Hey everyone! About Slack....
 

As a returning Linux user I'm looking to get back into it! First a little background. I was using Slack Linux from its inception in 1993 until about 12 years ago when I switched to Gentoo, kinda lost interest in Linux due to burnout and moved to Windows permanently. My interest in Linux peaked again recently due to the nature of my work. Does anybody know if Slack is still going strong these days, or is it nearing the end of it's life cycle? Back in the day it used to be huge with a superbly active community. It was the in-thing. I understand there are a lot more distros out there these days, so would I do well to go for one of the popular distros or should I stick to Slack? Nostalgia tells me to come back to Slack but if there's much better distros out there I'm all ears. Cheers!

Welcome to the forums and welcome back to Linux. Slackware is alive and well.

Slack is actually in beta 14.2 Beta 2 right now 14.1 current

Trust me man, you don't want to return to Slack nowadays, it's practically a relic of the past. There are plenty of more customizable and user-friendly distros out there, it's not like the 90's when Slack was pretty much the only real game in town. Arch, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE etc are all better than Slack. Rather than being stuck in the past I suggest you move forward with the better distros out there. To directly answer your question yes Slack is still around but with a dwindling userbase and slow development it's going the way of the dino soon.

no distro bashing allowed

Slack works just fine for them that know how to work it.

wininux is the problem

You kids get off my lawn!

Slackware is alive, well, thriving and the only game in town with uninterrupted continuity of development philosophy from its solid origins. I use Slackware personally and professionally and can't recommend any other!

But I do wonder what is with the recent wave of drive-by insults to Slackware and its user base, and attacks directed at its philosophy of stability and continuity, by "new" members (aka one-post anonymous cowards)...? Taken together they look like more like jealous, juvenile name-calling by playground bullies who can't have their way as the only way.

If you have something useful to contribute please do so. But then again, if you did you would probably not have signed up and used your first post only to hurl insults at the Slackware community.

** (Even weird-dave seems to manage a positive comment in his own, obscure, repetitive and very strange way... ;) )

Sorry to those who got their panties in a twist, but I call it as I see it. Slack was a great distro, but over time better distros have gradually replaced it. IMO it's hardly worth it anymore. A lot of equally or more customizable distros with greater user-friendliness out there.

No twisted panties, I just sensed the strong odor of troll in the room.

(*) An intro used by snake oil salesmen and political hacks, why should anyone trust you?
(**) All statements that denigrate Slackware - but nothing to support them... at all... just, "Trust me".

If you think other distros are better then good for you - please provide something useful to the OP to substantiate your perspective, something other than "Slackware bad, others good, grunt...".

As it is all you have done is repeated a few common and tiring buzzwords and cliches, tried a jedi mind trick, urinated in the Slackware pool, stepped back and grinned...

I still smell troll and will refrain from feeding it further. Prove me wrong, please.

@astrogeek: I have to admit that I'm not impressed by your reaction to someone who holds a differing view to yours.

All you needed to ask was "Do you have anything to substantiate your claims?" or "In what way do you think those other distros are better than Slack?", or just ignore it altogether, rather than go for the ad hominem attacks.

I hope you don't mind me saying.

it's called hitting a nerve :D

Eh?

I'm surprised to hear this. Could you please explain to slackertotheend (and me) how the other distros are more customizable?

At the risk of starting a flame war. You pretty much show your ignorance. You have no Idea the amount of people that use slackware as a commercial product. With all do respect. You are throwing stones in a glass house. Problem is you have no reason to.
The question was about slackware. Slackware is and always will be a bleeding edge distro. With stability as the main factor.
If you have no clue what the GNU is please learn what it is. OK. Under the hood of slackware is only the elite programs that have made it to the elite of all distro's. If you had any idea of the world wide mirrors and the people behind the scene keep quit for a reason they are the linux movement and when Slackware speaks people listen. In the beginning there was Slackware and it was good.

Slackware is probably still very much as you remember it. Slackware has some strong points, change is not one of them. But it's still here, still very useable, although I certainly agree there are other distros easier to use. Slackware is what it is.;)

Package management has gotten a lot better, with slackpkgplus and sbotools being available now.

Oh you know, there's more GUI buttons to click, rather than having to edit those pesky text files. ;)

Fairly typical year 10 behaviour. It's annoying, I come here to get a break from work...

it seems that just injecting a little bit of negativity into Slackwares' blood stream really gets them white blood cells activated. :D

who really took control of the other peoples emotions?

There is a difference between comments on a negative experience, and gratuitous, unsupported, buzzword stuffed, broad-brushed, trolling rants.

I have re-read this thread thinking that maybe I had mischaracterized the post I responded to, we all do it at times. But I see nothing to change my initial reaction, yet. Perhaps that poster will reply with some clarification that stands on something other than trusting them and unsubstantiated aspersions to old, relic, stuck in the past, dwindling, dino, etc., etc.

As I said in my first post, please prove that to be wrong.

I support Slackware just do not use it anymore. But he is probably is off in a corner somewhere snickering. Don't let him get to you, it is an uneducated remark. Chances are he cannot grasp the Slackware way and clearly does not have any understanding of how to do anything in Slackware, or what Slackware is capable of so he decided to go an easier route and turn to more of a wininux distribution, or doesn't even have a full understanding of Linux all together even and is still using Windows 3.1. :D

Slackware is far from being out dated.

I don't want to wind this up, but my key feeling was that responding to the OP in that way after one post was off. If he/she had shown over a period, and with several posts, that they had an agenda, then possibly it could warrant more gusto in opposing their view. Possibly.

But consider the possibility that this person was in fact sincere, for whatever reason. A great introduction that must have been for them to Linux Questions, to a forum where we should be able to voice our opinions, *no matter our opinion*, preferably of course being able to back up and justify those opinions. :)

People should not be scared to express their views, and reactions like the one you had are not conducive to an environment in which people express themselves freely. If I were the OP, there is no way I would come back on here to try and justify my opinions after a response like that, and that's not good.

Just my opinion of course.

More ad-hominem attacks with no proof that the OP is any of these things.

Anyone would think we were living in Salem. ;)

I thought that the more pointed responses were to linuxquestionnaire, not to the OP?

Yes, my fault. By OP, I meant the guy to whom the responses had been directed, not the starter of the thread.

I thought those were appropriate responses to what the guy actually wrote.

Fair enough. :) I don't.

yeah that dude that dis'ed Slackware ,, don't make me have to go back and look ;)

the OP is that was "I use to use Slackware" and wondered if it was still around.

I didn't think I'd be laughing at anything on this thread, but you just gave me a good chuckle. Cheers. :)

Cheers :hattip:

we really need to update LQ with more Emoicons

I am sorry if my own comments were the source of unquiet in LQ land, as seems to be the case. I did not intend to spark the discussion which has followed. I also do not want to prolong it, so will offer these as my final thoughts in answer to the OPs question.

First, as I previously said, Slackware is alive and well, with a solid user base, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding! Whether it is the right Linux for your uses is another question entirely, and the one that you are really interested in, of course.

In my own well considered opinion, Slackware is now the only clear path forward for a Unix-like Linux, if that is important to you.

There are other Linuxes, and most still make use of the wonderful GNU applications, but in my opinion we are well into one of those important forks in the path from which we will rapidly diverge in different directions. This involves much more than choice of init system or GUI preference.

It is a choice between mutually exclusive philosophies with different objectives.

I think that much of the tension you may find in evidence, such as in this thread, is a result of not recognizing that we are on those different paths, but finding it increasingly uncomfortable to pretend that we are on the same path! Linux has always been about choice, but the choices now go much deeper than boot splash and desktop theme!

Slackware is, as it has always been, the torch-bearer for Unix-like Linux. As such, its path remains straight and true, thanks to the vision and dedication of Patrick Volkerding! For Slackware users that translates into stability, continuity, confidence, usability, security and reasonable immunity to disruptions from the outside.

To those on another path who cannot now see back beyond the fork in the other direction, it looks like the past, not on their forward path, something left behind. But all they can see is the fork itself, not the steady progress of Slackware itself beyond the fork.

That does not mean relic, old, abandoned - anything but! Slackware is a trail-blazer on its chosen path.

It does not mean one is better and the other is less so. It means that there are now important differences, of which Slackware represents an important variant, and that it is increasingly important for you to decide which variant is best for you.

For example, Apple is built on a BSD Unix, but Apple users for the most part are not aware of what that means and do not use Apple products for their "Unix-ness". They like the Apple applications built on top of it all. On the other hand, for those for whom Unix-ness is the desired end, Apple products are less useful because the Unix-ness itself is not really very accessible.

When Linus released Linux, together with the GNU applications, the value on offer was specifically a FREE-as-in-freedom Unix-like operating system for the PC. That was important stuff! Few people today even know what Unix-like means, and when comparing Linux distros are really comparing the applications assembled above the Unix-ness. When they look at Slackware they think, "How 90's is this?", but they no longer see the value on offer.

But for those who want access to the value of all that Unix-y goodness, Slackware is as valuable and as durable as diamonds and gold! Other distros are no longer of great interest to them, at least for the same purposes. It is no longer a choice of distro, but a choice of intended use which differentiates among distros.

Thanks for the responses to everyone who contributed! I'll likely return to Slack after reading all of the responses here.

I've toured a lot of distros.

AFAIC, Slackware is still the bee's knees and the cat's meow. It is the distro of iron that just works.

It may not be all shiny and glitzy (actually, my Slackware is quite shiny and glitzy--I do likes me my eye candy), but it's pure undistilled Linux that does the behest of its root user.

That's talking man! :hattip:

I use Slackware on PCs and laptops. I have tried many distros but I haven't seen anything this stable. Of course, sometimes when you have a very new hardware, certain things might not be working well out of the box. But it is very easy to mend and repair and install new drivers. Slackware has aged very well. It has kept true to its philosophy and is the more Unix-like distro I have seen.

With time, there has been many people developing tools to aid Slackers, e.g. package managers. So, I will always strongly recommend Slackware as it gives you a true Linux experience and lets you know and control your machine better. :study:

So, long live Slackware. :)