Hi Everyone
I don't know how to say this without getting flamed. I am pretty miserable about the direction of a lot of things, including software.

I am about to install Slackware 14.1, which is 10 years old to my primary machine.

I know this is unsafe but if I run a current versions of firefox and thunderbird, will I be able to mitigate most of the risks of running such an old distro? What are other common problems I might run into?

Thanks for reading-Patrick

The primary hints that I can come up with are to carefully configure the firewall and run a current AV program. And don't click on dodgy links.

I'm curious to know what your beefs "the direction . . . of software" are, but that might best be the subject of a thread of its own.

1 members found this post helpful.

Are you sure you're going to be able to do that?

1 members found this post helpful.

dugan++
That's very relevant qn...

@OP : In any case that's not going to solve the problem of running a system full of security holes ....

1 members found this post helpful.

I'd suggest a modern 'live' distro for the internet use, whilst you could use anything at home that isn't used online.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,

I'm curious as to why you chose 14.1 instead of 14.2. At least Slackware 14.2
is getting updates. I would also suggest that if you want to try Slackware then choose Liveslak to test drive it and it is a Slackware 15.0 version. How old is the hardware you are installing too?
Hope this helps.

1 members found this post helpful.

Wow! I am so surprised and grateful to wake up to all these helpful posts.

@frankbell, thanks. I just have a basic router setup, I will look into a full firewall.

I don't want to upset people but my basic beefs are the common ones like systemd, GTK3(now 4)turning my desktop into a cellphone etc.

The real breaking point for me is the Ada language. I have used Linux as my primary OS since 2004, got into Ada around 2012. back then Ada was about 400k SLOC in gcc. Now it is almost 845K. I hardly need any features beyond Ada 83 so even the 400K was too much. Worse yet that 845K is now a tiny fraction of gcc which is 6.65M SLOC.

Carpentry can be creative because you can comprehend it. How can anyone be creative with today's huge software. it is like handing a artist a colouring book. Yes it can be easier but you can't paint outside the lines. I want to learn more assembly and I want to program on bare metal.

I want to remove as many OS dependencies from ada gnat as I can, to work towards a baremetal build. I am having trouble building 12.1 on Trisquel, let alone altering it. I have already given up on it. with --enable-languages=c,ada it still builds c++ anyways and the compiling goes on and on.

@dugan

No, actually I am not sure if I can run firefox and thunderbird on an old slack system. They have few dependencies but they do have some. I will give it a try on an old disk before wiping out the newer one.

@fatmac
This is doable. I set up Fedora for my son. His computer is right next to mine but I do have a small business to run and I need to check emails every 10 minutes or so.

@onebuck

It does help thanks

I just picked 14.1 out of thin air as 2013 was a time in my life were I was happier with Linux. 14.2 makes a lot more sense.

My machine was new in 2013.

If you're doing this to get a specific gcc build, then one option is to install 14.1 in a Docker.

1 members found this post helpful.

@dugan
it is more than just gcc but maybe I should have a look at this too. thanks

Hello this is Gulshan negi
Well, If you proceed with Slackware 14.1, take extra security precautions, keep your Firefox and Thunderbird installations up to date, and practice safe browsing habits. However, it is advised to consider upgrading to a newer version of Slackware or another modern Linux distribution to benefit from improved security, compatibility, support, and software availability.
Thanks

Since Slackware-14.1 there have been loads of pretty catastrophic exploits: log4j; bash; wpa_supplicant; several kernel things; new variants on spectre. and they're only the ones off the top of my head. My advice would be to keep the old machine off the internet.

Well, the old CPUs have fewer vulnerabilities, at least that is what I found out from my 5 AMD machines and the kernel sources.
So the internet can go take a stroll or whatever.

The oldest laptop here, has no camera (try finding this in stores today ), less than 1G ram, weak CPU (the weaker the better), and it's on the internet (behind a proper firewall) most of the time.
32bit Slack installed on it, no issue whatsoever. I'd sooner get rid of the internet, than get rid of this machine.

Additionally, modern malware's : 64bit (unaffected on 32bit), focuses on data mining (unaffected, no data), bitcoin mining (unaffected, no supported CPU or GPU), ransom (unaffected, no data).
EFI exploits? Unaffected. Weak WIFI encryption, who cares - use the cable.
So this 'keep old machines off the internet' is basically MS propaganda and by spreading it you're just fueling their profit driven development.
And who cares what MS says, they only want you to upgrade working old hardware to crippled new hardware, recycle your old hardware then cripple it and sell it back to you.