What would you do if Slackware discontinued development of the distribution?

Easily just continue to update on my own. That's all each release is about mainly, updated packages. Not that hard to continue and update what I see fit.

I second Tricky :}

Cheers,
Tink

Well, I wouldn't die. I might cry, a little, but not die :-)

What I would end up doing would depend on several factors, but here is a general rundown.

I would continue with my current install at least for a while. That would tend to get out of hand eventually, like when I wanted to update my hardware and needed a fresh install. It could be managed, but eventually the trouble would outweigh the returns.

I might put up with Debian Testing for a while for new installs (this is not an insult to Debian, by the way; Stable is great for servers; I've just found Slackware to be more practical than any of the branches for my desktop) I feel fairly confident that someone would build on Slackware's base in a way that I would at least find worth investigating.

I might eventually try to develop from the current source myself. The fact that other people could use it, and also help with it, would make it worth the extra trouble. That is the type of thing, however, that it would be difficult to find the time for without quitting my job :-) I've recently been toying with the idea of trying to port Slackware to Opteron for my personal use (and others' if it worked out well at all) when I buy my next computer, but I don't know how practical that would be for me, considering how busy and lazy I am ;-). A Slackware port to Opteron would be cool. If I did do any work on such a thing, I would be only too happy to let Patrick have it should he decide to port Slackware to Opteron himself.

So I guess my answer would be some combination of the last two choices. Now the only question is, which do I pick?

I'd buy a Mac. Just kidding....
I'd probably try to do what I can on my own, either that or give Gentoo a try.

i would probably die.

and then in my next life i would use bsd or gentoo.

What is the key updates in a new Slackware version or as a matter of fact any Linux version?

What I can guess are:


1. Compiler update. So you get packages compiled with the new compiler.
2. libraries update. Packages with new library links.
3. kernel updates.
4. Interface updates in GUI
5. version update for packages.
6. maybe some script updates in /etc

And as far as those automated Linux, I think they include dangerously dedicated (dd - dumb dumb) installation gui walkthrough.

Qualifying statement: I stand corrected, and it is just my opinion, no studies has been done regarding the above OPINION.

Hack I am getting new version of slackware almost every other day.
If what I said above is true.

What put such an evil thought in your head?

I can't vote - I'm a combination like several others. After nearly dying from the shock, I'd continue with my current install, try to learn enough to continue developing, and try something like Gentoo as another option.

I'll die for a couple of days... Meaning: I'll lock myself up in a dark room and I would cry...

Then I would switch to NetBSD.

i'd smile and continue to use a decent distro

Smile? What? No sympathy for heartbroken Slackers?

Although it does look like Gentoo or BSD would get a big bump out of it.

I do my best not to evaluate the way I do things on possibilities since if/when they arrive it's likely I'll act completely different than I would expect...

However, for the purpose of a response I'd have to say:
Stick with my current development in Gentoo, it's coming along quite nice anyway. Slowly but surely and methodically make pristine backups of all my current versions of slackware, lock them up in a box so sometime down the road I can break em out to "remember the good old days when Slackware was the best distro" I'd also have a bit of a shock and a moment or 2 of disappointment, probably eventually hookup with College Linux or one of the other Slackware dup's (or the Slackware clone that will of course appear short after the downfall of current slack).



Cool

HEATHENS!!!!
Slackware will never die!!

Amen, brother!!