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LinuxQuestions Interviews Slackware Founder Patrick Volkerding
An anonymous reader writes "In this in-depth interview with LinuxQuestions.org, Patrick Volkerding discusses how he got involved with Linux and Open Source, the succession plan for Slackware, the Slackware development model, his opinion on the current trends in desktop environments, potentially disruptive changes to Linux such as systemd, his favorite beer and much more."
Well, economically speaking the past few years have been pretty thin. If I hadn't made the strategic decision to head back to Minnesota several years ago there's no way I could have stayed afloat living in the bay area. California is not at all a cheap place to live, and I was always cutting it close out there. Lately I've been cutting it pretty close here, too. I don't even have insurance any more... knock on wood. Personally, absolutely. I've made friends all over the world. I hear from people every day who love Slackware and depend on it for critical tasks, and who don't want to run something else. Working on the project is exciting and fun, and the folks on the team are some of my best friends. It's just not possible to put a dollar value on that.
It's too bad the Bay Area is unaffordable for many of those who want to devote a significant amount of productivity towards open source projects.
I'd like to believe these projects could make much more money if only the right people knew about them, but we all know that's not the point in the first place.
Similar to social workers and others who do the noble work in our society, communities should devote resources to provide nice affordable housing for these people.
The problem, of course, is convincing local governments.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
Nope, Slackware is well and still around. Sure, they aren't big, but at least they are pretty good and pretty stable. Troll someplace else.
In 1993, I started using Slack exclusively (except school, where Sun owned the place).
Thanks for all your hard work. Your efforts launched several careers, and many more hobbyists.
So, Thanks!
I still have my 60+ 3.5" floppies of Slackware with kernel 0.94 I believe. Took over a month to download on a 28.8 modem. The first time I typed startx after hand configuring X (yes XFConfig was available back then but my video card required hand coding) and the grey screen came up I went "Whoa!"
Patrick is the best. He doesn't release a new Slackware unless its been tested tested tested.
Anytime MythTV releases a new version I'll slap together a machine, put Slackware on it and give it a whirl. If you're a Ubuntu user and want to learn more about *nix but don't want to mess with Gentoo or a BSD, I totally recommend Slackware.