Slackware Linux Distribution Turns 30 Years Old (theregister.com) 55
This week the Slackware Linux project is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It is the oldest Linux distribution that is still in active maintenance and development. The Register reports: Version 1.0 of Slackware was announced on the July 16, 1993, and project lead Patrick Volkerding, who still maintains the distribution today, celebrated with a modest announcement: "Hey folks! It's time to acknowledge another one of those milestones... 30 (!) years since I made the post linked below announcing Slackware's first stable release after months of beta testing. Thanks to all of our dedicated contributors, loyal users, and those who have helped us to keep the lights on here. It's really been a remarkable journey that I couldn't have anticipated starting out back in 1993. Cheers! :-)"
Re: This is the year of a Linux on the desktop (Score:2)
As Long as Pat is alive... (Score:2)
Give it a try (Score:5, Insightful)
It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the modern distros. Remember how nice Linux used to be to configure? You didn’t need google because the documentation was accurate. No systemd nonsense and good old syslog.
Re:Give it a try (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Give it a try (Score:4, Interesting)
When I got tired with recompiling Slackwave for every little thing
As a very long-time Slackware user, I'm genuinely curious what you mean. I've never had to recompile anything. I have compiled kernels and a very few other things from source, but generally everything has worked, including riding through some pretty hefty updates / upgrades.
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Oh, okay, thank you. I used to always compile custom kernels. Sometimes you had to compile it on another (working) machine but for the target machine. I also used Cyrix CPUs. Ran very very cool. But yeah, you might have had to compile a kernel to include the Cyrix stuff.
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That’s the fun part of Linux.
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Re:Give it a try (Score:4, Interesting)
Well yes, but that depends on what modules, drivers, and other stuff you have configured. My nerdgasm was when I got distcc to work. I didn't time it, but it was obviously much faster.
Much of the early impetus to compile kernels was because I was poor and RAM expensive, so just trying to keep things tight. Then the pretty much daily kernel updates so I did them fairly often. Eventually I got more $ and RAM, got tired of compiling, and just kept the stock kernel and everything works very well.
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Recompiling the kernel builds character. I did it when I was a kid and I turned out fine!
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You're not kidding.
I used to select all the drivers and modules I wanted and turned off dynamic module loading just to see how little memory the system could use.
Glad also to hear that Mr. Volkerding is doing well!!
Not everything was easy... (Score:4, Interesting)
Remember how nice Linux used to be to configure?
For most things yes, but I still remember spending ages editing my XF86config file to get my graphics card to work back with Slackware running on kernel version 0.99p13 (IIRC) after installing it from a stack of 3.5" floppies. Still, I managed without needing Google.... which was a good thing because Google did not exist back then! That was my very first Linux install and it got easier with experience.
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Slackware was a nice system. Though like many I went slackware -> suse -> debian. If I recollect, it started by downloading slackware floppies (all seven) from ftp.cdrom.com over something pre-56k.
Re:Give it a try (Score:4, Interesting)
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I loaded Slackware, 0.9 I think, from a CD in a paperback book. And it worked! Better than working with SCO, for damned sure.
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Memories (Score:3)
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And SLS and TAMU and MCC Interim... I started with HJ Lu's first combined boot+root 3.5" floppy image.
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My first Linux install was SLS downloaded from a BBS at 14.4Kbps.
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Ah, memories of Yggdrasil.
Yep.
If nothing else, the distro names were certainly cooler.
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Not fond memories for me. My great love for Slackware was that it was the first distribution release for me which actually worked on the first install! I want to say it was at the v1.90+ version, but it may have been earlier. Yggdrasil and one other one was older than Slackware, but Yggdrasil was a frustrating multiweek attempt to get working before I gave up.
1993..... (Score:1)
(If a process I should turn to be)
Slackware was my first... (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember when Linux was available either via yggdrasil or Slackware, and Slackware was considered the more advanced option.
But generally speaking at the time, you bought it with a book because there was no real help otherwise unless you knew how to use it.
Of course, these days, it seems awfully dated. Yes, it's about as pure Linux as you can get, if by pure you mean "UNIX as it was in the 70s" sort of evolution. Yes, there's plenty of reasons why you'd want that, but there's also plenty of reasons why if I want to do actual work in Linux, I just use Ubuntu and be done with it. I think even the BSDs today are easier to use.
But if you want an OS to fart around with, Slackware is the one. After all, it barely has a packaging system, so once you have your base system installed, you can compile the rest of the stuff you need - there's no package manager to stand in your way or to screw up.
Just unpack and put it where you want, it's all you.
Re:Slackware was my first... (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, these days, it seems awfully dated
This I disagree with, it is not dated at all, unless you believe anything that does not default to GNOME3 dated. It does not have a pointy/clickly install, but install is very easy to use, the hardest part is you need to understand how to use fdisk or cfdisk.
I want to do actual work in Linux
I do real work with Slackware, I developed many complex applications for use on AIX using Slackware, even this year. I also used valgrind to look for memory issues with these applications. So yes, you can do real work on Slackware.
After all, it barely has a packaging system
Slackware's package system is very simple and will not break. You want dependency management, a different thing :) Note, there is slackbuilds for items that do not come with Slackware.
Anyway, congratulations on the anniversary! This comment came courtesy via a Slackware System :)
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Boot/root was my first before going to Slackware when it was available. After a while there were more distros like Debian and Redhat. I settled on Debian because Redhat was so bloated, slow, and went totally overboard doing their "own thing" (ie. reinventing the wheel, badly). Then Ubuntu finally fixed a lot of the huge problems with Debian (eg. lack of updates). Nowadays though it's not so clear.
You can't just say "Ubuntu and done" any more as Ubuntu has gone off the rails like Redhat. snaps are backed by
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The boo, I got my first Slackware install from offered virtually no help, but discovered man and somehow got it running.
You never forget your first (Score:4, Interesting)
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Slackware and its 14 floppies were my first foray into Linux.
Same. I started on Slackware 2.1, which used Linux kernel 1.1.59. Then I upgraded to Slackware 3.0, which used kernel 1.2.13, and then eventually hopped over to Red Hat and then Debian. Indeed, good times (except for rpm in Red Hat)!
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Slackware and its 14 floppies were my first foray into Linux.
Same here.. In 1994, I was working for a company that decided they wanted a prescence on the
new-fangled internet. Since we were a Novell shop, some of the other tech guys wanted to buy a high end 486DX2 or one of the very new 5 volt Pentiums, slap Novell Netware 3.11 on it and install the pricey ($400) httpd nlm, I pointed out to the suits that going that route would be about $1500 MORE in software cost than my suggestion of using this new Linux I'd been evaluating. I slapped together one of our "white-box"
Re:You never forget your first (Score:4, Informative)
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Slackware and its 14 floppies were my first foray into Linux.
Mine as well, though I only experimented with this system. I did not ditch Windows for Linux until 1998 and I believe I was using Mandrake at that time. Experimented with Debian and Red Hat also (I owned a box set of the latter). Moved to Gentoo a few years later and still running that today on 3 of our 5 home systems, including mine.
At the office we maintain and support a product that depends on CentOS 7 (because hardcoded filenames and
What is Slackware's identity these days? (Score:2)
I loved it when I first used it, version 8. Learned a lot about Linux and it was amazing compared to Red Hat, Debian and early Gentoo.
At some point it tried to compete with Ubuntu, and required a full install (when I always opted for a minimal installation before without issues), and even samba to be installed just to get mplayer to run.
At that point Arch had clearly replaced it.
What is Slackware these days, or what is it trying to be?
Re:What is Slackware's identity these days? (Score:4, Insightful)
What is Slackware these days, or what is it trying to be?
To me the most UN*X like Distro, which I think it succeeds at :)
But one major advantage of Slackware is you do not need an internet connection to install and get a useful system. Just about everything is included with it, an office system, even COBOL and FORTRAN :) The only development item not included is Oracle Java because its license.
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To me the most UN*X like Distro, which I think it succeeds at :)
Oh, I have to disagree. It used to be, but doing stuff like making mplayer dependent on samba took it far away from that claim IMO.
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Some folks are going to want to play files streamed by Windows machines.
If you're building your own system Gentoo-style you can do things like set USE flags to compile mplayer with or without Samba support. I tend to dislike optional dependencies I'm pretty sure I won't need, so mine is set accordingly.
But if you're making a distribution for other people, you can't necessarily anticipate every possible use case, so typically you'll add all the potential dependencies that you think might be useful. You get
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Gentoo sometimes feels to me a little like early Slackware, but Gentoo is a meta-distribution, from which you build your system the way you like, and I think I built it this way because Slackware was my first, and you never forget your first. :)
I like mine UNIX-y. I like to have some understanding of what is going on under the covers, in case something goes wrong. I do not like systemd (I'm a software developer by trade). I do like the idea of Wayland but I'm not sure it's quite ready for some of my us
I remember how I got my first CDs (Score:3)
Back when downloading was out of the question due to modem speeds, I got my first Slackware CDs from an internet buddy in China.
Happy Birthday, Slackware! And thankyou, Patrick and the community!!!
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My first real work with Slackware was as a backup to the sysadmin who ran our internet business, a POP at the end of a T-1. When it went bad, and it did thanks to the script kiddies in Atlanta, I drove down, opened up the space, popped a diskette in, and rebooted. From there a few prompts and we were downloading and compiling a new kernel and all. Doing that over a 56k line would have made me into a serial killer.
I got my way early on to set it up with a data volume, back then a whole drive, which saved is
My first Linux (Score:2)
Another "it was my first" post. (Score:2)
Back in 1994, I was working for an EDA startup. The software we were developing was going to be built for "real" UNIX systems like Solaris, but because it would take several weeks to get Sun workstations in, we installed Slackware from floppies onto a few PCs and started our development work on them.
I loved Linux so much I installed it on my own PC (which had been running MS-DOS until then) and have never looked back. I did a bunch of distro-hopping but settled on Debian about 15 years ago and have stuc
Thanks, Dad (Score:1)
I cut my Linux teeth on Slackware 96 (thanks, Dad), and haven't looked back.
Nowadays, I'm much more lazy (Linux Mint), but Slack taught me how to use a FREE and more stable OS than Windoze at the time.
CLI skills are still handy.