What is Slackware?
A Linux Distribution that started in 1992 and first released in 1993, Slackware is the oldest surviving commercial Linux distribution. Slackware's focus on making a clean, simple Linux distribution that is as UNIX-like as possible makes it a natural choice for those people who really want to learn about Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. In a 2012 interview, Slackware founder and benevolent dictator for life, Patrick Volkerding, put it thusly.
"I try not to let things get juggled around simply for the sake of making them different. People who come back to Slackware after a time tend to be pleasantly surprised that they don't need to relearn how to do everything. This has given us quite a loyal following, for which I am grateful."
Slackware's simplicity makes it ideal for those users who want to create their own custom systems. Of course, Slackware is great in its own right as a desktop, workstation, or server as well.
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slackbook.org/
Why Use Slackware?
- Freedom and Control
Slackware is a hands-on diy linux distro, you have total control of the system, everything needs to be configured manually by hand , you manually decide which software is installed or not to install to the system, including its dependencies
- Stability and Security
Each software package included in the official slackware release and repositories are stable versions from official software developers and tested heavily for stability before being included.
Softwares included have very minimal or no alteration/modification to the software. you can refer/use to the official software developer manuals/patches and not the distro specific, this is also the reason why there are very few slackware specific patches. other distros often need to patch the bugs created their own previous patches.
Very secure, almost every application,service needs user permission to be enabled,started,installed or used
- User-Friendly and Easy to use (Longterm)
It is consistent and well documented(rtfm needed)
you choose which desktop enviroment and window manager to use (kde,xfce,fvwm,fluxbox,twm)
Even if you have not used slackware for a while, you will not feel alienated or relearn how the system works in the new versions of slackware, its still the same old slackware way of doing things, same old ncurses text-based installer , lilo bootloader , bsd-style init , configuration method , filesystem structure , darkstar default hostname
- Straightforward and simple
less graphical configuration management, less layers , less complexity , just plain and simple human readable text configuration files, text-based installer
Slackware Trivia:
What is Slack in Slackware?
refers to the "pursuit of slack"("the sense of freedom, independence, and original thinking"), a tenet of the Church of the Subgenius. (Church members believes that "We were all born with Original Slack, but that Slack has been stolen from us by a worldwide conspiracy of “pinks.” ")
What is darkstar?
If you skip setting up your network configuration after the installation process, Slackware will name your computer "darkstar" after a song by the Grateful Dead.
What is "Slackware 96"?
In 1996 Slackware 3.1 release was marketed as "Slackware 96" in reference to the release of windows 95, (because the higher version number is assumed better by less experienced users)
Missing Slackware 5 and Slackware 6 releases?
In 1999 again as a marketing effort slackware version jumped from 4 to 7. due to the fact that majority of linux distros during 1999 are labeled version 6 .
Removal of Gnome starting slackware 10.2 release
due to stability and package maintenance issues with gnome, and security issues with pam during that time, dropline gnome community project was recommended for installing gnome to slackware.
Get Slackware:
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www.slackware.com/getslack/
Slackware Packages:
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www.slackfind.net
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www.slacky.eu
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www.slackbuilds.org
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www.slackware.com/~alien/
Slackware Forum:
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www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/