I've often considered getting into a sort of Doomsday prepping and have considered that eventually, since nobody has really considered this as I have watched many preppers getting things in order for the eventual meltdown of society-at-large, some level of technology should be preserved and protected.

One such project I would like to find a way to invest some time in is a way to acquire some sort of PC or Laptop device which could be stored in a secured vault that would contain a yearly updated copy of a modern Slackware installation complete with Source Files along with, if possible, a complete copy of the SlackBuilds projects with sources.

Because GNU/Linux is open source and Slackware is maintained with such care (Thanks Patrick!) it would be a proper choice to possibly find a way to preserve Slackware and a working distribution no more than 1 year in age (possibly the latest version) or the -Current tree release so that should the unforeseen happen, that a group can basically preserve GNU/Linux for future generations, keep development going, and basically keep society with some level of technological contributions.

But just to ask also, what other operating systems would you consider for preservation alongside a copy of GNU/Linux (Slackware)?

Personally, I would like to see the following preserved and protected:

FreeBSD (with ports and complete source archive)
OpenIndiana
ReactOS
FreeDOS

...to mention others which could be saved as well.

What do you think?

Edit:

List added from topic contributors and reason given (if any):

Plan 9 (YellowApple)
NetBSD (TobiSGD) - "NetBSD runs on anything and your toaster."
OpenBSD (hitest) - "Runs on a variety of hardware old and new, is stable as heck, and secure."

In a doomsday scenario such as this, I hope having multiple vaults is a given; else, we'd be rather unlucky if our Slackware vault happens to be the one hit in the 2077 nuclear exchange

On that note, perhaps it would be worthwhile to have some of the direct-from-Pat CD/DVD sets (including source disks, and perhaps other Slackware-related paraphernalia) stored as well; even if we otherwise have other copies, I imagine there's some historical value in making sure such artifacts are preserved.

EDIT: If we're going to preserve other OSes as well, perhaps we can add Plan 9 to the list?

NetBSD, just for the case that there is a problem with the availability of x86 hardware. NetBSD runs on anything and your toaster.

I'll be running an rsync/ftp site on the pleasure saucers. If you insist on staying behind for doomsday, a nice set of tools and something to make fire with will do you a lot more good.

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Personally, I will chose any gnu/linux over other OS.
You will also need encyclopedia on medical and engineering on durable storage devices, can be easy accessed with hand held device to printing press.
Once you are a prepper, it is never going be enough, don't let people mistake your with hoarders, keep a system, and be organized.

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OpenBSD runs on a variety of hardware old and new, is stable as heck, and secure. It would be a nice addition to the doomsday vault along with Slackware and the other distros you mentioned, ReaperX7.

Actually since a decade Linux runs on more platforms than NetBSD.

The world will not end as long as I have debt. And that's going to be for a loooong time still. You're safe.

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I had a similar thought, with different priorities though:

1. Girlfriend
2. Cave
3. Bear skin
4. Beer
5. Set of tools for girlfriend
6. Something that enables girlfriend to make fire

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Let's live life that we are granted, minimizing our negative impact on environment as much as we can.

Linux runs on more architectures than NetBSD in general, but no distribution supports as many platforms as NetBSD (in 2009 they supported 57 hardware platforms on 15 different processor architectures, not even Debian supports so many).

Debian has a huge software repo, so I would keep the disks in case I need something I didn't think of before. It also runs on many architectures.

To be honest, I don't think a vault is enough, you need a vault hidden somewhere safe where nobody knows. Doomsday can take many forms after all. For example in Communist China they destroyed all that was old. They showed on a documentary that there was a bow maker who broke his bow and threw it in the stack firewood. He said if they had found the bow, his whole family would have been executed. Luckily they didn't and he later rebuilt the broken bow and continues to make traditional bows today.

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7. Something that enables girlfriend to make beer
8. Something that enables girlfriend to get bear skin
9. Bicycle for girlfriend rigged up to drive 12 volt alternator and battery for 12 volt refrigerator to keep beer cold.

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1: Weapons to enable me to kidnap other peoples girlfriends (I notice nobody's mentioned their wives) and steal their beer.
2: Photos of Oldham, to remind me that post-Doomsday Earth isn't all that bad in comparison.

One area where girlfriend technology has been lagging far behind linux technology is all the SMP and multi-threading stuff.

It would be great to have a pool of girlfriends hunting the bear, running the 12V generator and serving the beer in parallel with spare capacity for emergencies. Yet seamless girlfriend parallelism is amazingly difficult to achieve.

For the benefit of the (not many) girls following this thread, please just s/girlfriend/boyfriend/g in the whole thread. Post-doomsday, it would probably work even better.

Afterall, in nature, who ever heard about 'king bee'? whereas 'queen bee' has been a successful pattern...

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