I disagree! Slackware would of course be vanilla cake... just like the packages

Once chocolate is in a cake, you can't remove it, but you can certainly add chocolate to the cake if you prefer that.

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All you need is a gas mark 4 build environment.

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Slackware was my gateway into the Linux world in 2005, when 10.2 had just come out. I downloaded and burned all of the 6 discs (although I later learned that two would've sufficed) on a very slow connection and I did a pretty good job installing it. KDE 3.5 was awesome--I still have Slackware 10.2 in a virtual machine that I power up sometimes for old times' sake.

Then I moved away from Linux on the desktop and for the past 10 years or so I've only been running it on servers and virtual machines. I find Ubuntu quite good as a server OS.

Fast-forward to 2015: Windows 10 came out. At first, I was impressed by how fast they were changing (and breaking) it. Once the shininess wore off, updates and constant reboots quickly became a nightmare. Windows 10 now does all sorts of weird maintenance shit on its own and pesters you to reboot after almost every update. Not to mention that it actually booted the computer on its own to update.

Enough is enough. About three months ago I realized that I want an OS that respects my wishes and power, one that's not up to shady shit at the worst possible moments. One that I and I alone decide when to update. So, once more, Slackware has found its way on my desktop.

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I had Windows 10 in a VM. It was a similar story: constant updates, made worse by the fact that I didn't boot it that often, so it was literally always trying to update. I finally had enough when the update process simply failed, and I could no longer keep it updated even if I wanted to. I realized I could do all that I needed (specifically, compiling stuff for Windows) with Wine, and better too. Good riddance!

Double post. Blame the forum or my connection.

It's only as obsolete as you let it become?

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Hmm Drakeo could you unpack that statement a little bit? I run 14.2 on all my machines and I see no major issues as long as they're kept updated [I choose to update the kernels at my leisure {currently running 4.4.153 on all}, though the packages I update within hours or days of availability]. I'm open to the idea that there may be issues for other users, though I have experienced none myself.

Windows 10 updating process really pisses me off. The only reason I have a Windows 10 machine is because of my school. There are certain things that only work with Windows (and they have checks to make sure it's not a VM or WINE), and the laptop I got came with 10. Luckily, my school also provides me the Education Edition for free (basically the Enterprise Edition but you're not supposed to use it to make money), so I was able to use group policies to completely disable the update process. It's not what I prefer for security, but for my sanity, I couldn't stick with it constantly rebooting my computer when it was the most inconvenient. I now update it when I decide to (which is definitely not as often as I should).

I'll be happy once I finish this degree so I can move this laptop to Slackware and be a Windows free house again.

For many program versions, it's not a big deal if you're a few versions behind, but 14.2 is quite behind the times with modern hardware support. It doesn't have proper support for NVMe drives, which are becoming more and more common. There's also a lot of hardware that isn't supported on the 4.4 kernel, including all the Ryzen chips and many of the newer Intel processors. Even -current doesn't benefit from the massive AMD graphics improvements in the 4.15 kernel and the additions in newer kernels since they're sticking with the LTS, which is currently the 4.14 kernel. Hopefully the kernel developers mark the 4.19 as LTS and Pat switches to it before 15.0 comes out so that we have the latest updates for AMD GPUs.

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It is a tool. still have 1337 for an old project. build some tools to do things and throw them away when not needed

Haven't used anything else since 8.1. I like that Slack dodged the Systemd bullet. Everything just works. Even though Slack doesn't come with Enlightenment, installing it is no big deal. With rpm2tgz, installing whatever I like isn't a big problem.

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that image


or better handled by an a Slackbuild?

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Ok, could you explain the NVMe part? I have an NVMe on my Slackware laptop. I have however updated to 4.18 kernel. Not sure if that will make a difference though, but I had no issues with my 4.4 kernel either.

I mean with what I said, can you not keep things updated yourself?

The 14.2 installer does not support installing directly to an NVMe drive and having it set as the boot drive. This means if you want your NVMe to be your primary drive, you need to jump through hoops and do some mismatching of things with -current to get it to work.

I have no problems getting it working and have detailed steps on how to install Slackware to an NVMe device, but it still isn't the easiest thing to do, and there's a lot of other updating one would need to do to ensure their hardware is well supported (I've mainly updated the kernel for support, but some would need to update mesa and required libraries for proper support of their hardware).

OK, I didn’t really leave Slackware, but I did remove it from one computer, once I verified it was working on another, newer computer. And I’m not using it for everything I used to, but then I use it more for other things, so really just adjusting what I use each OS for.

About Slackware 14.2 vs Win10 for hardware and updates, this home and work user’s experience: I use the Win10 that came on my home computer mostly... to update Win10. Once or twice a year I actually need Win10, but doing updates only twice yearly would make painful Win10 updates unbearable. And I worry that too long between updates might bork it or render Win10 not updatable. Who knows what nonsense MS will get up to - you can find all sorts of Win10 updating problem/borking examples. A home user (home version, not enterprise or education editions) also has settings to choose when to allow Win10 updates (metered connection, active hours) but eventually you have to. My compromise is to update every couple of months, a week or two after MS’s monthly patch Tuesday, to let the most serious MS update screwups get resolved first. Updating on that rhythm is still an ordeal, with updates that sometimes hang, some needing manual restart (and not always telling you that), several automatic reboots. And sometimes even after the update message shows up to date, I’ve checked and there have still been updates pending, so then I need to try force the remaining update(s). It’s a mess. (Work Win10 computer is used daily, and keeping up to date is somebody else’s problem, but I still get stuck trying to leave the office with a “Don’t turn off your computer” running.)

Slackware 14.2 has updates often, but they’re quick using slackpkg upgrade-all and happen when I choose (only occasionally do I still go fully manual updates).

No Slackware 14.2 update has ever broken anything for me. (14.2 is the only version I’ve user used - just started Linux two years ago after a massive Win10 problem, and Slackware around a year and a half ago.) The only update problem I’ve had was my mistake, once upgrading huge kernel with generic, and was easily fixed.

3rd party software, a few from Slackbuilds and Alien Bob, right now takes me a bit longer to update, but once I get around to installing a tool to automate some of notifications and updates, I expect that to decrease.

I didn’t know that about the hardware support issues. Thanks for that info. I haven’t run into any problems with 14.2 hardware support, but my needs are simple and I’ve never had the latest hardware. My main computer is a year old, but the model line is a few years old. I think my main printer model line is newer. Someday I might buy something newer and flashier, so a good reminder to pay attention to hardware support when shopping.

TKS

Bassmadrigal. Thanks for the info. I'll continue on there if I have anything more to add about NVMe.