I rather liked OpenSUSE 11.2. It may not be hip and trendy, and there's the dubious relationship between novell/microsoft to be considered for those who worry about such things, but that aside, it seemed quite nice to me.

OpenSUSE would be on my shortlist of possible refuges if the unimaginable should happen.

Why would you want multilib capabilities built in? I like the slackware way of doing a purely 64 bit OS. It is quite easy to make your system multilib. Much easier to make your system multilib that to take that functionality away.

The way it is now.... we get a choice.

I say this as a multilib user who does intend to go purely 64 bit at some point. I'm not seeing much use of the 32 bit part these days.

EDIT: My point being. Slackware may be conservative with their included packages... but in their approach to the 64 bit environment, they are ahead of the curve.

Indeed. The only reason I need 32-bit compatibility as of now is running MS Office 2007 under WINE, plus some Windows games that I still own. That's it.

I still buy new Windows games when they come out and they're cool, but once WINE reaches the point that they're 64-bit Windows API capable, I'll start getting the 64-bit versions.

By then, maybe, I'll feel like shelling out for a newer version of Office . . . that, or OpenOffice will actually do what it's supposed to and I won't have to. At this point, I can (finally) stop running multilib.

Heck, if any office suite was actually a suitable replacement for MS Office right now, I'd say to hell with the games and run pure 64 today.

I think this is a good thread to gush a little.
Since switching to linux last September, I have been learning so much from all the neat little projects that come up. I really appreciate the Slackware Way, and by that I mean the way everything is just right there in the open for you to see exactly what's going on and what's happening. Even the terminal is interesting with fortune running, just like the comments in the slackbuilds and various other scripts keep things light that could definitely go another way. The confidence and understanding that comes from running and learning Slackware, and the ease with which it allows me to do just about anything I've thought to do with it are just absolutely awesome. I could run Arch and be fine with it, or even Ubuntu, but I don't think I could ever love an OS the way I do Slackware. That may sound sad, but it really does go beyond just being satisfied with a tool. It honestly makes me happy to use Slackware. It just feels like it's mine.

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You're not alone . . . I definitely owe Volkerding a lot of beers.

I think it won't disappear. The community support is strong. Arch is good. But building package there is not as simple as slack.
But, if the worst thing happens, i'll go LFS. Linux From Slackware .

Means will compile my own slackware package.

Agreed. Arch is good. Dependency checking distros are needlessly complex in my opinion (there's more chance of something breaking). I much prefer the elegant simplicity of Slackware's package management system.
I'll always be a Slacker.

Foodown said it very well, but there is also "ease of use" for end users who don't have the time or the inclination to download and install a couple of hundred megs of additional files, build packages, run scripts, etc., etc., etc.

I have a few old programs, both dos and windows, that I like to use and haven't seen anything "new" that does the job any better, so I installed the multilib files so I could run WINE. Then there is Google Earth and a few other things that are fun to have, etc.

If the Slackware user base is ever going to expand and shake off its geek/hobbyist reputation, it is necessary to make at least the basic functionality as easy as possible. Even Windows 7, 64 bit will run 32 bit applications out of the box. Slackware64 should do the same, imho,

Dosbox does a great job on old DOS programs in a pure 64-bit environment. But you have a good point on running Wine.

Google Earth is pretty important software in my opinion. It has some moderate GIS capability and is a great learning tool. I find it a terrible shame that a 64-bit version isn't available. Google Earth is my prime motivation for considering installing the 32-bit compatibility packages when I upgrade to 13.1. I dislike booting into Windows just to run a couple of programs.

I don't want to sound like an elitist prig, but I don't want Slackware to shake off its geek/hobbyist reputation. That's what drew me to Slackware to begin with.

Putting it in perspective, Slackware users are usually (after the first month or so) proficient in hand-editing configuration files and compiling extra software from sources (probably by using Slackbuild scripts). With that in mind, following the few extra steps needed to enable 32-bit compatibility isn't difficult.

However, the extra 32-bit libraries do seem to make security updates slightly more complicated. I guess that having them included by default would require the 32bit compatibility libraries to be updated and distributed too.

Mostly, I'm very happy to run a pure 64-bit environment. The only thing I feel that I'm truly missing is Google Earth. WINE would be nice to play with, but isn't necessary for me.

I'd rather see more native 64-bit programs (Google, are you listening?) than have a default multi-lib Slackware.

Regards,

What he said. Although multilib was easy enough to get going, the solution I've settled in on is that I run 32 bit Slack with a custom PAE kernel on the machines where I need/want software that doesn't play with 64 bits, and then I have the powerhouse i7 machine that uses 64 bit OS's, but also has a 32 bit install for when I need all those extra CPU cycles and RAM for building large packages like KDE, I just boot into that.

I tried Dosbox, but found Dosemu does a better job, imho.


There was time in the not too distant past that one had to be a geek/hobbyist to even use Linux and at that time Slackware was the most popular of the then available distributions.
Over the last several years Linux has finally started to gain ground among a broader base of users and Slackware, because of its geek/hobbyist reputation, is now not even among the top ten most popular distributions. The negative financial effects of that decline has had to snowball downhill, but, then, that is really none of my business.

It is your business. You can do something to help support Slackware. Buy the distro, a T-shirt, or support a Slackware developer. That's what I do. Slackware will flourish.

I would probably use Arch, Gentoo and *BSD untill I end up settling with one of them (or all).

I've been buying it since it was distributed by Walnut Creek CDROM.

"linux
ready-to-run
SLACKWARE.
The Internet's favorite 32-bit multiuser operating system for Intel386+
Includes Kernel 1.2"

How is that for a blast from the past?

Awesome. I salute you, dude! Good to meet a long time Slacker.