There have been some very sensible comments on this thread.

I agree that a quick glance at the homepage of www.slackware.com gives the impression that it's dead as a doornail.

Furthermore, the Slackware discussion forum is on linuxquestions.org (not any website with, you know, "Slackware" in its name). It's like the planning permission for the bypass through Arthur Dent's house:

All you need to do is click on "Forums". Then, between "Linux-Networking" and "Linux-Virtualization and Cloud" you'll find "Linux-Distributions". See it? Good! Now, look down a bit and it says "Sub-Forums" in very small letters. And a bit to the right of that is "Linux From Scratch, MEPIS, Bodhi, NetSecL, Studio 13.37, Mageia, Dragora GNU/Linux-Libre, Zorin OS, 4MLinux, Microlinux / MLED, Bedrock Linux, AryaLinux," and stuff like that. Well, one of those says "Slackware".

"And that's the main Slackware discussion forum?"

"As far as I can tell, yes."


I have a theory. Linux was better in the old days, when only Unix aficionados desperate to have a real OS on their PCs at home (i.e. not DOS or Windows 3.11) knew about it.

Then, eventually, hordes of ex Win95 users discovered the Free OS. Linux became popular. But the Windows people missed their registry file and the nice photo you saw while the OS was booting. And their "Click on Start to shut down". And so they developed desktop environments like KDE and the others. Then it became even more popular and companies decided they could make money out of this. The usual way is to make things incompatible and lock people into your system. And so things got more and more fractured and political and generally unpleasant.

However, hidden away under the leaves was a small but venerable distribution, doing things the sensible way. Quietly, unobtrusively and unhurriedly...

My theory is that Slackware doesn't want to be found and disturbed by hordes of ignoramuses.

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I politely disagree.

Every distribution needs new people (we all have an expiry date).
If a single line showing the latest changes on the front page helps reassuring people that everything is still OK, why not?

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Jerry, you upset Pat's fan club by asking questions about slackware's next release. They tend to start barking like Pavlov's dogs when you do that and you will rarely get a helpful answer. I'm pretty sure no one but Pat knows and he's not fond of people questioning him either, so just sit back and enjoy current. Someday there may be another release.

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A lot of things mentioned in this thread, are reasons why the multi-national corporations that I have worked for, did not allow slackware as an enterprise OS. Sorry.

If you are wondering - RedHat and RedHat sources, or custom embedded kernels. I imagine its because Slackware and Redhat originally came out at just about the same time, but, RedHat turned into a multi-billion dollar company, and sort of guides the way that distros are made,.. whereas Slackware is made by a few volunteers and doesn't seem to have a company.

So - is Slackware still alive? Probably. Is it still relevant to the enterprise environment? Not for me.

Another one bites the ignore list.........

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I think that is a little unfair and unkind. You get the only answer possible from Slackware users, "When it is ready!". But you fail to understand the meaning of those words. Instead, you think it to be a flippant, unhelpful and Pavlovian response... you have the answer, try to understand the simple truth succinctly expressed by it.

Some day? There were 2 releases (updates to current) on the 26th, a larger one on the 27th and two more (so far) today, the 31st. They must be seen as large sections of 14.2 as that is the cycle we are now in. One day soon one of these updates will be tagged with the monumental number "14.2", and it won't be much different than the releases of the 26th, 27, or 31st... but it will be ready when it arrives.

Then those who are so inclined may begin to fret over 14.3... or the even more dramatic 15.0! Which will it be?!

Through it all, Pat continues to deliver the much esteemed product of his labors to those who will receive it, increment by increment... when each is ready.

Now, how is that unhelpful?

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Kinda surprised that you bothered to post here, in that case.

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Patrick is a very private person, but he is very civil with other people. Patrick, much less anyone, is never fond of needless heckling however, which is why everyone always says to not ask, and if asked, "when it's ready" is the general answer given. The problem is people need to respect the fact Patrick, much less anyone else, wish for privacy in their lives.

Might as well use Windows then, by that standard. After all, it dominates most of the corporate world.

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"Red Hat imposes its own roadmap by fait accompli" would be a better way of putting it. Not that it matters to the rest of us on the planet whether or not Slackware passes the US "enterprise-ready" test, since we all know that's just a euphemism for somewhere venture capital can dump its funds. Facebook and Twitter are highly regarded by the same people, which tells me all I need to know about the credibility of this "enterprise-ready" test and its backers. You can run a business worth billions nowadays just by giving Twits a platform to post their selfies and cat videos.

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From the ChangeLog today:

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That is looking pretty serious!

What, upgrades again? Software is a restless business.

Thanks, I saw the changelog this morning and it was in that double May 31

What an incredibly strange thing for someone to say...

* puts szboardstretcher on ignore

And btw, I couldn't care less if a distro I prefer for personal use is also good for "enterprise".

(EDIT: original version said: "I use Slackware precisely because it's not targeted at 'enterprise'").