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Slackware Forums Alive Again!
HappySlacker writes "Looks like the forums from slackware.com that Patrick Volkerding (Slackware's daddy) had to take down because of massive trolling are fully active again after 2 years of hibernation as read-only at userlocal.com." Update: 01/21 19:23 GMT by T : Jeremy from LinuxQuestions.org points out the forums on that site, which is recommended on Slackware's links page.
Besides, Linuxpackages.net has kept Slackware forums going the whole time..
Us Slackers now have 2 forums AND a mailing list...
WHOOO HOOOO!!!!
Here's the forums:
http://www.linuxpackages.net/forum/
Your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
it used to be read only, you can post there now.
It's not very re-assuring when you click on help and get a message that says "Page not found: help".
They also make you provide your credit card info and confirm the order before they tell you how much shipping is and what the total price is.
That being said, I've used slackware since version 2.3, and it's by far my favourite distro. I've tried most of the distros, and imo they don't come close to slackware's functionality and ease of use.
Jason
ProfQuotes
The old Slackware.com forums have been available on Userlocal for well over 6 months. The only thing that has changed recently is that Userlocal has a new hosting provider and that the forums are no longer read only.
But this may be a bad time for the forums to become active again, alt.os.linux.slackware has been getting hit fairly hard by a troll(s) in the last few days.
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
Slack has always been alive. Slackers aren't as...ehem...vocal as users of other distros but believe me we're alive and kicking.
If you've noticed, Slackware has always been a profitable company. It may not be as big as Redhat or Mandrake, but its got its own share of very loyal users.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
Don't forget news:alt.os.linux.slackware, and news:alt.os.slakware
;)
But keeping those free of trolls is interesting fun.
Dirk stood in the Stanley
Actually, Slack is still pretty alive.
:)
True, you may have to understand hard drive partitions and other standard PC terminology to install it, so it may not be for "Joe Schmoe Windows User", but I love the configurability.
It almost does not have thousands upon thousands of packages, turning it into a 6- or 7-CD set that requires buying the more expensive 700MB disks. No, Slack can still fit mostly on one CD-ROM, with a few bits like KDE thrown onto another (who needs KDE/GNOME, besides? Ick.) However, I've never had any package under Slackware not work, and the only library problems I've ever had were with freetype1 conflicting with freetype2 (fixed in 8.0) and all the annoyances of keeping multiple versions of qt around because Trolltech can't keep it's fscking API the same for more than two weeks (sorry, any qt fans), but Slackware has never come with anything "broken", which I'm always grateful for.
Slackware also does not use a dependency system, which is perhaps a good idea at this point given the state of (most of) the competition (is there anything besides apt that doesn't suck?).
Patrick also keeps Slackware-current up to date with security and bugfixes; I have rarely had to wait more than a few days between hearing about a hole and being able to start that service up again. Not as quick as the instant-fixes that paying Red Hat customers enjoy, but absolutely fine for me.
Ack, I'm rambling. Anyway, Slackware is the only of the "original" distros which hasn't succumbed to vast amounts of bloat, and it has never released a new release with lots of broken libraries and such (RedHat 6.0 anyone?). Not only is it alive, but it rocks.
It's a very quality distributiong for the hobbyist, and I don't think it will ever die.
Hmm, after a preview I realize how crappy half this post sounds. Oh well, I'll post it sans karma bonus
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
Slack kernels come with framebuffer (and thus logo) support... you just need to tell the kernel to use it (via lilo/grub)
And not forgetting the one at linux questions
Linux Help Network
Linux Entre Amis Which is french
Linux Pro Nederland
There must be more as well.
-- RTFM:Slackware::Beer:Saturday
I agree. And excellent add-ons like Dropline Gnome (Gnome 2 for Slackware 8.1) make it all the better. By Slackware 8.1 install is a solid as a rock. Slackware is still the most practical and reliable desktop Linux distribution, in my opinion.
I learned to use Linux on Slackware. I found it easier to configure, than having to use the non-standard tools that other distributions have. Plus, with Slackware, you have the benefit of learning how to use Linux. It's a lot different than learning how to use Red Hat or Suse. Some distributions really pull you far away from the basics, and actually make things more difficult.
Using fdisk (or cfdisk), configuring sound and video, and learning a few basics of rc.files are really all there is to Slackware. After that, it's smooth sailing. Once you learn how it works, you can rasonably set up a Slackware box in less than an hour or two.
Why are dependencies so farking hard to observe?
Because of cascading dependencies. One package may ultimately depend on updated versions of thirty or more other packages. That's where apt comes in.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Find a better ISP
Better ISP? That's not always a reasonable answer. In the United States of America, there is generally only one cable modem ISP in a given area, and DSL isn't available everywhere because of the 4 km distance limitation. Thus, switching to another high-speed ISP could cost $200,000, which includes all the costs of moving your family and getting a job in another state.
Will I retire or break 10K?