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Slackware Turns 10
Sir_Stinksalot writes "DistroWatch is reporting that Slackware is 10. 'Yes folks, it is exactly 10 years today since the release of Slackware Linux 1.0, complete with a brand new Linux kernel 0.99pl11 Alpha, XFree86 1.3 and even a PS/2 mouse support!' Let's all say happy birthday to Slackware."
It would be interesting to hear if it still runs, and how it stacks up - "then vs now".
http://www.welton.it/davidw/
... when Slackware was released... I think it was by SLS, no, which mean "Soft Landing Systems".
... :)
Of course, happy with my Yggdrasil installation (woohoo, a bootable CD distro - in 1992! With X!) I scoffed at the notion of there being yet *another* Linux distro around.
Little did I know, 10 years later, that there would be thousands of Linux choices around. Wow.
Happy birthday Slackware! One of these days, I ought to give you a try
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Slack was the distro I fell in love with first. as of lately, i've been impressed with the portability of Knoppix LiveCDs. But I'm still a Slackware fan. Happy Birthday! w00t!
Slackware 0.99blahblah was my first Linux. I had two boxes of 50 floppies that I spent hours downloading and copying at a computer lab at school. All of that fit onto one of the two 100MB partitions on my 200MB disk (the other had Windows 3.0). I still have the boot floppy and every once in a while I pull out the boot floppy to see if it can boot on new hardware. Still works on most!
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Hell...I was using SLS (SoftLanding System) Linux from Victoria Canada in 1992/1993 even before this young upstart Pat started his distribution (I think it was even based on SLS)...ahhh the days of distributions on floppy.
We used v0.95, we downloaded it direct from the Finland FTP site over a 14.4 modem, took all night, and we liked it!
All I wanted to do was run my favorite Unix game: "rogue"
I tried Minix, but rogue wouldn't compile, so I tried Linux and have been using it ever since.
Thomas Dz.
Linux newbie's log, stardate Thursday 9th June 1994:
"Installation of SLS Linux system [sic]: disks a2-4, b1-8, c1-2, c3 (partial), d1-, t1-3. Disk s1 was corrupt."
And I never looked back...
However, looking over that old notebook now, I see it did take me until December of that year to get my head round sendmail enough to have working mail!
Slackware was my first linux distribution. I used to work at "Bureau en Gros" ( I think it's "Business Depot" in english). I was working in the computer section and this guy ask me about Linux. I thought it was a game at first. But then he told me that it was something new and cool but very complicated. I found the CDs for him in bin. That same day I got myself a copy and wanted to install it on my computer. By then I just thought it was an application. Reading on, I realised that I need a different partition. I read up on it and installed my first Linux system on a 100 Meg zip disk. It was the coolest thing for me. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to do the simplest things but it was really fun. I had an slow computer at the time ( Pentium 60Hz) and the newer games didn't install on my computer anymore so I had to find myself another way of having fun.
And now I get paid to program device drivers on Linux!
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
Like many, Slackware was my first distro.
Oh what hell it was to get it installed, being that I knew very little about hardware.
Many years later, I laugh at how trivial the setup is now. But had I not had the slackware experience all those years ago, I would probably be a MS monkey, instead of a Linux Geek.
Thank you Slackware (Patrick and all).
...about slackware is what I would change about most linux distros I have used...
Upgrades do not work as smoothly as they ought to
work needs to go into some code in the upgradepkg utility that can migrate the settings, rather than plopping down a new copy of the file and saying you might have to look at it....
Gentoo, my other favorite distrobution suffers from the same problem...
And yes I know if I really want this feature I oughta code it myself and submit patches etc....
I'm to lazy, and my real job takes more time tahn I'd like, so between work and having a life I just haven't got the time...OK...OK
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Webmasters: If you'd like to keep the awareness of slackware up, grab a banner from here: Slackware Propoganda and link it back to Slackware.com.
You never forget your first love.
;-)
I first heard of Linux in "Unix Review". It was very tempting. I got Slackware on a CD that was included in "The Linux Bible", which I got for $19.95 at a local Barnes and Noble that had just opened. It was the cheapest book with a Linux installation CD that they had. My heart sank when I figured out it was mostly a bunch of HOWTO's, typeset (some very incorrectly). But...
For three hours before I ever put the CD into my machine, I read, checked hardware, and took notes. It paid off. The first installation failed, because I forgot to create a swap partition (required back then). The second attempt succeeded, giving me a Linux 1.2.13 kernel and enough to begin "bootstrapping" my configuration. What a steep learning curve, but it taught me how to do things manually (useful when other systems' "automatic" config managers just can't handle the customization you want). One week later, I had a working X system, running FVWM. Two days after that, I had a working dial-up script. I immediately downloaded Netscape.
I dual-booted for two years, until the Chernobyl virus hit my partition table and both copies of my Windows FAT32. With no hope of recovering my Linux system, I started from scratch with 100% Linux, and have never looked back.
I've tried other distros, but Slackware is so lean and straightforward. Even my ex-wife prefers it to RH/Mandrake/Debian/whatever. Thank you, Patrick! (and thanks for accepting my patch a couple months ago, too!
Happy birthday SLACKWARE and a GREAT BIG _THANK YOU_ to you Patrick for your awesome work!
With tears in my eyes I remember all the great moments Slackware has brought to my life. Patrick and others who work on Slackware, you should be proud! When a job is done well it is done the way you guys do it.
LONG LIVE SLACKWARE!
----
Slackware--and Debian, for that matter--people have been friendly with me. I heard so much of a stink about how tough and unfriendly their installations were that I avoided it for a long time, and I'm not sure it is fair. I think there's too much "RTFM" in a lot of Linux-related discourse. Hell, the MPlayer FAQ has the phrase "RTFM" in it!!! That's ridiculous. BTW, I think I'll try Gentoo next--I do hear good things about it as well. --GT
I tried Mandrake and that was better, but my contractees wanted RH if they were to use Linux. RH 7 had enough custom C libraries that I couldn't do a simple Apache build. About that time (~ 3 years ago) I tried Slackware and loved it!
My ONLY irritation is mindless COTS vendors who MUST use RPM to install their &^%$ products (IBM, IBM, IBM). I've used Slackware from 7 until now without issue with the distro. The more I use it, the more I like it.
At work now were using RH Adv Server 2.1 (over my objections) and while it has some cool stuff (the 2.5 job scheduler, p_threads, etc.) RH still manages to screw with C libraries (for some of our in-house apps) and not include Perl modules so we can use things like SIS. Slackware 9 OTOH is running like a champ on my pIII 500MHz home PC which I'm using for my Masters project.
In short I'm batting 1.000. I've not had a Slack install I've had issue with and I've not had a RH install I haven't regretted. yes, I know, double negatives and all that...
Don't get wrong, better RH than windows, but all things considered - I'm a Slacker...
Computer Science is Applied Philosophy
Speaking from the old folks camp, there are many distros for many people. Slackware is not really a 'newbie' distro, or at least not newbie in the sense of 'I just wanna play with Linux' area. If you are already a technical person, and like detail, Slackware is a great way to learn the insides and out of the system. Very rarely in the 8 or so years of using the distrib have I not been able to find a solution in a howto or usenet. If I download some code and try to compile something, and it does not work, most times I'm the kind of person that will tweak the code and fix it... because I can If I stick with the RPM/DEB/etc thought train, if it don't install.... I'm stuck.
No, I don't tell new people to try Slackware, I throw them a KNOPPIX cd and let them play. But I'm an old fart that enjoys fixing a problem and learning about my system. If that's not for you, there are other distros. I was just looking at my box the other day and realized that I've been on the same distrib version since '99! Happy birthday Slackware! Distros came and go, but it's nice to know that at least one is worried more about the rock solid nature that is Linux's longest claim to fame, and less about the creaping featurism that seems to be spreading slowly across the Linux world. "In my day, we downloaded 20+ disks off a 14.4 modem, and loaded them one by one to install Linux... and we liked it!"
In 1993, I discovered Slackware 1.01 on a CD-ROM set called "Nite Owl" that sysops would buy so that people could download from them. I put the boot/root images on a floppy and rebooted my system to be greeted with a login prompt. I told it "root" and suddenly I saw something very cool.
#
I know, big deal, but back in those days, Unix was something that could only be accessed at a distance. I either had to dial my ISP or my school, and it wasn't the same. This sucker was right here in front of me, and it was all mine.
I saved my money, bought another hard drive, and installed it properly in the spring of 1994. Over the next couple of years I learned how to break things and fix them again, and put it all together.
Now I have a job running a couple dozen Slackware boxes for a medium sized organization and have contributed a few small things to the kernel. I am no longer reliant on systems that have their hoods welded shut, so to speak.
Thank you.
I've been using Slackware since around about the 2.x series (I forget the exact version). I've tried Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE and Debian. I keep coming back to Slackware.
Why? It's the most streamlined and simple ditribution there is and always has been. After 10 years it still has not succumb to the bloat that all the other distributions have done so far. I don't have to fiddle around with the silly "tools" that other distributions (Linuxconfig, ugh! Yast, ugh!) insist I use just to get my system running, Slackware let's me do it my way.
Long may it continue!