When you first start Slackware64 it shows you this information about SHA256.
I'm a beginner, so forgive me if I'm talking bullshit.

I understand this is for those who use SSH. Which is not my case at the moment.

If it's SSH only, I'll find a way to remove these packages from my Slackware installation.

Does anyone know better what it is and what is it for?
My goal with this is to reduce in my slackware only packages that I use. So I always remove slowly what does not interest me.

Picture of what I am saying
https://oi890.photobucket.com/albums...6.png~original

Those are the OpenSSH key pairs generated on a fresh install by Slackware.
You can also create them manually, clean the existent ones and run:
Man page:
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/ssh-keygen.1.html

If you don't need OpenSSH, don't delete it, it's not that big, instead, just disable it, stop it and remove the exec bit from /etc/rc.d/rc.sshd
P.S. Missed this one, I'm tired...
Unless you try to squeeze Slackware in a limited storage capacity (I'm doing it for a system with only 8GB old PATA flash) and you know what you're doing - that's know the packages and their dependencies - I strongly advise you to refrain from uninstalling packages based on your own needs & preferences. You might end up breaking your system (likely). Even if all the packages Slackware comes with are installed, they just use your storage space and won't put any load on the system if not launched.

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This is part of the SSH key generation that is used for the system's fingerprint. The fingerprint is used when client SSH systems connect. Should the fingerprint change, the SSH client will warn users. A basic security precaution.

If this is a production system, then abga's caution is reasonable advice.

With respect to SSH, if this system is unique and never will be remotely accessed, then yes, the SSH package could be removed.

If this system will be a server, then certain package groups could be removed or not installed, such as /x, /xap, /kde[i]. If the system will be a server, the odds are overwhelming that one day remote access will be desirable and that means SSH.

If this system is not a production system then break away. Just have fun exploring. There are several threads in this forum discussing "minimal installations" of Slackware.

A painless method is test various minimal installations in a virtual machine. Take a snapshot, remove some packages, and look for breakage. If the breakage is excessive, then restore the snapshot and begin again.

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