Slackware 12.1 RC2 [LWN.net]

Slackware 12.1 RC2

Posted Apr 24, 2008 9:40 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648)
Parent article: Slackware 12.1 RC2

Darn... I just finished installing 12.1 RC1 on my laptop the other day. Or, maybe that was a snapshot of "-current". With Slackware, these tend to blur together near release date.

I get the impression that Slackware is dying a slow, quiet death: In 1995 Slackware commanded 90% of the installed Linux base, but now it seems to be a fading blip on the distro radar (Ranked 14th at distrowatch.com).

This worries me--I don't think I've been happier using Linux ever since a friend gave me a set of Slackware 10.0 discs almost four years ago--but I wonder if the number of Slack users (and derivative distros) will keep steady for the foreseeable future and drive demand for continued development and support for new releases.

One thing's certain: Slackware is perhaps the most non-commercial Linux distro I've encountered, and the user base is a staunchly-devoted group of "Slackers" (Count me in that group!).

Thanks in advance to the Slackware development team for the impending release of 12.1.

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Slackware 12.1 RC2

Posted Apr 24, 2008 12:11 UTC (Thu) by notamisfit (subscriber, #40886) [Link]

I don't think that Slackware is in danger of dying anytime soon. It's got the lowest overhead
of any of the top tier Linux distributions, and users who by and large are willing to show
their appreciation financially.

Come to think of it...

Posted Apr 24, 2008 13:01 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]

Come to think of it, I did purchase a bunch of those $1.00 Donations to the Slackware Project¹. And the 2nd edition of the book. And a T-shirt. And I'll likely buy some more Slack merchandise and/or donations right around the time of the 12.1 release.

I can only imagine Slackware's low overhead is due to a comparative lack of advertising--the only Slack ads I can think of are on slackware.com. Unless you want to count me sporting that T-shirt as advertising. Word-of-mouth seems pretty much it otherwise, plus whatever blurbs our editors write about Slackware here at LWN.

¹ Disclaimer: The link is provided for reference. I am not employed by Slackware, nor will I receive any compensation for having posted that URL.

Slackware 12.1 RC2

Posted Apr 25, 2008 0:50 UTC (Fri) by kirkengaard (subscriber, #15022) [Link]

Yeah, it really depends on your idea of death. It's a going concern, just like a wide variety
of Free Software projects. In point of fact, it's gotten more robust recently (i.e. in the
last two release cycles), because the community stepped in when Pat needed help, and this last
release especially has benefited from not being a Patrick-only labor. We now have updated
booting/install options, we've entered 2.6 finally, grub works, and there's a good set of
package repositories through linuxpackages.net -- this has made packages manageable by
standardizing and making transparent the preferred format in documentation accessible to the
user.

I think it's actually a very good time to be a Slacker.  Our third-party Gnome support is
back, too, through GSB or Dropline.

Slackware 12.1 RC2

Posted Apr 25, 2008 13:47 UTC (Fri) by jmmc (subscriber, #34939) [Link]

I'd take exception to the 'slow death' comment.

I might be off here, like Debian, Gentoo, etc., I sense Slack is more of a 'meta'
distribution. That is, "a distro you (can) use to make other distros". Aside from being the
'most UNIX/BSD-like' GNU/Linux (which I still believe holds true), I find Slack to be the most
'kernel-like' distro in terms in development. In that light, I think Slackware has a value
which will be desired for quite a while to come. We will always need "baseline" distros like
Slack, Debian, et al. within the community to act as building blocks.

Kernel: has fearless, public, benevolent leader who maintains direction
Slackware: "ditto".

I've used Slack for 12 years and currently run 12.0 on a Dell D600 (all hardware working out
of the box, no tweaking). And, rather than Linuxpackages, I tend towards Slackbuilds. But I
must say, I almost never have an issue with the manner which Patrick or the Slack team build
the kernels, libs and packages, it's nearly always 'the right choice' (well, for me) when it
comes to the compile options on the binaries.

Also, I like that Slack is very 'Vanilla': that is packages and kernels use all vanilla
sources (also think this is true). No unique tweaks/patches to kernel sources other than
standard, known security patches. I might be wrong, but I think Slack did deviate from '100%
free' at some point (with some wireless and codec libs - please correct me if i'm off on that
one), but generally, I find Slack to be the best 'test' platform for new/trial software that
I'm working with. Custom compilations work on Slackware that I can not get working on any
other distro, which why I'm never without a working Slack install nearby, work or home. Slack
is like that reliable friend you can always go back to when all else fails ;)

Slackware 12.1 RC2

Posted Apr 26, 2008 1:36 UTC (Sat) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]

I'd take exception to the 'slow death' comment.

I was hoping somebody might. And I'm the OP!

I personally enjoy using Slackware for the same reasons you do. Especially the "Vanilla" reason. Slackware pretty much lets me manage my computers the way I want. I have experienced a number of other distros, and once I tried Slackware¹ there was no turning back.

I'm glad others don't necessarily see Slackware as "dying a slow death", and I thank the above posters for presenting a different perspective of Slackware's status.

¹ Ironically, the friend who turned me on to Slackware jumped over to Gentoo several months later. Of course, Gentoo has even more of the do-it-yourself philosophy than Slackware, and it was just becoming big around then.