Slackware 14.0 Arrives 183
First time accepted submitter SgtKeeling writes "After 5 release candidates, a new version of Slackware has been released. From the website: 'Yes, it is that time again! After well over a year of planning, development, and testing, the Slackware Linux Project is proud to announce the latest stable release of the longest running distribution of the Linux operating system, Slackware version 14.0! We are sure you'll enjoy the many improvements. We've done our best to bring the latest technology to Slackware while still maintaining the stability and security that you have come to expect. Slackware is well known for its simplicity and the fact that we try to bring software to you in the condition that the authors intended. We will be setting up BitTorrent downloads for the official ISO images. Stay tuned to http://slackware.com/ for the latest updates.'"
Torrents are up now (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Torrents are up now (Score:5, Funny)
torrents? you filthy pirate!
Re:Torrents are up now (Score:5, Funny)
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This is was SO much easier to download and install... I remember the nightmare that was installing Slackware 1.0 RC 2, and how sore my fingers were afterwards...
"Okay, let's see... I have to start with the boot loader... dit dit dah dit dah dah dit dit dah dit dit dah dah...
Aw crap! That last dah was supposed to be a dit! Ah well, guess I'll start over...
By the time I got it all keyed in and running, Slackware 2.1 was released, and I felt like a fool for wasting all that time installing V1. I know when t
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According to my math, the 2410528768 B install disk for the 64-bit version would take 1654 floppy disks.
So, things haven't changed much, despite the intervening years...
Re:Torrents are up now (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks but I won't bother. I'll just find my 2000-era CDs of Slackware 7 and install it twice.
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Site's been down for a while, so I can't get to the torrents.
Can anyone share the torrent files with us? You don't need the site up to get to the files, that's (supposed to) be the point of a torrent.
Re:Torrents are up now (Score:5, Funny)
Shhh, don't tell Google. Their bots will block it.
As long as Slackware keeps being released... (Score:5, Interesting)
Then I know all is well with the world.
Thank you, Patrick!
Installing the new version... (Score:2)
Though I've moved... not "up", really, but more "over" to Ubuntu, you're the source of many fond memories.
Here's to hopefully many more fine releases to come. And, to be clear, I switched to another distro about the same time Patrick announced his intended "retirement", so it wasn't due to a lack of well-earned loyalty...
Re:Installing the new version... (Score:5, Interesting)
You can still install via floppies... In fact looking at the FAQ page it looks like they haven't changed anything in the 16 years since my first install of Slackware. You can install through serial if your heart so desires.
Re:Installing the new version... (Score:5, Interesting)
LOL, I wonder just how many of us have installed it from floppies?
It's only within the last 3-5 years that I threw out the 100 or so Slackware floppies from the very first time I installed Linux way back in '92 or '93 -- a 0.99a kernel, a huge pile of floppies, and the best fun to be had at the time.
Ah ... installing Slackware with X-windows onto a 486-DX33 with 8MB of RAM and 320MB HDD. Good times that was.
Xv for porn^H^H^H^Himages, slip to multi-task on a dialup connection, xdvi to preview output from LaTeX, gcc for coding, netscape for the few wbe sites that existed, usenet, ftp, and all the goodies to go along with it. I still remember the sheer awesome of having that environment.
At one point, my computer had more CPU and RAM than the Sun workstations my friend could access at school ... of course, we had it tough, we only had VT100 access to old VAXen and printers with green-bar paper. And the DOS/Windows machines of the day were largely useless and crashy.
The fact that everything is now mostly three orders of magnitude bigger is kind of amusing in retrospect. But at the time, it was some pretty cool stuff.
Knowing UNIX and C got me my first job out of school. I may need to spool up a VM to put this on, my Ubuntu box is getting a little creaky and I've been hearing some things that make me want to find another distro anyway.
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I managed the A, N, and D sets and most of X in 120 MB (8MB of which was swap!) on a 386DX25 with 8MB RAM :)
Since we're sharing Slack stories (Score:5, Interesting)
A friend of mine in college gave me my first slack. He built his own computer (very cutting-edge in those days) 486-33. Got slack running on it. And used it for one of the greatest pranks I've ever seen.
Two other friends of ours were roommates. One worked day shift, the other worked night shift. The only communication they had for months on end was a chessboard. First roomie was a chess nut, and quite a good player. Second roomie wasn't so great.
So the Slackbox was devoted to running Gnuchess turned up to max. It would take 10 hours to compute a move. Second roomie would call Slackbox, get his move, and go to work. When he would come home from work he would dial up Slackbox and input First roomie's move.
This went on for months. First roomie had no idea how he was getting his ass handed to him. Was a great laugh when everyone came clean about the prank.
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I never did a fully Linux install from floppies but I did use distributions like Debian which required floppy boot. So you got the CD and that contained disk images you had to burn to 2 floppies to get the kernel booted enough to install the rest from CD.
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Slackbuilds [slackbuilds.org] may sweeten the deal, too. Chances are if you want something that's not part of Slackware, someone's already done up a build script for it.
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I remember taking up a row of the 24-hour computer lab at school at 2am or so (to have an available row); I'd clear all the chairs out but one, log in to each PC, and then start downloading--FTP'ing directly to A:--like the carriage in a typewriter. By the time I had started the disk on the rightmost computer, the one on the leftmost machine would be finished downloading. Rollll to the left, repeat! Good memories.
Re:Installing the new version... (Score:4, Funny)
The FAQ page also notes that Slackware is Y2K compliant. Good to know, just in case time ever starts moving backwards.
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Who really knows what will really happen when we hit December 21 this year?
Re:Installing the new version... (Score:5, Funny)
So you're saying that Slackware is Mayan Calendar Rollover compliant?
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http://store.slackware.com/cgi-bin/store/slacktee-mayan?id=LM8CgLHg&mv_pc=29
See the new Slackware 14 T-Shirt for proof.
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You can still install via floppies...
I installed OS/2 first, pulled the distro from a BBS, then installed Slackware from boot floppies and the FAT partition where I downloaded the distro. If I remember correctly, this required significantly fewer floppies. And the 9600 baud modem could spend all night pulling down the distro for the next morning.
What a nightmare
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You can still install via floppies...
No, you can't. The kernel hasn't even fit on a floppy for many years now.
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I switched because I got sick of waiting on glibc. Once Slack 7 came out, Debian's package management had me hooked. Something about Slack 7 just never felt right to me - I was too used to 3.x.
(Of course, back then I was downloading and compiling the X and GNOME source about once a month, but at least I didn't have to worry about the main system).
Sing it (Score:5, Funny)
For slack's a jolly good distro...
For slack's a jolly good diiiiistrooo...
Which nobody can deny!
Very Disappointed! (Score:5, Funny)
I downloaded and installed it onto my system from DVD. The system booted up. It found my network card and configured itself via DHCP. I didn't edit xorg.conf but startx loaded up the KDE desktop using the full resolution of my monitor. Plugged in a USB stick and it opened up a file manager with it's contents loaded. I used the system for quite a while and I only had to fire up the terminal to edit /etc/inittab to change the default runlevel to 4 so KDM would load at boot time. Fully an hour into this and I only had to edit one text file?!? What is this? I wanted Slackware, not Yoobuntoo or some other watered down, hand-holding, pick-out-my-clothes-for-me distro! Where's the pain? Where's the challenge? How can I project my true alpha-geek status by casually mentioning that I run Slackware if it's going to be this easy?? If this keeps up I'm going to have to switch to one of the BSDs or Linux from scratch. With my luck, they'll probably automate that process with shell scripts or something as well.
BSD (Score:3)
Hate to break it to you but us in the BSD camp haven't been hand editing much lately either to get the basics going. I haven't edited a xorg.conf in years, or ttys to get x/kdm to run..
Many ports even add themselves to rc.conf to auto start....
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You do realize we had ports before Linux even existed, right?
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No.
Linux started up in 1991. Personally, I started using in '92.
ports began in '94.
Linux predated ports by 3 years.
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Uh...
Yes.
End of discussion.
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If you have some factual data that contradicts the dates above, that i mentioned, please supply them.
Because simply blindly (completely, no less) contradicting allegedly factual information without actually supplying any additional information which might controvert the supplied data is a pretty good way to make oneself look like someone who has no idea what they are talking about.
To reiterate: Linux was first released in September '91, and ports in August of '94, the origins of which started with the
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The "release" of "Linux" you're referring to from Sep '91 was nothing more then the first draft a kernel project that itself had only started earlier that same year. Slackware was the first distribution that could reasonably be called an OS, in '93.
FreeBSD on the other hand, was built upon a linage of work first released in 1977, with internal versions dating to the early '70s, itself built upon AT&T code from even earlier. And unlike Linux we're not talking about a "release" of a draft kernel, but ra
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I realize those are the dates that wikipedia is reporting for Slackware, but I know from direct personal experience that they are wrong.
The wiki page reports it as having been first released in July of '93, whereas I had been using it for some months previous to that point. I started with the MCC distribution of Linux in early 1992, and I remember migrating to SLS in the summer of that year, and I also remember doing my first Slackware install during Christmas break. I did a major move at the end of M
Re:Very Disappointed! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Very Disappointed! (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want pain go and use Windows.
Yeah im using Win7 and the pain is unbearable. Im constantly having to....umm...well, ill think of it later im sure.
Oh yeah and then it is a right pain in the arse having to constantly put up with ...umm....well actually, nothing yet.
hmm having to think hard here...oh yeah, It runs so poorly on all of my ....actually, no it runs fast.
umm....Out of the box after a fresh install i have to always...actually do nothing, it just...umm...works.
and then theres all the obscure configuration of......errr.....well, nothing, it just works...again.
Sorry OP im having a hard time here, what was your point again?
Re:Very Disappointed! (Score:5, Funny)
If you want pain go and use Windows.
Sorry OP im having a hard time here, what was your point again?
The point is that using Windows is painful. Your post reminded me of this thing I read about... I think it was called Stockholdm syndrome.
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I have a lab full of PC's that I just reinstalled this week that disagrees with you about having to do nothing on a fresh install.
It was the good old Windows-not-recognising-anything, find-and-download-drivers dance. Windows has gotten better, but it still is a piece of crap.
Never mind the complete absurdity when I first mistakenly downloaded the Win7Pro ISO instead of the SP1 ISO. That one didn't even recognise a SATA CDROM at boot. How old was SATA when Win7 was released?
(And before someone whines about t
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It's your own fault. Have not people been telling you to stop downloading software from untrusted sites ?
You will get viruses and such if you insist of downloading from sites of disreputable companies
who many times has been found guilty of intellectual property theft in courts.
It's asking for trouble. Do what most people do - use a torrent!
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"Sorry OP im having a hard time here, what was your point again?"
You forgot about the three days of updating and rebooting after a fresh install. At least that was how long it took the last time I did it 6 months ago when I needed windows for a short stint of work.
Re:Very Disappointed! (Score:4, Funny)
The people who have problems with Win8 are the same people that have 12:00 flashing on every digital device they own.
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The people who have problems with Win8 are the same people that have 12:00 flashing on every digital device they own.
I thought that was their core market?
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about a tenth the amount of those with same issue on Windows, I'd say
Re:Very Disappointed! (Score:5, Informative)
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+1. Install gentoo if you want to edit files and play with the terminal.
I think there is a GUI installer on the LiveDVD :-/. Download the minimal CD instead (also works as a pretty competent rescue disc if you don't have SystemRescueCD kicking around).
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I lied... Gentoo minimal CD is only ~150MB depending on architecture.
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Looks like you're in a world of HURD (Score:2)
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That's interesting. I used Slackware between 1995 and 2006 or so (you know, the days when next year was the year of Linux on the desktop), and then I bought a Mac and never looked back. Yes I tried Ubuntu and some other distros before doing my bold move but they also needed a lot of tinkering back then to get them to do what I wanted, and I was getting sick of having to do that all the time. Now that Apple is, how shall I put it, behaving strangely, I might go back to Linux one day or another. It's good to
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The funny thing here is that I'm actually in the process of replacing my iMac with a Slackware system. Is that ironic enough for a hipster?
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Then do it again, in Cygwin.!
I successfully did it (CLFS x86), BTW. ./configure scripts (cygwin's fork is like molasses).
The trick is to switch NTFS into case sensitive mode and be patient during all the
Network Manager (Score:2)
I was surprised to see Network Manager added to Slackware. I think I might be moving my laptop back to Slackware.
Pat and Slackware (Score:5, Insightful)
My primary system at home for the last sixteen years: Slackware.
If you use it, and you love it, please buy a DVD or contribute if you can. I do.
Remember, Patrick isn't some big conglomerate screwing everybody out of money; he's just a good guy putting out an old school yet quality distro and trying to make a living. He's got a family too.
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So, why do you love it?
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Well, that was a simple and efficient summary. Longevity remains to be seen.
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not adding software or anything, but if I don't like how something works , Slackware is still easiest (at least for me) to figure out how to alter to do what I want...be it automating something at start-up, to changing how X works, to moving something or changing layout, I'm more likely to be able to manage what ever weird idea I have for my PC in Slackware than other distros. Slack has everything put together with screws and bolts instead of welds. When I'm done changing something in Sl
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So, briefly, Slackware is the most hackable.
Re:Pat and Slackware (Score:4, Funny)
All that and a /. id in the 2 millions. Presumably Slackware just got internet support.
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Only a liberal arts major would suggest that "anyone" can make a good, usable Linux distribution. Time is not free, you know.
The Only Distro (Score:3)
I've been waiting for this one for a while. Running Slack on my PC, my netbook, and my 10 year old laptop. I even managed to sneak it onto my work computer! Here's hoping Slackware keeps going for a long time . . .
Why Slackware? (Score:4, Interesting)
What advantage does Slackware have that makes up for its inconveniences?
Re:Why Slackware? (Score:5, Informative)
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As a very early adopter of Slak and one who used it for 15 years before moving to BSD I can say the primary attraction to me was it was the most 'unix' like of the distros. I put things where they should go, they looked like they should and it never got much involved in package management sticking with zipped tars (though it did have scripts to 'manage' those if you wanted). With slackware you could do a lot more on your own and with less fear of breaking something.
When I upgraded my last aging slackware
Re:Why Slackware? (Score:5, Insightful)
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So, you like it because of EBCDIC support?
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Because its more of a barebones distro. You add only the parts you need and maybe learn a bit in the process as well. Today I don't think you could even begin to configure Ubuntu using only a text editor. On a normal day do you even use 10% of the bundled programs on Ubuntu?
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Some bloat is the price for ease to use. And think Ubuntu runs fine even on lousy hardware (not counting very old hardware, but then you have Xubuntu or Lubuntu).
I used to run Gentoo myself, for the fun and the speed-freakery (although t
Re:Why Slackware? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well Slackware was in the 2nd generation of distributions before even Debian and RedHat baed on SLS. So an Ubuntu user can't really complain about Slackware causing fragmentation.
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debootstrap won't even install a kernel until it ask it to. That's pretty bare bones.
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And debootstrap is how I tend to install Ubuntu...
Re:Why Slackware? (Score:5, Informative)
The Slackware documentation has a summary on what makes it stand out:
http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:philosophy [slackware.com]
In other words, it really doesn't have a lot of inconveniences after all. I think the biggest reason I moved to Slackware in the first place was the glut of dependencies that were installed whenever I installed a package in Ubuntu. With Slackware, you start out with a good portion of the packages you need, and manage the rest when you do third party installs. And while that may seem challenging, it ends up being fairly easy, since once you have your install set up and customized the way you like it, you can run it for years without having to make any drastic changes.
Also, the packages are all plain vanilla software, with very few distro-specific patches. While this tends to make the distribution seem less "uniform" out of the box, you also end up with more stability.
Full version upgrades also tend to be easier and more stable overall. Granted there's more work done under the hood, and there's always a chance you can mess up, but I've found that every time I've made a mistake, I've been able to rectify it using some simple method.
And that brings about the most important aspect of Slackware. It's the distro that puts you the closest to working with Linux, without having to delve through layers of "convenience" UI. It may seem harder at first, but after a bit of learning, you'll know Linux better than just about any other distro. (Excluding Linux from Scratch.)
That said, Slackware isn't for everyone. If you just want a distribution that takes the minimum effort to get going, you're probably better off with some of the other big names. But if you have the time and a bit of spare hard drive space, I recommend giving it a try nonetheless. Just be patient.
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You know, it's interesting you bring this up. I had started my experience with Linux on Slackware in 2004 but haven't used it for about a year now (Windows 7 for the day to day desktop I'm typing this on and CentOS for my server). I had recently (last month) considered giving LFS a crack and started flipping through my VMs to see which distro I wanted to use as
Re:Why Slackware? (Score:4, Informative)
Slackware packages always include full devel libs and headers, and you never have to work-around the package manager fighting you about missing dependencies (which you compiled from source). Plus, the startup scripts are vastly simpler than those used in other distros, though not as simple as the BSDs.
In short, Slackware is probably the friendliest distro to learn with, and has many of the features that people like about BSD, while still being Linux. I wouldn't deploy it to 50 machines I have to maintain, but it's a great choice for your one Linux desktop.
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Pardon my ignorance, but don't you have to manually keep track of package dependencies on Slackware?
How exactly do you install (say) Emacs on Slackware?
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Emacs is included, as is the build script. From my experience, the build scripts often work with higher versions, so upgrading to the bleeding edge is straightforward: get the source and run the script.
Thanks to sbopkg [sbopkg.org], slackbuilds.org, and the collections of build queue files, installing almost everything else is extremely painless and can be achieved in a simple menu-driven [google.com] interface.
As for dependencies, no one tracks them except for the slackbuild maintainers. This may sound insane to people who tas
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What inconveniences? Not having adds from Amzon flashing on your desktop?
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I'm happy to see you alive and well... (Score:4, Funny)
ahh slackware... (Score:5, Interesting)
at one point I was left with a shitty old laptop, no cd drive, a hard disk with the slackware files on a dos partition, and a copy of "running linux". I learned a LOT over the next few weeks
and would not want to do it again ... but totally suggest that anyone interested in linux does it at least once.
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This.
I would not have the career I have today if it weren't for Slack, _Running Linux_, my 486SX/33, and the friends I was blessed with those fine days.
Just a little FYI (Score:2)
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If you're happy with Slack then whatever, but I think I would have built my own Debian kernel by now.
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Especially with Slackware, I always recompile my kernel. But I need an up and running system first. If I have no disk I can write to from start, it doesn't do me a whole lot of good
Is that odd monolith really your only computer? You can cross-compile from another system that's not even running Linux, if you have to.
Ah the joys (Score:4, Interesting)
Congratulations Slackware (Score:2)
Thank you, Patrick (Score:3)
Thank you, Patrick. Slackware changed my life. :-)
Slackware /.ed? (Score:3)
Posted 14 hours ago and I still can't reach the main page for slackware. Pretty big slashdotting this time around. At least the distrowatch link to the torrent works
Re:I hate the semantic desktop. (Score:5, Informative)
This only matters if you use KDE. (In which case you're going to get Nepomuk no matter what distro you use.) Also, Nepomuk is easy enough to disable,
If you prefer not to use KDE, Slackware comes with several other DEs and WMs, like XFCE and Fluxbox, out of the box. In fact, you don't even need to install KDE when you install Slackware. And if you're a Gnome user, there are several Gnome slackbuilds available. This is really a non-issue.
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Lilo tends to be easier to get working with less effort. It's simple and does its job well, which follows the concept of using a Unix style environment. I've also found that saving your system from a disaster tends to take less fiddling when using Lilo. The configuration is very straightforward.
However, there are some things that Grub2 can do that Lilo can't. Fancier boot screens, more advanced command line arguments, etc. But if you aren't using those in the first place, then there's really no reason
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Your question is backwards. IIRC, LILO was first. LILO was the standard. So what does GRUB2 add that LILO didn't that inspired others to make the switch?
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Just the first thought that popped in my head (without checking), but it's possible they are using squashfs or similar. Very efficient and designed for this type of situation. Gentoo uses it for their LiveDVD and it's pretty similar in size.
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You do realize that Patrick didn't write all that software, yes? So you're trusting a whole community in any case. And trusting one man's ability to integrate a bunch of different pieces that aren't necessarily designed to work together smoothly, created by people who may or may not be in communication with each other. Of course, the actuality is that Slack isn't really a one-man show even if you ignore the fact that he didn't write the code. Slackware has a community, and members of that community cont