Slashdot Mirror
Slackware, Oldest Actively Maintained GNU/Linux Distribution, Turns 25
sombragris writes: Slackware, the oldest GNU/Linux distribution which is still actively maintained, turned 25 this week. The latest stable version, Slackware 14.2, was released two years ago, but the development version (-current) is updated on a fast pace. Today the development version offers kernel 4.14.55, gcc 8.1.1, glibc 2.27. mesa 18.1.4, xorg 1.20, and the Xfce and KDE desktop environments as default, with many more available as third-party packages. Other points of note are that Slackware is systemd-free, opting instead for a simple BSD-style init.
Since its first release ever, this has been a distro with a strong following due to its hallmarks of simplicity, speed, ease of maintenance and configuration. Happy birthday Slackware!
Since its first release ever, this has been a distro with a strong following due to its hallmarks of simplicity, speed, ease of maintenance and configuration. Happy birthday Slackware!
Yes it is usable. Yes it is worth trying again. Yes it is for people who use Unix.
I considered moving to slackware during the height of the anti systemd ruckus, but went with Manjaro i3 instead. However, for a focus non-bloated Linux slack should a good choice, even if you have to keep a eye on your dependencies. ... I wouldn't want to install a full KDE setup on it though.
Either way, distros like slack are very much needed in the distro ecosystem IMHO.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Seriously, why does Slashdot tolerate this spam? Trolls have decided to harass a user, creimer, and continue to post spam comments about him even though he apparently doesn't post here any longer. It contributes nothing of value, isn't really even trolling, and gets posted in multiple threads in story after story. Given that it often references people by name, this content is actually defamatory in nature. Surely Slashdot can do something more to combat this persistent spam. Moderation just isn't preventing it from being posted repeatedly.
https://distrowatch.com/dwres....
It seems to me that if you want to get into using Linux, use Ubuntu or Mint or something. If you want to get into Linux the hard way and really get your hands dirty then Slackware is up to the challenge.
Schnapple
Slackware was my first distribution, but mostly because I didn't have any other options at the time.
To answer your questions.
Is it usable yet? It was always usable. It isn't a Desktop OS, but for a server system it has been really good, because it has such a small foot print.
Is it worth trying again? I tired it out a few years ago, it is about the same. If you didn't like it then, you probably won't like it now.
Or, is it still only for super hardcore Unix people, only? Slackware (Linux) and FreeBSD (Unix) are rather similar. However OS X is Unix, while Android is Linux. That said if your are a Traditional Unix guy, Slackware probably feels most comfortable. But if you are trying for a Desktop system then Probably not.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I remember back in the mid 90's I hosted images.slashdot.org on a Slackware box (Pent 90, IIRC) because Rob Malda's T-1 circuit was getting constrained. I was working for the Seattle ISP Wolfe.net and we had a whopping T-3 with 45Mb/s direct to Sprint.
Slashdot start off on Slackware.
This, of course, was back in the dial-up days. Nothing like trying to find a ring-no-answer in a 400 line hunt-group.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Slackware was my second distro but the first (RedHat) was only on the box for a couple days before my really geeky friend shamed me into using Slackware. Soooooooooo painful. Soooooooooo hard to use. I was soooooooooo lost. I'm so much better off for it. I've been using Linux since the 90s and haven't ever stopped. I've run Slackware on laptops, desktops and servers for a lot of that time. I'm much lazier now and much more employed, so I use something with a native package management system that handles dependencies and laziness. When my home racks are online though, they're Slackware because it works, has always worked and will always work without any BS.
Patrick and team have done a great job for a long time and they deserve a lot of thanks for their work.
Production systems very often use a commercially-supported distribution, as support is valued, or one of the open versions of those, as they tend to get patches pretty promptly. Whilst you could use Slackware on a production system, it wouldn't be my first choice from a risk perspective.
Linux is not for you, as per the (spot on) GP. You don't want to learn things, and that's fine. Just go with Windows or Apple.
Nobody will ever turn Linux into "a perfect replacement for Windows" because that's not the goal, most people already knowledgeable in Linux see no point in dumbing it down for the masses, not only because like everything else in the world, "the masses" ruin it. Also if the goal was to copy Windows, then why not use Windows in the first place.
Oh, because you want it to be free, sure. Well it isn't free, it comes at the price of actually being interested in computers and wanting to learn at least basic concepts. If your time is worth anything, that'll turn out a lot more expensive than paying the MS-tax and buying an Apple device, so there's one more reason to get on with your life and run something you can use without having to understand anything about it.
IOW stop trying to be something that you aren't. The only way Linux is actually long-term usable for computer illiterates with no desire to learn (not judging, it's fine to be) is if someone else admins the box for them (e.g. my parents are "long term Linux users" without a faint clue about Linux, for about 7 years now. But they only manage because I took care to provide them with the means to do what they want to do). If you're completely out of options but have a bunch of money, you might hire someone to do that for you, if you really this badly want to use Linux (for whatever reason that would be)
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
That's such bullshit. If you want to learn Linux, you use LFS. Anything else is for posers and babies.
Via a lot of compilation it's possible to update SLS 1.05 to the latest tools. I haven't the heart to delete /etc/motd. Big challenges were getting ELF going. getting libc6 going and cross compiling 64 bit from 32-bit. Now it's a 100% 64-bit system: /:softland:~$ cat /etc/motd
Softlanding Software (604) 592-0188, gentle touch downs from DOS bailouts. /:softland:~$ uname -a /:softland:~$ ld -v /:softland:~$ gcc -v ../configure --target=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --enable-languages=c,c++
Welcome to Linux SLS 1.05. Type "mesh" for a menu driven interface.
Fresh installations should use "syssetup" to link the X servers, etc.
Linux softland 4.16.14 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Jun 10 02:52:51 EST 2018 x86_64 unknown
GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.30
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/7.3.0/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Configured with:
Thread model: posix
gcc version 7.3.0 (GCC)