It was created by some former Zenwalk developers in 2009, these (at least Vlahavas) are still active in the Salix forum and helping users. This one is actually so good it might be an idea for Slack to adopt its tools at some point.

 

[Vimmer]

i recently installed it on my laptop, just because i like the design philosophy behind it. However, it seems that if you're not compiling from source, then installing new software after the initial install is kind of a pain and fails a lot of the time. It seems like the best use for it is having an environment 100% dedicated to programming, messing around with the software that's already installed from the full version (it basically gives you everything you need for basic computer usage right off the bat, there's this one free internet radio app that uses that terminal that's functional that i tried even though some of the stations don't work), and then installing stuff from github only.

 

[KGIII]

This is a pretty old thread that was started by someone who was probably trolling and didn't stick around.

 

[coyotl]

i recently installed it on my laptop, just because i like the design philosophy behind it. However, it seems that if you're not compiling from source, then installing new software after the initial install is kind of a pain and fails a lot of the time. It seems like the best use for it is having an environment 100% dedicated to programming, messing around with the software that's already installed from the full version (it basically gives you everything you need for basic computer usage right off the bat, there's this one free internet radio app that uses that terminal that's functional that i tried even though some of the stations don't work), and then installing stuff from github only.

I guess this is about vanilla Slackware? I don't use that. Salix adds 2 graphical package install tools, Gslapt which makes it very easy and fast to install packages from the repos (handles deps for you) and Sourcery which is a frontend for compiling, this of course fails in some cases but then that will happen in AUR in Arch/Artix too. My point in mentioning Salix was that it adds tools that makes the user experience totally different (easier) while the system remains 100% binary compatible, it benefits from the extraordinary stability of Slack etc

 

[Vimmer]

I guess this is about vanilla Slackware?

No, there is no "vanilla slackware". There's the basic install (it's just called slackware...) and various possible installs to alter the desktop environment outside of the main installation, which allows you to choose between 7 to 10 desktop environments. Im not interested in these experiments, slackware gives you a lot of options by itself.

 

[Dimitar Kostadinov]

I use slaclware. / more then 200 servers /. We use only slackware from 1997 to now. Over time, we have worked with almost all Linux distributions. But in practice, it turns out that the most stable and, last but not least, with the least time and effort to maintain remains Slackware. The only distribution that comes close is FreeBSD. Slackware, due to its simple design, is managed extremely easily and quickly / especially remotely through the terminal / In most cases, it even works a little faster than all the others. Most people say that there is no package management and this makes it unusable. In practice, however, it turns out that in order to get maximum performance, etc., you always have to upload specific libraries and versions for the given service / which interfere with all the dependency systems in other Linuxes, not to mention if you have to have 3-4 versions of the same library /. It turns out that at least for us it is easier to use Slackware than to fight the limitations of the dependency systems of other Linuxes. The question is different if you are a user who is not interested in maximum stability and performance, but just want to call only standard things with the mouse. Then you can safely say that, for example, Ubuntu is the better option / this is of course if you do not know what to do /. In principle, there is no package that is available for Ubuntu or Debian that is not available for Slakovare ... And if it comes to compiling, etc. to achieve a specific effect, then it all depends on what distribution you are using / even in most cases with Slakovare things become much simpler and easier /

 

[KGIII]

This is a pretty old thread that was started by someone who was probably trolling and didn't stick around.

 

[hytronbgd011]

Good joke, because you're the first user on this forums to my knowledge to use Slackware.

I'm not sure what you mean by "All other distributions have come and go over the years", this is a fallacy unless you're referring to some xyz distros that nobody heard about.

No its not joke. Slackware is extremely stable OS and like I said I have been using it since 1996. I dont use graphic interface but mostly for services like email server, DNS, web, storage with RAID, etc. Never had an issue. I re-compile new kernels on regular basis too. I use Slackware on physical servers and VMware based virtual servers.

What I mean is that many other distros have been around for some time and then disappeared but the Slackware is stable and keeps kicking. I plan on using it as long as it is available! I am sure many people around the World are using it you just havent heard about.