That is true. It is hard to know what their mindset was. But if I am trying to figure out if a project is dead, I first check the normal methods to see if there's a new release. That is easily verified that there's been no new releases. I next see if there's a forum. That's obviously available. If there is a forum, I'll go see what the posts on the forum are talking about and the level of activity on that forum. If it has posts on the first page that haven't had a reply in over a year, I'll start looking more closely to see if the forum is very active. Then I'll check and see what the posts talk about.

If anyone takes 1 minute of their time to look at the posts on the first page of this subforum, it is painfully obvious that the community isn't dead, so there's a good chance Slackware isn't dead either.

Especially when they check the stickied posts, and see the "Requests for -current (14.2-->15.0)" thread that has over 4000 posts and was posted to yesterday. There's obviously development going, so if people are willing to take the time to create a post (assuming they're already registered, if they registered new, that takes even more effort), they likely already realize there is development and it isn't dead. If the post was more along the lines of, "It's been forever since we've had a release, are there any plans to finalize -current and release 15.0?" then it would show they've actually done a minimal amount of research. Personally, creating a thread on a forum is usually the last resort after I've done what research I can.

So, in my book, if someone asks if Slackware is dead in the obviously active Slackware forum, they're trolling.

13 members found this post helpful.

I'd have to agree with your thought process on how to check out a distribution's status, @bassmadrigal. I've done it many times just as you describe. As far as the OP goes, well... we've either scared him/her away with our replies or he/she may have been trolling. Who knows? If the OP ever posts again, he/she can explain then.

Regards,

~Eric

I agree with the sentiment but the perspective is from an experienced computer user.

Considering the original question, the OP is correct the last (official) release was 2016. As a noob, wondering whether Slackware is alive is a reasonable question.

I have no idea who the OP might be, but the post could have been from the heart, especially if the person is a noob to the entire distro concept and was simply curious about Slackware as a distro option.

I participated in this thread with tribal mockery. I'm guilty of not giving the OP the benefit of the doubt.

1 members found this post helpful.

Well guys however we speculate on the Ops mindset, with regards to his/her question, they certainly got their answer. Slackware is not only alive but loved and defended passionately.

3 members found this post helpful.

I'm glad that I finally got to experience a low level troll post by the legendary ivandi. I'm one of the "not so careful ones" who observe slackware as alive. But that post is pure gold, expertly crafted, and genuinely made me laugh

Hahaha! Hard to take comments like this seriously.

The recent [and historical] user activity in this forum should have answered your question while it was still in your head. No need to waste more time typing it out and clicking submit.

Can't agree more, it is "obvious" it is a troll, although I do not understand this type of meaningless trolling.

1 members found this post helpful.

This thread reminds me of an old Microsoft calumny that was active around the turn of the century. At that time there was a distro (I can't remember which one but it might have been Mandrake) which was well known for having a long release cycle. Based on their release stats, MS claimed that Linux in general was permanently out of date. In those days MS issued service files (the equivalent of a point release) when they had saved up enough bug fixes to justify one economically. Windows users had no idea that in Linux you could get updates to individual programs within a week of a serious bug being found.

7 members found this post helpful.

Damn! Now doesn't that just make me feel old.

@vtel57, tell me about it. I remember the Hallowe'en documents from the century prior.

1 members found this post helpful.

No, it's just a throw-a-way account from someone who didn't want to risk bad reps on his "real" account.

Attention and lulz. He knows Slackware has a lot of fanboys, so he comes in and makes an easy bash, and the thread goes on for XX number of pages. You'd think the internet would have caught on to this behavior by now.

2 members found this post helpful.

As my grandfather used to always say - "I'd rather owe it to you than cheat you out of it." :-)

A little regex help here... s/fanboys/users/g

FTFY :-)

1 members found this post helpful.

Remember the outrage over the version # bump for 7? Those were exciting times.

1 members found this post helpful.

Troll