What connection does slackware have with the sometimes regrettable episodes of unix history?

That's what I was wondering.

Linux (and Slackware, and all the others) wouldn't exist if BSD hadn't waffled for so long in the early '90s. That's the only connection I can think of...

you obviously underestimating BSD here.

Hi,

Apparently you have never used UNIX or Slackware!

UNIX does not have a poor history nor regrettable in any fashion. Slackware is the oldest continued Gnu/Linux today. Look at how many derivatives have formed from Slackware; http://futurist.se/gldt/wp-content/u...0/gldt1110.png

BTW, It is spelled UNIX not unix.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

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I have used linux since 96 and slackware since 13.37 and currently have two slackware -current installs.

As far as unix history, i was referring to things like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO/Linux_controversies
as well as some of the intellectual and philosophical disagreements that led to the gnu development. I dont beleive that i ever said unix had a poor history, i dont really know where you got that. Pardon my lack of appropriate caps, i guess you will have to live with it.

I guess you could argue that without gnu there would be no slackware, but you could say that for any linux distro.
I was just wondering why the original poster of the remark i replied to singled out slackware.

And i actually do have some unix experience, bsd in a virtual box and iirc in the 80's i worked for a non - profit that used unix (HPUX iirc) in its ticketing system.
I recall being fascinated by it, but didnt really get much of a chance to play with it.

???

Linus has stated that if BSD had been unencumbered (in the early '90s) he would have simply used it instead of creating Linux.

Sure, BSD finally got on its feet a few years later, but that's not what I was referring to...

1 members found this post helpful.

Soooo. "What's up Doc?"

What is the Bat Man going to roll with, and how well are the install steps, and updating, and setups working out for you?

On what kind of gear?

Those of us old farts that were working with computer systems from the late 60's might recall the origins of UNIX (at Bell Labs on, if memory serves, a DEC PDP-something [7? 8? 1?, I forget]). Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Doug McIlroy and a host of others: they were creating the tools we all use along with the kernel for dealing with computers that requited complete re-writes of software as every new model came out. UNIX was, pretty much, the first portable operating system that required just enough assembly language on a new platform to get it booted then load the compiler, linker, loader and away you go and when the tape drive stopped spinning you had a working operating system.

AT&T was restricted from offering the system for profit but they could give it away to colleges and universities, one of which was Berkeley (thus the Berkeley Software Distribution) where Bill Joy and other folk (mostly free student labor) fiddled with it, came up with a workable visual editor (vi built on the ex editor). I got may hands on System 3 that ran on a Cromemco microcomputer with Motorola 68K processor and memory manager and every other thing needed (I was a Cromemco VAR at the time). That was just about the time that IBM released their PC on the world.

Richard Stallman, bless him, wanted to build a UNIX look- work alike (GNU is an acronym for GNU's Not UNIX). The tools and utilities you use are all ports of UNIX utilities, not AT&T code, developed from scratch.

Linus developed the Linux kernel because, as a computer science student, he couldn't afford to buy a UNIX license. He published it, free to all, and boom (that's not a lot of detail but it's the core of the story). An brain dead Intel PC with a real multi user multi tasking operating system, wow, zowie.

Berkeley went off in one direction, AT&T went off in another direction, UNIX got all screwed up with SCO mismanaging it (as well as AT&T mismanaging it), I was a happy camper with SVR4, I'm a happier camper with Slackware simply because it is rock solid, dependable and looks and works the most like System V of any of the Linux distributions I've tried (which, being honest, aren't all that many). I've flipped code back and forth between Slackware and Solaris, clean ports in both directions with a couple of settings in Make files. I don't have to deal with branding, constant "updates," or any of the nonsense that too many vendors seem to think are necessary; I value stability and dependability.

Never did like Berkeley very much -- too much bloat, more difficult to administer than SVR4, C-Shell (cripes, what a mess). It is fun to play with but it's just not, for me, an OS of choice; your mileage may vary.

Slackware is not, and I hope it never will be, bleeding edge. There's a reason they call it bleeding edge -- you can get hurt. I don't care about eye candy (I use Xfce), I don't care about dragging my finger around on a screen, don't give a hoot about 3-D games, don't want GUI boot (I like to read the messages just in case there's a problem I need to deal with). I'm really, truly old-fashioned. I keep software up to date, apply patches as they come and my systems just sit there doing what they're supposed to do, running for months without any problems; my two data base servers sit in a closet mumbling to themselves without any interference from me.

We are all the inheritors of the work of some really smart, dedicated, folks with a couple of benevolent dictators thrown in for good measure (Linus comes to mind). There is choice, hundreds of choices, to fit whatever floats your boat.

UNIX is where it came from and who knows where it's going to go.

3 members found this post helpful.

https://www.scientificlinux.org/

Hi,

At what level do you use the installs? GUI or cli? Big difference.
My UNIX experience was at the command level and Slackware does KISS therefore UNIX-Like for the commands and structure. It's like Solaris or SUN user saying they used UNIX but were using a GUI on those systems, big difference. You can develop using scripts to implement a phase for records/files management via the cli which can lead to a high level language if speed is desired. But most times the script will suffice for the environment.

Another corporation wanting to grab work by a blanket statement that portions were derived from propriety code. SCO lost that one, courts found that the code was original and not derived from their not properly licensed code. Linux used semantically & syntactical similar original code that performed from implemented original code.

From this arbitrary implied statement; If you are going use statements then you should present properly, not by poor composition.

Actually Slackware evolved from SLS by PV's desire to have a proper implementation by presenting good code solutions therefore evolving into Slackware and released to the public as per requests. I believe you mean GPL , that GPL initially was the basis of SCO's suit and later IBM's suit for SCO's GPL license infringement; If you read the sites information then GPL was the center of the suits.

Then your UNIX experiences are minimal. Because you worked with a company that utilized UNIX does not mean you actually got into intrinsic work with the OS. No real experience to compare a UNIX with a UNIX-Like OS such as Slackware.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

1 members found this post helpful.

I guess I should have said I'm interested in the version that is closest to the full capability of a UNIX system. or is Linux Just the modern Buzz for the PC based SW.

I'm not a beginner, those of us in HW design stray of into SW from time to time as that's the nature of the beast. My issue is as I advanced in career the SW end became more of a delegated task. At this time, I'm interested in renewing the detail I missed. So I'm interested in the distro that is the most sys guts capable.

as much as much as a founding member of Yee ole flatulent club can guess. Slackware it is, AND, agree. Didn't take me too long to grow wiry of the Berk-o-techs, and the mellons @ Carnegie. We had a job to do out @ Ederds AFB and wasn't interested in Der-Shlick-myster, master of the "advanced" button presses. Of course the folk @ Itty Bitty Machines = IBM weren't much help as they outsmarted themselves with Mil. Std 1750. A veritable pot-pory of "Lets see what this HW/SW register will do.



At any rate thanks to that had input and I'll be on my way, cussing and fussing my way through the afore mentioned logic circuits. Indeed, a lot of very smart people, and all for the fun of it, Right.

Koff, koff... Hopefully, you never encountered Multics. If you had, you'd know exactly where and why "Unix came from."

"In the beginning, Unix was 'nothing much.'" (But, nothing at that time could be called "much!") It was, however, available in open source and it was like nothing else that had come before it. The first user-manuals that described it, and the C language, were both very thin. I still have mine.

I worked for a number of years in the industry doing php web development and administering client linux networks, but i guess the intent of all this is that you want to look smarter than me or that you want to try to win some abstract reputation war or something. Ok, fine Im not playing so you win Happy?
And btw i gave you rep points for every post in this thread. Happy now?

Oh and i just wanted to add that you probably actually ARE smarter than me and im fine with that