Howdy LQ. I switched to linux in 2006, but it wasn't until 2010 that I discovered LQ and Slackware linux, and that is when things began to take off. Here's a list of some of the things I've been able to accomplish with linux.
Installed Slackintosh Linux on PowerPC xserves: before this, Apple had been draining my bank account for things like OS X Server Unlimited Client ("open source made easy" was their slogan), which was really a front end for free software like apache and postscript, and a limited front end that required me to learn what was under the hood anyways or risk being hacked--by the time you then learn to configure apache and turn off things like proxy settings, you no longer need osx to hold your hand. Also documentation on recompiling darwin was more scarce than documentation on recompiling linux kernel. Thus, once I got Slackintosh going on my apple servers, I gained a level of financial freedom!
Since then I've switched to x86_64 for my enterprise needs, because slackintosh support doesn't extend past the 2.* kernels... and I wanted to keep up with slackware.
And even more recently, I've been playing with ARM architecture, and have slackwarearm running on raspberry pi 2,3, and a banana pi.
One of the more unique successes I have, as well as a love / hate relationship, is linux kernel (4.20.0) customized to run on the Google Compute Engine (GCE), as well as a minimum set of slackware64 packages needed to boot and let me connect. After that, I add different packages for different purposes on different hosts. On this Google Compute Engine, running custom minimum-package-Slackware64-14.2 stable, I have instances fulfilling these purposes:
- openvpn: creates encrypted LAN for GCE instances and clients to communicate over!
- sbcl: my steel bank common lisp server that does anything lispy for network, like serving data driven http sites with hunchentoot
- dovecot/postfix: handles the mail for domains I manage
- asterisk: creates phone menus, and handles sip voice/video calls (from one vpn client to another, the voice/video calls are encrypted)
- pound: reverse proxy server that faces the public and forwards approved traffic to the GCE instances...
- mariadb: stores databases for all instances (hunchentoot and asterisk)
- pleroma: a federated social media ActivityPub protocol server
- slacware-dev: contains additional developer tools on which I build packages for the other instances, or compile kernels.
The real addiction in the GCE comes with the ability to turn the slackware-dev instance off, give it 64cpus and 240gbram, or some other custom combination, fire it back up, and compile a kernel or qt5, etc. in just a few minutes! Then I can turn it off and convert it back to 1cpu, and only pay for the extra power for the few minutes I used it, usually just a buck or two.
However, when it comes to humanity, google is lacking (or at least their billing department is): one time, I forgot to downgrade, and left my 64cpu/240gb ram running--they disconnected my instance once the bill was over $2000!... my mistake--but the billing department was unwilling to break it up into smaller payments or anything humane like that... GCE is big guns, and you can get hacked or shoot yourself in the foot with it--be careful. It will be your fault, and you'll have to pay to keep your services going. Nevertheless, configured properly, all these services are running at lightning speeds.
My current goal is to duplicate this GCE-stack on a home arm stack, since arm hardware is affordable and power efficient.
I am also building custom arm devices that connect to this cloud stack, for making private calls, etc.
Linux is fun and addictive.
Thanks LQ and Slackware for making this possible!
